The seventh edition of Alcova - an international platform for contemporary design - opened to the public this April in the unprecedented setting of two iconic villas in the Milan metropolitan area, Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and Villa Borsani.
Now a must-see destination of Milan Design Week, Alcova presents projects by designers, galleries, companies, institutions and schools in dialogue with extraordinary works of architecture - an approach that has been the same for years, but each year produces new and surprising results.
The rooms of the villas, with a strong architectural character, respectively modernist and Lombard Baroque, hosted the selection of Alcova projects, generating surprising juxtapositions. The doors of these two historic sites opened with a broad selection of works investigating a theme always close to Alcova: the dwelling, which this year will weave a thread through these two extraordinary “domestic” contexts.
The research strands were renewed and intertwining: technological and sustainable materials and production processes, contemporary craft, experimental aesthetics, sociological, political and global issues.
Among the over 70 exhibitors, Alcova saw the return of designers who have been with the project since its beginnings, contributing to its success, together with a significant number of newcomers: the panorama ranges from prominent designers and collaborations with major brands to emerging companies and young talents from international schools.
Alcova invited the public into an almost surreal microcosm; a historically relevant context
in which to gather to imagine the future of design through installations, performances and collective moments.
From the public art installation by Objects of Common Interest that inhabited the large park of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, to the ad-hoc intervention by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami for the Maniera gallery in the former ice-house, hidden in the greenery of the same park. From the furnishings by Atelier de Troupe on display on the iconic staircase of Villa Borsani, to the curious installation by Sema Topaloglu Studio in one of the bathrooms of the same villa, to the dialogue that Fabian Freytag established in the extraordinary bar designed by Osvaldo Borsani.
The panorama of Alcova 2024 included projects exploring contemporary design through different angles: from the material technologies of Harry Thaler Studio / EconitwoodTM to the redefinition of digital craft by The New Raw, to the sophisticated investigation of form and matter applied to lighting by Ryuichi kozeki/ RKDS, to the architectural speculation of HEAD - Genève, Geneva University of Art and Design around the climate emergency.
An extremely rich scene of international designers working together to redefine the future of living.