Announcing the 2016 trends and themes: Thinking Traditions & Academies

Thinking Traditions

Consciously and unconsciously we have inherited traditions acquired from our family and friends. Traditions, resulting in customs and habits, are passed on from generation to generation. And so traditions have found their origin within cultures, families, friendships and personalities. Traditions are everywhere, and form an important source of inspiration for today's designers.

Meet... Tinkah LLC

Mealtimes are a social occasion and are seen as a time when family and friends come together. The project ‘Constructed Feast’ by Tinkah LLC from the United Arab Emirates draws inspiration from the traditional nomadic dining experience and ceremony of eating. Central to this tradition was the use of thick woven floor mats and vessels that made it possible for large gatherings of people to eat together. The collection is designed not only to bring us together in a traditional manner, but also aims to celebrate the traditional natural materials and resources that we have around us, such as sand, clay, pewter, textiles and leather.

Meet... No Sauna

Within ‘Thinking traditions’ the opposite will be presented as well, namely breaking with a tradition. With No Sauna, the group of designers want to break with the current conception of Finnish design. The sauna is a major part of Finnish culture. For No Sauna the sauna is taken as a metaphor for the Finnish mind. “We are designing objects that reveal a hidden face of Finnish design and image of culture”, says designer Lea Randebrock. “Our idea is to go beyond the stereotypes”. No Sauna has a new approach which you can discover at Ventura Lambrate 2016: not typical and not average.

Other exhibitors within the theme Thinking Traditions will be Sugiyama & Okamuro, Paja & Bureau and more..

Academies

In order to help you understand what’s going on in the design world, Ventura Lambrate will give you the chance to meet the new generation of designers. From Mexico to Lapland, from Japan to Chile, from Denmark to inland and back to Thailand. We are excited that there are 27 international academies who will present their design projects to you.

Meet ... VIA Design

Students of VIA Design will exhibit under the project ‘FEEL IT!’. Tactility is becoming highly topical now that technology, research and development constantly enable new production methods, alternative uses of materials and embedment of features. With ‘FEEL IT!’ VIA Design has carried out research and designed new products and concepts which influence, surprise, nourish, challenge or arouse our tactile senses and perhaps even improve our quality of life. “Our students are working very hard on their haptic designs –and they have very different angles on how to interpret the theme and how to turn their interpretations into furniture”, says Eva Paarman, designer and teacher at the VIA Design. “We are looking forward to show the results of this process”.

Meet... University of Lapland

Interactive Arctic Design will be on display for the project named ‘Kaiku’, which means echo in Finnish. The exhibition, by the design students of the University of Lapland, aims to bring the possibility to experience the unique arctic ambience to Milan. The exhibits illustrate the combination of artistic design visions and technological innovations. Arctic Design is used as an approach to demonstrate and communicate the possibilities of future technologies. The work is part of the Naked Approach, a national Finnish research project that is building a vision towards a gadget free, hyper connected society.

Meet... Royal Academy of Art

The exhibition ‘RESET’ will present the Royal Academy of Art The Hague as a unique place for experimental and interdisciplinary developments, where students embrace and reflect on a society of plural perception and constant change. ‘RESET’ communicates their attitude towards design and towards the Salone del Mobile. "We have invited a collective of young artists and designers to explore a complete RESET in the context of a design fair. In addressing societal urgencies and design developments, this show aims at a RESET of disciplinary borders through collaborative processes, boldly expressed in our motto: DESIGN = COLLABORATION”, explains Herman Verkerk, Head of Architecture and Furniture Design of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague. The 'RESET' project will be presented at a never seen before roof top location in Via Ventura, with a breath taking view on Milan....

Other Academies at Ventura Lambrate 2016 will be: Design Academy Eindhoven, HDK School of Design and Crafts, HEAD–Genève, HKU design, Koning Willem 1 College, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Academy of Art and Design, Aarhus School of Architecture, Institute Industrial Design FHNW, Sapienza University of Rome, Anahuac University School of Design, Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Campus Alcoy, Hochschule Hannover - University of Applied Sciences, MAFAD, Design Soil and many more...

---