“Look at the usual things with new eyes,” Vico Magistretti suggested. Using an unconventional gaze, capable of grasping the unexpected in a fleeting detail, and translating it into a design intuition, driven by the desire to transform the world, to make it more livable and welcoming, or simply more beautiful.

An ambition perfectly shared in the Ventura Lambrate zone, the former industrial district on the northeastern outskirts of Milan. Amidst alembics and test tubes, machine tools and 3D printers, prototypes and one-offs, unusual techniques and materic hybrids, installations, grafts and crossovers of crafts and industry, artifice and nature, we saw the celebration of a possible future that triggered curiosity, wonder and surprise.

A different gaze, capable of extending its way into the whole city.

by Francesco Massoni – photos by Emanuele Zamponi

Cocoon II by Studio Context, architecture in bamboo presented in the exhibition Engaging Through Architecture by the Aarhus School of Architecture.

The display case of the studio-museum of Vico Magistretti.

The sensorial path Involucri designed by Silvio De Ponte Architect.

Magic Forest and Alvise wallpapers by Jannelli & Volpi as the backdrop for the installation by Irene Baratto in the exhibition Welcome Wallpaper.

Paolo Ulian arranges the segments of the Pixel panel for Bufalini Marmi.

Kneeling, compilation of temporary rugs by the group We Make Carpets.

Something Sweet, kit for making sweets by Tessa Geuze, shown in The Tomorrow Collective of Lund University.

The Quadri d’Autore of Roberto Ciminaghi and Elena Caponi, made with wood flooring by Oldfloor Italy.

The lantern archetype inspires the Dual Land project by the studio Faberhama, in collaboration with NasonMoretti, Zuiderzee Museum and Dentinno.

“The machine that makes the small lamps” by Catellani & Smith in the show La Casa della Luce.

Retro-futuristic projects for the table in The Next Supper of Scuola Politecnica di Design.

Convivial spirit expressed by Aart van Asseldonk in the table with built-in water pipe in the exhibition Fire Walk With Me by PlusDesign.

Nature and artifice intertwine in the Humus and Porcelain Project by CEPV-ESAA of Vevey.

Project Egg, a stone enclosure designed by Michiel van der Kley and made online with 3D printing in various workshops.

Serving Ceremony coffeemaker by Petra Dalström, in the group show Nøw! Of KADK Copenhagen.

Meat on the Table, ‘neo-Viking’ table by Solveig Stilling with Kick, in the context of The Tube 2015 by the Design School of Kolding.