VANK participated for the first time in the largest design event in the world: Milan Design Week, which took place from 15 to 21 April. Our sustainable designs were displayed in the exhibition organised by the Italian Isola Design group and situated in a revitalized venue with green DNA - Lampo Milano, located in the vibrant Isola district.
There was a resounding emphasis on sustainability and a compelling call to action at this year’s Isola Design Festival. As an integral part of Milan Design Week, the eighth edition championed the theme This Future is Currently Unavailable urging designers to confront pressing real-world challenges. Under this theme, Isola invited exhibitors to present forward-thinking concepts that intertwine innovation, sustainability, and craftsmanship, highlighting the industry’s potential for the future.
Some say the future has already arrived. Others say the future is unpredictable. What we can say with certainty is that the future cannot be like the present we live in today. How can we best employ the latest technologies? How can we reduce the increasingly growing issue of food and industrial waste? How can we offer a better quality of life to everyone, everywhere? How can we leverage cultural and thought differences? How can we raise public awareness about socio-political crises and help manage current ones? Design must become the bridge to shape the future and lead us to a better tomorrow. But how do you imagine it?
During the Isola Design Festival in Milan, over 320 global designers, studios, creatives, and manufacturers showcased their work in numerous venues, encompassing three main centers, notably, for the first time, the Lampo event venue situated at Via Valtellina 5. Lampo Milano is a new urban redevelopment project with green DNA spanning an area of 40.000 sqm within the historic railway yard, Scalo Farini.
Is One Life Enough?
The group exhibition in Lampo featured a selection of designers exploring the reuse of products designed instead for a single life cycle. Sustainability was everywhere, from the pieces to the set-up. One of the partners in the event, provided recycled egg cartons as the base for the pedestals, other made the pedestal tops out of mycelium.
Our sustainable designs took center stage at the exhibition organized by the Isola Design group. Among our solutions were acoustic wall panels crafted from biomaterials or upholstered, offering vibrant and functional acoustic reliefs. Notably, we featured our award-winning modular cube system, VANK_CUBE, also made from biomaterials. CUBE won the German Innovation Award 2023 and the OFFICE ROXX TOP100 2024 recognition, and was also shortlisted for the Mixology Award in 2023.
VANK exhibition explored the idea of energy as an integral element to innovative design, just as solar energy is essential for plant growth in the process of photosynthesis. Through this process, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into biomass, which we can then use in various creative and manufacturing processes. The greater the number of products featuring renewable plant-based raw materials, the lower the dependence on oil and the carbon footprint. This synergy between nature and creativity paves the way for new opportunities in sustainable development and creative approaches to design.
For decoration, we used live industrial hemp from Italy, in collaboration with another Polish brand, The True Green.
VANK LONG with Iconic Awards 2024
During Milan Design Week we attended the German Design Council awards ceremony. Anna Vonhausen's new circular lounge chair with footrest, VANK_LONG, won the Iconic Awards 2024: Interior Products in the Office and Workplace category.. It was presented in Milan in an additional digital exhibition at the gallery Amy-d Arte Spazio in the Brera district, Via Lovalio 6.
Boucle fabric in sunset colors from Kvadrat
The event in Milan was also the occasion for a further collaboration with Kvadrat, a renowned brand recognized for its high-quality premium fabrics, which we showcased on our circular soft seating collection. The soft-touch boucle Elle in sunset colors was featured on the VANK_LONG lounge chair, known for its distinctive line of semicircular cushions.
