At the centre of the large Kartell stand, surrounded by the latest products of the well-known furniture company, the new Fiat Grande Panda Kartell was unveiled to the public at the Salone del Mobile on its first day. The collaboration, recalls Lorenza Luti, Kartell’s marketing director, reinforces a relationship dating back to the 1950s and the cup holder that entered the history of Italian design for the first generation of the Fiat 500. A bond that has evolved over time with projects such as the Fiat 500e Kartell of 2020, created together with the Fiat Style Centre, and now with this concept car that is the result of a collaborative workshop. This is not a special edition designed for the series, nevertheless the project marks a significant moment for Fiat and its return to segment B as well as highlighting the fusion of automotive and furniture design.

François Leboine, Fiat & Abarth Head of Design, confirms this: ‘We sought to ensure that each of the two brands could effectively translate its own language. In Kartell’s case through the colour belonging to its corporate image and its experience in dealing with plastic materials and fabrics in an innovative way. It was like using two approaches: a view from afar to capture the formal simplicity in its essence and a closer view to take care of the many details’.

Fiat Grande Panda Kartell communicates effectively from the vibrant red livery contrasting with the Tasmanian Blue interior and, for the sake of detail, the Kartell logo symbolises the ‘Love’ sign by becoming a central decorative element positioned at strategic points such as the rims, the rear, and the third pillar.

Interesting is the use in the interior of Polycarbonate 2.0, a second generation polymer derived from renewable sources already used by Kartell for some products. Sustainability between the automotive and product design sectors is central, so it is anticipated that the project may include a process called ‘tex to tex’ through which the fabric scraps of the Foliage armchair, reduced to waste fibres, will be rewoven for the seats. We imagine it is not easy to work on an icon like Panda, we ask. ‘We took the initiative to make a very distinctive car,’ continues François Leboine, ‘that doesn’t look like any other and tries to impose its own identity. More than a difficulty, it was an opportunity for us to create something that, while referring back to the original, could also be unique while preserving the expressiveness and simplicity that characterise it.

In 1961 the Salone del Mobile was born in Milan and a year later the first Neue Klasse designed by Giovanni Michelotti made its debut. More than 60 years later, therefore, Milan still seems to be the most significant place to tell one’s story. Starting from 8 April, for four months, BMW’s new home in Milan will be based on the historic Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda in central Via Manzoni. The prestigious location, with its large courtyard of honour with columned arcades, will welcome House of BMW, already in the city since 2021, first in the space in Via Verri then in Via Monte Napoleone, but this time with all the Group’s brands for product launches and much more.

“We will also tell in this place how for us two- and four-wheeled mobility remains central to people’s lives, as an expression of individual freedom,” says Massimiliano Di Silvestre, President and CEO of BMW Italia, in presenting the first act of the presence at Palazzo Borromeo with the installation Vibrant Transitions for the nearby Design Week. The key to interpreting this project lies in the interconnection between material, color, shape, digital experience, sound and light that the different teams have been experimenting with for years. “Our mobility design is becoming increasingly broad and varied,” points out Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design, who will open the event on 8 April, and this mix “offers visitors to the Salone del Mobile inspiration”.

Holger Hampf, head of Mini Design, who was present at the Milan pre-inauguration, recalls how the idea behind Vibrant Transitions was immediately to share the project from a “cross brand design team” perspective. So, it was a cross-brand design team, in collaboration with Designworks, a subsidiary of the BMW Group, that took charge of its entire development. Green, blue and orange will be the three dominant colors of the installation, used to mark the areas of the courtyard and trigger, using translucent lamellar structures that will dress the porch, lighting effects creating unique visual perspectives both outwards and inwards. And color will also serve as a leitmotif to lead visitors into the immersion of the three imagined paths.

One itinerary will feature the BMW X3 in a special version for the Salone del Mobile with a matt blue exterior (frozen tanzanite blue); the “naturalistic” MINI Neon Garden City route will feature the BMW CE 02 scooter interpreted by the MINI Design team with a colour concept developed for the event; finally, the Neue Klasse route will feature technology with BMW Panoramic iDrive.

The “Vibrant Transitions” installation, in the new House of BMW, will be open from 8 to 13 April, during the Salone del Mobile in Milan, at Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda, Via A. Manzoni 41.

Times: Tuesday, April 8, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Wednesday 9 April – Sunday 13 April, from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Once again, this year, the eleventh, Audi is at the center of the scene at the Fuorisalone during the Milan Design Week thanks to the protagonism of the Audi Q6 e-tron, the SUV that redefines the standards of premium electric mobility, presented in a world premiere. Like last year, the setting is the elegant and monumental Piazza del Quadrilatero of Portrait Milano, a hotel of the Lungarno Collection hospitality brand.

This edition’s installation, created as part of the INTERNI Cross Vision exhibition-event, bears the signature of the international design and architecture studio Bjarke Ingels Group. The title of the exhibition is “Reflaction”, a union of “reflection” and “action”, and corresponds to the idea that our actions in the world reflect the very essence of our existence. For this reason, the exhibition area is configured as a “plus” symbol seen from above, divided into four distinct sectors (Community, Knowledge, Performance and Digital light) that reflect both the fundamental thematic principles of the installation and the rings of the brand’s logo.

Through the mirror cladding, the structure physically expands the surrounding space and enhances the architecture in which it is inserted. An amphitheatre with solid wood steps and chrome-plated steel balustrades in the knowledge area is the meeting point where people gather to share knowledge and discuss in thematic talks with experts from Audi AG. In the Digital light area, the company is at the forefront of technology and design with a display dedicated to the new generation of digital and segmented OLED lights. In the Community space, a tree-lined courtyard offers refreshment in the shade of Japanese maple trees.

The fulcrum of the installation is the Performance area with the presence of two Audi Q6 e-trons where the vision of a ring of mirrored cars, created by reflections, to examine the cars from eight different perspectives is very impressive. In the next issue of the magazine, we will also talk about this event with an interview with interior designer Mattijs Van Tuijl.

Dogs played the starring role at the launch evening, at the House of BMW Milano, of the BMW xDrive40d SUV made in collaboration with Milan-based brand Poldo Dog Couture. The brand, which specialises in high-end pet products – a market that trend forecasts indicate is growing strongly – returns to collaborate with the German manufacturer for this version created, as explained by Riccardo Gardoni of Poldo Dog Couture, “after having identified a gap in on-board service for our four-legged friends, who have the right to a comfortable journey”.

The premises are not disappointed and it is enough to look at the details of the SUV’s layout, especially the interiors, designed on the imagery of a walk in the woods, with colours and even fragrances that recall this experience. In fact, the olfactory part includes an essence ioniser, created by Italy’s leading nose Luca Maffei, which is able to capture any unpleasant odours inside the passenger compartment through a patented molecule. Rossella Barbuto, the company’s Creative Director, explains: “I interpreted this car by drawing inspiration from an early morning forest where the air is pervaded by a symphony of enveloping resinous scents coming from centuries-old fir trees and mingling with the delicate perfume of moss on the damp ground.

Given the storytelling, the car’s exterior could only be green – the exclusive BMW Individual ‘Oxford Green’ paint – with contrasts in black, while the interior is emphasised by ebony mouldings, created by the hands of a master cabinetmaker, alternating with soft-touch textile upholstery in Alcantara. The fulcrum of the design is the exclusive travel kit, with the features and chic of yesteryear, which can be conveniently stowed in the spacious boot, also upholstered in ebony. The ebony trunk is in turn upholstered in forest green hammered leather with three drawers to hold everything your four-legged friend needs: a seat belt, leash and leather collar; a printed nylon and Alcantara rear seat cover to take with you when you get out of the car.

This is rounded off by a comfortable padded cushion made of thermal wadding that can be attached to the car seat for smaller dogs in safety. Accessories still include a thermal flask for fresh water and even two porcelain bowls on an elegant custom-made ebony tray. Products and fabrics all made in Italy based on collaboration with a network of craftsmen who bring their expertise to this niche market.

The setting is the fashionable and smart Via Monte Napoleone, where BMW opened the new two-storey Milanese House with the installation “A Creative’s Journey”, which can be visited during the Design Week. Those entering the courtyard are attracted by the fabric-covered columns simulating a car wash, a few “talking” seats with texts narrating BMW Design’s mindset, and above all a yellow resin sculpture that takes the iconic front end of the 1973 BMW 3.0 CSL and turns it into a powerful sculptural volume.

The installation provides insights into BMW Design’s creative process and is a bit like peeking into the brand’s creative rooms. Domagoj Dukec, Head of Design, says that, this year, the occurrence is an opportunity not to show cars but to represent a mindset; and he himself takes visitors on this ideal journey through the German manufacturer’s creative process, as he is interviewed in real time to explain the different exhibits. These include samples of materials to be used in car interiors, all inspired by a principle of circularity and therefore recyclable and bio-based, such as the hemp fabrics. The new concepts for mobility and urban design and an interactive installation, phygital, to offer a practical experience of how vehicles will interact with humans in the future in an emotionally engaging and personalised way.

At the heart of it all is the question of what design requirements will have to be met in the future in order to make the vehicle a true “favourite place”, bearing in mind that for the BMW Design team today, the transition from a concept linked to “form follows function” to “form follows experience” is central. Because human perception, and not function per se, will increasingly be the key factor in design decisions.

Mini launches the “Inhabit Sound” project and it entails the renowned brand’s collaboration with SOS – School of Sustainability, the professional post-graduate training school founded in 2015 by architect Mario Cucinella, and since 2021 in the Milan headquarters of the architecture studio. The school was set up to train professionals in architecture and sustainable design, and the partnership with Mini confirms, first and foremost, the company’s interest in continuing, after the research projects carried out between 2005 and 2010, to explore themes linked to the future of the city, its communication, and ever more, today, towards sustainability and the search for well-being. Because, as Renzo Vitale, Sound Creative Director of the BMW Group who is supervising the educational project, says, sound can be a bearer of well-being. Again, he explains that a collective auditory awareness should be built: “This can be achieved by relating to cities as sound entities, understanding their weaknesses in order to redesign them acoustically through different levels of expression and complexity”.

Obviously, there is yet to be a clear design outcome of the research, on which students from nine countries enrolled in the academic year that has just begun; however, the devices are referred to as a “historical archive of the sounds of a city” and the connectivity aspects belonging to the Mini universe are, rightly, emphasised. Without foregoing a virtual output that involves the Metaverse. Historically bound to the urban domain, Mini will hence investigate the sounds of the city: the hypothesised plan aims to create sustainable spaces for listening, contemplation and sharing in various cities around the world, through the transformation of sound into a tangible and liveable form – almost as if it were a sustainable three-dimensional sculpture. These are interesting and ambitious goals that the school and the brand will pursue under the guidance of the designer Lorenzo Palmeri, an SOS teacher, who is also active in musical composition and production, and the collaboration of Caimi Brevetti, a leading company in acoustic sustainability that will make its facilities available for the research.