Celebrating Natural Essentials at Rossana Orlandi 

MILAN — In a gallery that overlooks Rossana Orlandi’s fabled strawberry grape vines, California-based lighting designer Andrea Claire explained that a real surfer never divulges his or her best spots.

Prodded further, the architect who had just returned from a Hawaii surf trip, revealed that her Pisces lighting collection is inspired by the kelp beds in a little-known surf spot in north Malibu. Her bicoastal firm Andrea Claire Studio strives to bring state-of-the art design into upscale homes, whilst drawing the attention to the environment at the same time. She pointed out that her Cloud collection was made from porcelain and was envisaged to shine a light on the dying reefs of the South Pacific.

“During COVID-19 the shapes of the waves inspired me. I also wanted to create something that captured the shapes of the kelp beds of California,” she said in an interview.

Claire was among those invited to join the 2023 edition of RoCollectible, a dialogue composed of 80 designers and artists who bring forth the styles, cultures and traditions of more than 30 countries.

In the main hall, a sonic installation in which sound adapts to the geometry of its structure by designer Jacopo Gonzato and his Sound Geometry project, was on display. A spectator had crawled underneath to stick his head inside Sidereal Octahedron. The star-of-David-shaped sculpture’s dynamic structure seemed to be the ideal ambient for the calming sentimental notes of French composer Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” to reflect off its wooden angles and smooth lines. 

“My goal is to make these structures big enough so that spectators can enter them and enjoy them in hotels or large open spaces where you can relax and take in the sound. The idea is to create a relaxing contemplative space,” Gonzato, the art director of Boccaccio432, said in an interview.

Collections aimed at eliminating excess and the superfluous use of materials were abundant at the showcase, which spanned a variety of rooms and cozy spaces in Orlandi’s southern Milan location. A pioneer of sustainable design, Orlandi’s RoGuiltlessPlastic project has garnered global recognition and is now in its fifth edition. Spearheaded by Orlandi’s daughter, Nicoletta Orlandi Brugnoni, the project and its annual prize is aimed at raising awareness about the importance of recycling, reuse and upcycling of materials. The prize is divided into three categories: Art and Collectible Design, Emerging High Technology and Inspiring Learning. 

Promoting the elimination of excess waste permeated throughout the space. A capsule collection conceived by designer Francesco Meda unfurled on the ground floor in a harmony of chairs sideboards, tables, coffee tables and consoles by C Design, as a testament to the forward-looking living solutions Orlandi’s gallery proposes year after year. C Design is a start-up of furnishings and accessories made in a partnership with Florentine handcrafted furnishings-maker Chelini, which has been active since the late 19th century. 

“It’s all about my ideal home. Materials are basic but not cheap in any way. We wanted to do something light that constructs a color world that makes you want to stay,” said Meda, who is also the co-creative director of Acerbis. He explained that his designs revealed their essence through a careful selection of materials: wood, metal and lava stones with luxe finishes, combined with a nature-charged color palette. 

“It’s all about having like four very important pieces, not a lot of stuff inside your stuff. A home shouldn’t be a showroom. I don’t like that,” he said. 

Elsewhere, a small exhibit drawing attention to Sardinia’s Nuragic civilization, which dates back to the 18th century BC, was on display on Orlandi’s upper floor. In Aéras, a lifestyle and experimental skin care brand by Alice Ziccheddu is a mix of scented candles and oils that conjure the ancient herbal rituals from Sardinia for contemporary care, condensing the virtues of deep nourishment with olfactory notes derived from uncontaminated nature. Most striking is its packaging — sculpted clay pieces made by fifth-generation Sardinian ceramist Walter Usai are designed to look like they had been excavated from an ancient Nuragic digging site. 

The project was designed by Roberto Palomba and Ludovica Serafini. Palomba spoke of the power of Sardinia’s landscape and its ancient cures formed by pagan and magical rituals. “[Growing up] Nature spoke to us through the millenary stones that breathed that scented wind of daffodils and myrtle through the fissures dug by the force of the elements….Sardinia, its forms, its craftsmanship, the people, whose hands have the eager to create ink on the wheel and the women who knead white sweets with sugary icing. Everything mixes in my head, in my memories, in the emotion of a sunset inflamed with red and orange,” Serafini said.

In the courtyard where prosecco and espressos were served, Citroën Oli, a prototype design, was on view as a conceptual integration of the various sustainable and responsible solutions to be found on the brand’s forthcoming models. First unveiled last year, the French carmaker’s affordable sustainable family concept car seeks to be as light as possible and consume as little electricity as possible and is designed with recycled and recyclable parts to extend its life.

Dutch trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort was also active in and around the showcase, signing her most recent books on design, hospitality and fashion, celebrating the growing influence of the “Global South Proud South” and “Uxua Utopia” in the courtyard. 

She also co-curated (with Brazilian Lili Tedde) a display celebrating Brazil’s Alagoas region, an art collection researched by Brazilian designer Rodrigo Ambrosio, who worked with the Alagoas Made by Hand organization and with the government to promote design expressions from Brazil. 

“In this dark period of ongoing war, endless waste, accelerated climate change and our loss of agency to AI, the picture is of absolute gloom and doom. To continue and make life bearable we need to look elsewhere to search for beauty to sooth our soul and heal our mind,” Edelkoort said. 

RoCollectible is open to the public for the duration of Design Week here, closing Sunday.