Memory chair, designed by Tokujin Yoshioka for MorosoThis Wednesday Milan's annual furniture fair will open to an estimated 300,000 visitors. With declining attendance due to the global economy, the designers are posed with new obstacles that defy Milan's tradition of "making things look good". Design needs to be more of a critical process according to British designer Ilse Crawford.
Designers now have to contend with higher expectations: sustainability, digital technology and most importantly, producing objects for the people who use them. For years there has been a huge disconnect between the designer's ideology and their product's function in society. The Milan fair has been consumed with the looks of beautiful objects for the sake of an artist's creation. But now, the economy and global need for design is higher than ever before. The designer's name and price-tag to a chair from the fair is having less value and designs are making precedence with their adaptability to today's need. The New York Times states that there won't be anything special at the fair, "it will be mediocre at best and a pointless waste of resources, at worst". Going green as a trend needs to end and sustainability needs to become a vital aspect of every design.
Hopefully this year will mark a change in beautiful looking things, to objects that incorporate innovative technology. The creative director of Moroso, the Italian furniture company notes that design is in a negative situation and it will be a slow process to recovery for the furniture world because there is a "more cautious approach to spending". But, in my opinion the economic downturn is a relativity good thing because it is adding pressure for designers to not just stamp their product with bogus eco-friendly labels, but to actually become sustainable in manufacturing because it will eventually be the most cost-efficient way to design.
The world does not need another chair unless it is "innoavtive, beautiful, sustainable, expressive and useful".
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