Volker Haug & Flack Studio ‘Me and You’
In a delicious installation at 5Vie, Melbourne-based Volker Haug and Flack Studio unveiled ‘Me and You’ – a comprehensive new collection of decorative light fixtures born out of ‘minor calamity’. The story goes that a glass fitting from a vintage wall sconce was irreparably broken during a Flack installation. With the back plate already in place, Flack called on Haug to urgently design a new, site-specific fitting. The incident became an impetus for collaboration, and it quickly developed into a more expansive creation fueled by a shared aesthetic sensibility, a long history of friendship, and neighbourly proximity.
David Flack & Volker Haug at their Milan exhibition. Photo by De Pasquale + Maffini.
Me and You by Volker Haug and Flack Studio. Photo by De Pasquale + Maffini.
Tom Fereday ‘Mazer’
Exemplifying Sydney-based Tom Fereday’s commitment to honouring materiality, Mazer's geometric sculptures celebrate fundamental beauty and natural variation of stone. Strict, brutalist forms of the table and seating collection are juxtaposed with soft organic cutaways carving through the porous stone surfaces, revealing the natural character of travertine. Named after the medieval term ‘Mazer’, meaning bowl, the collection presents subtle organic forms proportioned for table and seating functions designed for permanence. The limited edition series was crafted from Roman travertine and locally produced in Italy from a combination of machine and traditional handmade processes, each exhibiting its unique characteristics and form with no two pieces alike.
Tom Fereday seated on Mazer inside Villa Borsani. Editorial styling by Nat Turnbull. Photo by Lillie Thompson.
Exhibition view of Mazer at Villa Borsani. Photo by Giulio Ghiardi.
Mazer by Tom Fereday. Editorial styling by Nat Turnbull. Photo by Lillie Thompson.
Don Cameron ‘Translations’
At Alcova, Don Cameron’s ‘Translations’ was a collection of eight functional objects designed in response to an ongoing photographic project, ‘Communion’ – a 20-year personal body of work that has sat alongside the Sydney creative’s career path from film director to designer. Cameron captures the spirit of Eastern Europe’s brutalist buildings seen in the photographs, translating them into a different three-dimensional medium. The combination of form, material, and surface patina delivers an impeccable architecture-meets-sculpture collection, with the extraordinary ceramic coffee table being a firm personal favourite.
Don Cameron’s ‘Translations’ at Alcova. Photo by Piergiorgio Sorgetti, courtesy of Alcova.
Detail of the ceramic table. Image courtesy of Don Cameron.
Block sofa. Image courtesy of Don Cameron.
Block lamp. Image courtesy of Don Cameron.
Articolo Home
Articolo Studios expanded into the furniture category with Articolo Home, a collection that brings the same atelier-like precision we’ve come to expect from their lighting fixtures. For the Milan debut, the Melbourne-based brand worked with long-time collaborator David Goss of Melbourne architecture firm Studio Goss, who transformed the gallery space on Via Solferino in Brera. Articolo Home was vividly brought to life against a backdrop of stunning arches and vaulted ceilings in the fitting two-level space.
Bold, high-gloss coloured blocks contrasted the minimalist interior, offering rich, colour-tinted reflections providing a sense of drama. Textured render finishes contrasted against the colours and evoked the beauty and texture of Italian travertine.
Articolo Studio’a debut of Articolo Home. Photo by Thomas De Bruyne.
Trent Jansen
Trent Jansen exhibited his Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet for Vetralia Collectible at Rossana Orlandi, where he’s been showing in Milan since 2019, when he exhibited the Pankalangu Cabinet for Broached Commissions. The cabinet was developed as part of the 2022 Venice Design Biennial Residency, where Trent spent a month in Venice, researching and designing a new body of work with Vetralia Collectible and some of the best artisans and makers in Venice. The work went on exhibition at the Venice Design Biennial 2023.
Christopher Boots ‘Crux’
‘A celestial exploration in illumination’, Melbourne-based lighting studio Christopher Boots ponders the profound mysteries of the cosmos with Crux, the latest luminaire series that debuted in Milan. Crux explores the natural geometries of the five stars that form the Southern Cross as one of the most recognisable constellations in the southern sky. The collection is centred on five luminous stars in a cross-shaped asterism, with the qualities of the natural wonder reinterpreted through organic forms, delicate suspension details and artisanal qualities, which imbue each fitting with beauty and infinity.
Crux by Christopher Boots. Photo courtesy of Christopher Boots.
Solgami by Prevalent
Ben Berwick of Prevalent Architecture presented the Solgami Ambient Light System with an installation of Solgami meets Seagram, displayed on a 1:1 replica façade section of the iconic but environmentally problematic Seagram Building designed by Mies van de Rohe in New York.
A revolutionary site-specific modular window treatment, Solgami is 3D printed in repurposed waste plastic for residential and commercial contexts. It enhances and directs natural light and reduces thermal dynamics by screening infrared and ultraviolet light in the built environment.
The operations of buildings account for 30% of global final energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions. This is higher than the entire transportation industry and rivals agriculture, and yet there exists little opportunity to decrease carbon emissions from the operation of existing buildings. In partnership with the University of Sydney, testing of the Solgami Ambient Light System is in its final stages and early indications show a potential six-degree temperature stabilisation.
Solgami meets Seagram installation in Milan. Photo by Annika Kafcaloudis.
