SERENA CONFALONIERI @ MILANO DESIGN WEEK 2024

Images courtesy of Serena Confalonieri

A Series of New Projects

Serena Confalonieri takes part to the 2024 edition of Milano Design Week, with a series of projects ranging from product to installation design, each one characterized by her strongly distinctive, colorful and decorative style. The designer signs Gebrüder Thonet Vienna booth’s project at the fair, two new versions of her Ring collection of coffee tables for Saba Italia, the Birdie ground-to-floor furniture designed for Secondome and Studio F on show at Rossana Orlandi’s gallery and the new Medina boiserie collection designed for Materica.

Serena Confalonieri x Gebrüder Thonet Vienna – Hall 22 – Stand G21
Serena Confalonieri designs Gebrüder Thonet Vienna’ s booth at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024, and creates an elegant and colorful stage for both the brand’s new collections and its most iconic products. The designer continues her collaboration with the company: after her installation “A woven story” and her Arcadia ottoman, she’s now adding a new step in her work as exhibition designer.

Her inspiration is Japanese aesthetics: that’s the reason behind the choice of neutral colors, natural textures and materials, such as the pleated rice paper decorative panels and the tatami textile carpet. The designer adds her touch introducing a color palette where warm tones and cold accents alternate, in a game of references throughout the whole space. Inside the installation, the eastern culture mixes harmoniously with materials and processes typical of Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, such as Vienna straw and bent wood. The exhibition layout is inspired by the ‘U’ shaped wood curvature. The square space is divided by three concentric curves underlined by different floorings. These curves create a path that developes in different areas: a living area, a dining area, an outdoor area and a bistro area. The abstract works signed by the artist Simone Luschi and the paper origami also create a light, almost dreamlike, atmosphere.

Serena Confalonieri’s strongly identifying stylistic signature meets Gebrüder Thonet Vienna philosophy in this project, giving life to an essential and contemporary environment, at the same time strongly characterized.


Presented by Zipblind

Serena Confalonieri x Saba Italia – Hall 11 – Stand H15
Serena Confalonieri continues her collaboration with Saba designing two new versions of her Ring coffee tables, on show at Salone del Mobile Milano 2024 (hall 11 stand H15).

The Ring coffee tables are inspired by the cuts of rings precious stones: they recall their multifaceted profile and their bases, designed just like a jewelery piece. The glass tops, in fact, are set in the structure using the same technique the rings are designed with. Presented for the first time by Saba Italia in 2018, this year the collection expands adding two new variants: an 80cm x 80cm squared one, and one with a round top with a diameter of 80cm, in the new butter and dove gray colors.

Serena Confalonieri x Secondome @ Galleria Rossana Orlandi – via Bandello 14
Serena Confalonieri designs Birdie, part of a collective exhibition entitled “Sul Trespolo” (On the Perch) curated by Claudia Pignatale, created by Secondome + Studio F and presented at Rossana Orlandi gallery during Milan Design Week 2024. Claudia Pignatale, Secondome founder and art director, challenged a few selected designers  asking them to design a piece of furniture by replying to the question: “If I tell you Sul Trespolo, what comes to your mind?”.

When asked to be inspired by the concrete and poetic concept of the perch, Serena Confalonieri responded designing an out of the ordinary piece of furniture, that grows on a vertical structure where the perch is a small component of the entire furniture piece. Taking up the typology of free-standing furniture created around the 1960s, Birdie is a sequence of different functional elements which, laying one on top of the other, compose an irregular column of geometric shapes. The result visually evokes the image of a block construction game, where each module keeps its distinct identity, also thanks to the use of different wood essences, such as maple, cherry and canaletto walnut. From the bottom, the elements in this furniture piece are: a container element, a small table, a mirror, the perch – designed to be also a hanger –  and two containers more. Birdie can be dismantled and divided into 3 interchangeable modules, just as block constructions. Thanks to a threaded central support and cube shaped stops, this design allows you to transform and customize it, in order to adapt it to each individual habits and preferences.

Serena Confalonieri x Materica @ Design Variations – viale Gorizia 14
Medina is the new collection of modular boiseries designed by Serena Confalonieri for Materica, an Italian company specialized in the production of coverings and finishes. Medina elegantly expresses all the charm of exotic lands taking inspiration from the portals of Middle Eastern cities, through designs reminiscent of oriental motifs.

The modularity of the panels allows many combinations and patterns, giving the possibility to customize spaces. Thanks to this versatility, it is possible to create unique compositions, adaptable to every stylistic need. The boiserie is finished by a glossy metallic coating and can be composed by mixing modules of different colors. Materica presents at Design Variations a Medina composition made with rose-gold and laguna green modules, creating a suggestive and contemporary contrast.