Milan Design Week 2011 - German, Swedish and Chinese design at Zona Tortona

Today Alessandra of Design Your Life brings us the BEST of Zona Tortona from Milan Design Week 2011. Featuring some outstanding new designs from Germany, Sweden and China, consider it a Grand Tour all under one roof! -Jenny x

Some of the excellent new products at Design Deutschland 2011 - Martin Born with Polite Light Lamp and Eva Marguerre & Marcel Besau with MOA Basket Series

Design Deutschland 2011: functional, distinct and unobtrusive, modernist materials, no-frills aesthetic. This year there were 32 participants selected to take part in German Design Council at Zona Tortona. There was a great exhibition of old and famous projects and many new young talented designers.

Clockwise from top left: Thomas Schnur with Rubber Table, Reinhard Dienes Diaz with 003 Sunday Kitchen Grocery and Silvia Knuppel with pl(a)ywood-coffeetable.

My favorites amongst the new designers are: Martin Born with Polite Light Lamp, Reinhard Dienes Diaz with 003 Sunday Kitchen Grocery, Eva Marguerre & Marcel Besau with MOA Basket Series, Silvia Knuppel with pl(a)ywood-coffeetable and Thomas Schnur with Rubber Table.

Tripod by Lukas Dahlén. The tripod lamp base is assembled then the red hot 'globe' is put into position with a fiery result!

Swedish design is my big love. I love its simple and original style, the use of colors, the attention to nature and ecology. Its exhibition zone was at SuperStudioPiù: it was incredible!!!!

Clockwise from top left: Luchsia by Johan Carpner, A piece of forest by Modern Times and Point 2011 by David Taylor

I've made a selection of my favorite new lamp designs: Luchsia by Johan Carpner (the lamp is comprised of three composite screens in various sizes, each created from a different fabric and structure), A piece of forest by Modern Times (the material is a biological composite formed of PLA and cellulose fibre), Tripod by Lukas Dahlén (Part of the graduation project "The Fifth Element", that explores the meeting between wood and glass… and fire!) and Point 2011 by David Taylor (made of paper, plastic tubing and hemp rope).

Clockwise from top left: C*Hairs by Monica Bertini, The Age of Press series by LI Yongling, Harmony Sofa by Tianyu Xiao and The Low Chair Family series by Jovana Bogdanovic.

China should not been known for only plastic and low quality products, China will be the new point of reference for all design addicts… it WILL be the future! In Zona Tortona there was a little cool space where I could see a cute selection of products from China: Wò Yóu. My favorite designers in the exhibition: Monica Bertini with C*Hairs, Jovana Bogdanovic with The Low Chair Family series, Tianyu Xiao with Harmony Sofa and LI Yongling with the furniture series The Age of Press.

- Alessandra x