Contemporary Designs Unfolds at RoCollectible 2025

Milan Design Week is back in full force! Anchored by the iconic Salone del Mobile 2025, the city pulses with creative energy as global designers converge in a vibrant fusion of heritage and innovation. Across Milan’s galleries and design districts, materials are reimagined and spaces transformed—each project a reflection on the human experience and a response to the urgencies of our times. We turn our attention to Galleria Rossana Orlandi’s RoCollectible 2025.

This year, a compelling narrative emerges: one where cultural root meets contemporary thought, shaping tactile, emotional, and forward-looking visions of design.

At the heart of this is Galleria Rossana Orlandi’s RoCollectible 2025 — a standout showcase that celebrates materiality as memory, transformation, and beauty. Curated by Rossana Orlandi and Nicoletta Brugnoni, the exhibition unfolds as a rich, stunning journey, featuring over 90 designers. From seasoned names to rising stars, their works engage in a dynamic dialogue between past and future, united by fearless creativity and material experimentation.

Here are some highlights from Rossana Orlandi’s gallery:

Aline Asmar d’Amman and The Power of Tenderness

Architect Aline Asmar d’Amman made her Milan solo debut with The Power of Tenderness, a furniture collection exhibited at the RO Gallery.

The show celebrates untamed marble, sensual forms, and narrative design—hallmarks of d’Amman’s poetic practice. Georgia lounge chairs, Béton Littéraire bookshelves, and pink and green onyx tables are showcased beneath vaulted ceilings flooded with natural light.

During Design Week, visitors were treated to Georgia cakes, created in collaboration with chef Cesare Murzilli as edible tributes to the furniture.

On working with Orlandi, d’Amman shares: “Every encounter is a treasurable celebration of creativity… a joyful collaboration that resonates with the stories of my creations.”

Paul Heijnen: Sculpting the Unexpected

Dutch designer Paul Heijnen presents the Sculpt Chair, a work that marries form and invention. Originally steam-bent in 2019, the chair has evolved using Heijnen’s self-developed technique of solidifying oil paint into sculptable material—“Instant Fordite.”

Inspired by Nerikomi, Mokume-gane, Millefiori, and Impressionist palettes, the marbled finish transforms each object into a unique canvas. The curved structure takes cues from Art Nouveau and the biological drawings of Ernst Haeckel, while parabolic “ear wings” focus ambient sounds for meditative effect. Alongside the chair, smaller vessels made from offcuts expand the visual language of this playful, biomorphic series.

Nacho Carbonell: Ethereal Landscapes in Light

Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell unveiled “Untitled”, a bronze and glass light sculpture with Luce5. Heavy cast bronze roots give way to luminous, branch-like extensions, turning space into an ethereal forest.

Carbonell’s fascination with touch and raw materials continues in his Cocoon lamps—tree-like forms covered in mesh cocoons that evoke magical realism. His practice embraces locality, often using materials found near his Eindhoven studio.

With works in the MoMA San Francisco and the Groningen Museum, Carbonell’s designs challenge how objects make us feel, not just how they function.

Draga & Aurel Illuminate RO Gallery

The multidisciplinary duo Draga & Aurel present three captivating works that blur the boundaries between art and design. The Phebe Pendant Lamp and Cadre Sideboard—both from their acclaimed Transparency Matters collection—explore the interplay of light, colour, and material using lucite and epoxy resin. These pieces evoke a futuristic, Space Age sensibility, with forms and transparencies that shift with perspective and movement. The Rescue Me Cabinet, part of their Heritage Collection, exemplifies their pioneering approach to upcycling by reimagining discarded vintage furniture with vibrant resin overlays and lucite frames, turning memory into modern sculpture.

Founded in 2007 by Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow, Draga & Aurel is a Como-based studio known for its bold use of materials, artistic experimentation, and commitment to sustainability. With backgrounds in art, fashion, and craftsmanship, they have collaborated with major design houses such as Baxter, Visionnaire, and Poltrona Frau. Their collectible pieces have been exhibited at premier galleries like Rossana Orlandi and Nilufar Gallery, reinforcing their position at the intersection of contemporary art and collectible design.

Hana Vopravilová: The Poetics of Leftovers

Czech designer Hana Vopravilová debuts in Milan at RoCollectible 2025 with Leftovers, a glass series exploring discarded materials and overlooked beauty. Created without preliminary sketches, the pieces are blown into forms made from residual packaging and mold fragments.

In the PAP series, corrugated paper shapes waste into poetic vessels. In HOW MANY SHAPES DOES A SHAPE HAVE?, old wooden glass molds are sliced and restacked, creating new morphologies. Vopravilová reclaims what is forgotten—inviting reflection on production, sustainability, and the emotional resonance of material memory.

All the Way FROMM. Doha

FROMM., a design brand that celebrates heritage in a modern day interpretation, showcased its cross-cultural design ethos at RO Gallery, FROMM. presented a curated selection of pieces that exemplify the brand’s commitment to blending Qatari heritage with contemporary design. This exhibition highlighted FROMM.’s dedication to fostering dialogue between tradition and innovation, aligning with the gallery’s reputation for spotlighting emerging talents and sustainable design practices.

A selection of the Shurouq Collection is displayed at the Gallery, featuring the exquisitely crafted Haima Armchair  which is designed by talented local designers Maryam Suwaidi and Shua’a Ali, these remarkable pieces represent a fusion of Arab design sensibilities with the finest Italian craftsmanship.

Line Dansdotter Murkén / Espace Aygo: Embodied Transformations

Amnion Limen by Line Dansdotter Murkén of Espace Aygo reimagines the bathtub as a metaphysical vessel for introspection, inspired by the womb’s protective embrace. Cast in amber-hued polyurethane rubber, the form softens with warm water while retaining sculptural integrity. A stainless-steel frame, meticulously curved and welded, supports the piece—merging precision with sensuality.

Created in 2023 as a 1/1 edition (with potential for future editions), the work invites full submersion and reflection, offering an escape from daily distraction. Made with Polyurethane rubber and stainless steel, the piece reimagines the everyday utility of a bathtub as a sanctuary where form becomes feeling.

Ori Orisun Merhav: Biofabrication Futures

Designer-researcher Ori Orisun Merhav presents Insect Plantasia, part of her Made by Insects project. Using lac, an insect-produced resin, she fabricates hybrid sculptures that blur nature and technology. Blown and 3D-printed lac elements merge with a steel frame, finished in insect patina. Inspired by insect architecture and cocoon structures, Merhav partners with scientists to push material boundaries. Her work has received the Bio Art and Design Award and is now part of the Centre Pompidou’s permanent collection—marking a new chapter in sustainable design.

This towering, creature-like form proposes a world where craft and technology merge with insect architecture, offering a poetic model for coexistence.

Studio Yellowdot: Luminous Transformations of the Everyday

Studio Yellowdot (Bodin Hon and Dilara Kan Hon) introduces Hatch – Eggshell Floor Lamp, a lighting collection made from recycled eggshells. Encased in resin and formed into curved, glowing diffusers, the eggshells create soft, layered light patterns.

Supported by polished stainless steel and activated by a touch-sensitive, bird-perch-shaped switch, the lamp celebrates fragility and renewal. Yellowdot bridges craft and tech across Hong Kong and Istanbul, collaborating with artisans globally. Their works—equally industrial and poetic—invite interaction and emotional connection.

Diverse Vistas through Anotherview

Anotherview collective presented two immersive video installations that transform everyday views into contemplative digital windows. Anotherview No. 41: A Day Around Geysir in Iceland captures the mesmerizing rhythm of Strokkur’s eruptions in the geothermal landscapes of Haukadalur, where time is marked not by clocks but by nature’s pulse.

In contrast, Anotherview No. 37: A Change of Weather on the Bowery offers a full day in the vibrant Lower East Side of New York, reflecting the city’s evolving character while preserving its gritty spirit.

Founded in 2016 by Marco Tabasso, Tatiana Uzlova, and Robert Andriessen, Anotherview is a nomadic, Milan-based collective that blends art, design, and technology to create 24-hour digital “windows” into iconic locations around the world. Each piece tells a unique story of place and time, immersing viewers in the sights, sounds, and atmospheres of faraway environments. Exhibited at global fairs like DesignMiami, PAD London, and LA Art Show, Anotherview’s works invite reflection on memory, movement, and the beauty of the everyday.

Clementine Chambon for Secondome, Curated by Federica Sala: Imagining the Surreal

In “Can You Imagine?”, an exhibition curated by Federica Sala for Secondome, Clementine Chambon’s “Alice” stool offers a sculptural reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll’s surreal world.

Its flared legs seem to melt into the floor, while a hidden doorway at the base evokes the fantastical transitions of Wonderland. AI-generated floral motifs—referencing Dutch still-life painting—infuse the piece with a dreamlike sensibility. Subtle four-leaf clover shapes gesture toward transformation, while tulips and dahlias, traditional symbols of love and gratitude, ground the stool in emotional resonance. Presented in soft pink and rich red, “Alice” becomes a poetic metaphor for personal journeys. The collaboration underscores Secondome’s commitment to Italian craftsmanship while amplifying the voices of emerging international designers.

Available in delicate pink and deep red, Alice is an open edition work that reflects life’s stages and emotional dualities—fragility, strength, and the timelessness of love.

Manu Crotti Experiments with New Forms Using the Red Clay of Ibiza

Manu Crotti, an artist based in Crema, Italy brings to life memories, represented by little objects, images, memorabilia of her travel around the world, fragments of her life all combined together to create stunning tableaux vivants which become functionals when integrated in tables, cupboards, mirror or room divider.

Her particular technique to cast several layers of epoxy resin to enclosure these precious memories permit this piece to acquires a three-dimensional appearance where the objects seem to surface from the resin over other objects and images, creating the illusion of a floating collage. Crotti works exclusively for Galleria Rossana Orlandi since 2011 and has been showing with her in several exhibition around the world.

“For a long time, I felt the desire to work with clay, and while living in Ibiza during the winter, I was drawn to this wonderful material to explore its technical and expressive processes. For my themes, I drew inspiration from nature, with which I have always had a deep love connection, as well as from symbols and spiritual experiences that are part of my life’s journey,” she says about her work which are beautifully crafted.