What is Via Milano?

The Salone del Mobile is the most important exhibition in Europe when it comes to furniture, industrial design and lightning.

The Via Milano-New Dutch Design will exhibit the most talked about Dutch interior design products, that have been launched at this international design exhibition over the last five years. A specialist panel selects the best and most talked about Dutch designs which experienced their world premier at the internationally renowned design exhibition in Milan.

For the presentation Via Milano-New Dutch Design the most powerful works have been selecetd for this presentation, which as a joint force results in a strong image. The diversity of the products has been carefully considered in order to manifest a broad scope of the Dutch design field. The definite choice has resulted in a strong and representative image of the developments in the areas of furniture, lightning, general trends and utensils and demonstrates the width of the entire profession: from prototypes and unique pieces to mass produced items.

Gijs Bakker, dierctor of Droog design, Richard Hutten and Ineke Hans as well as Tjeerd Veenhoven will personally be present at the festival.

The exhibition will be open from 10. am to 8 pm, from 22nd February to 15th March.

About some of the designers: 

Gijs Bakker

Jewellery designer born in 1942 is one of the most important characters of Dutch design. Together with Renny Ramakers he established the consultation and management studio called Droog Design in 1993 which has become the most important workshop of the conceptual and experimental stream of Dutch design. The plans and designers of Droog have become the most successful creators of form and a series of their products have been produced in large series. Bakker has been in Hungary a few times and Remakers are known as the leaders of the faculty of Eindhoven Design Academy.
 
Ineke Hans

She was born in 1966, and is an exception as she did not graduate in the Netherlands but at the Royal College of Art in London. She worked for Habitat known as the British IKEA , then for the Italian Cappellini, Corian, Swarovski , just to mention the biggest names. Her style characterized by playfulness, humour and associations of form which is in general so characteristic to Dutch design. She is a main participant of important design exhibitions and her pieces  are often selected into the contemporary collections of museums.

Richard Hutten
 
He was born in 1967 graduated at the Design Academy Eindhoven, citadel ofdesign and then joined the formation of Droog Design in the middle of the 1990s. It was in these years that he made his furniture plans from which the table-and-chair combination called The Cross is highly memorable and which helped him burst into the design elite. From the end of the nineties his attention was drawn to interior design of museums, libraries and other institutes. Some of his pieces have been accepted by the MoMA in New York.

Tjeerd Veenhoven

He was born in 1976 is an idol of versatility so characteristic of Dutch designers. This all derives from his conceptual way of thinking while he does not regard function as the most important component in design. His furniture made of unusual materials, his spaces and installation all advertise the freedom of thought and creativity. It depends neither on technology nor materials that his design products could as well be ready-made materials. 

Bertjan Pot

He was born in 1975 and regards himself as a caracter from the countryside. He was born in a small town called Nieuwsleusen, now he lives in Rotterdam, the industrial and commercial centre of the Netherlands. His works are characterized by computer aesthetics (Random chair) and the exploiting of new materials, mainly carbon. His work called Carbon chair is a co production with Dutch design star Marcel Wanders, the director of Moooi which has become one of the icons of today’s design. 

via milano photo gallery>