It’s important to allow what is sometimes considered to be ‘time wasting’ into your life: art, imagination, sleeping, or just being with people. And it’s this time wasting where Milan comes to the fore. It’s the hanging with friends at parties and random personal encounters that lend Milan Design Week its humaneness. Happiness does only exist when shared, and every night there were hundreds of parties that were testament to that.
 
One of the best venues was StatStories, the temporary design concept store that in the late hours became ZClub, the after hours private members club of ZonaTortona with live performances by international designers at midnight. Karim Rashid, Barnaba Fornasetti and the all female Swedish design group FRONT took to the decks on separate nights to perform for the eager, über design conscious crowd. Rather than a place to pose, ZClub was the place for stories, friendship and the often-overlooked fragility of life. Temporariness was all around you as the club was only open for four nights, with the bar and DJ booth both made from boxes stamped ‘Fragile – Made in Italy’ and held in place with masking tape.
 
Spazio Rossana Orlandi was another incredibly special place – kicking back in the vine-covered courtyard with a glass of red nibbling on handmade antipasto served by the most gracious Italian ladies. The atmosphere was so welcoming, so charming, so authentically Milanese, you didn’t want to leave. Also in the courtyard was Li Edelkoort’s Designhuis Talent show from Eindhoven showing 21 selected designers from 11 different countries around the theme of archaic design using materials like timber, skin and bone. 
 
The other installation and opening night that thrilled was at Moroso. Following the designer’s recent trip to Senegal and entitled ‘M’Afrique C’est Chic’ Stephen Burks and his NYC studio Readymade Projects highlighted contemporary African culture in the Moroso showroom on Via Pontaccio. Featuring African artists alongside European artists and iconic pieces from Moroso’s archive, the electrifyingly bright colours, patterns and weaves showed the amazingly worthy work Stephen has done bridging third world countries with the design industry through the Aid to Artisans organisation. Design with a conscience. Now that’s something to celebrate!