TORTONA ROCKS #5

This year Tortona Rocks #5 will be telling the stories of its journey through the world of design without its post-industrial spaces at Opificio 31 or the converted buildings of the Tortona district. Instead it will present a capsule edition - DESIGN THROUGH – providing an opportunity to explore a digital presentation of the foremost themes currently animating the debate around contemporary design. The experience will take the form of a PATHWAY through the Fuorisalone.it platform.

Since 2016 Tortona Rocks has been one of the most interesting project settings within the Milano Design Week, serving not only to decipher world design trends but also to narrate the variegated, constantly changing Tortona district. The contemporary format, which has experimentation at its heart, will this year be the leading light in an all-new edition.

The show’s material content will abandon the physical form of installations and staging for an enhanced exploration of alternative forms of communication: through video, webinars and the online launch of new collections it will be possible to reach the international visitors who come every year to Milan to celebrate design. Our virtual audience will be immersed in a huge hypertext featuring insights and special documents, available on demand at any time of the day.

The selected projects to be presented by Tortona Rocks at the digital Fuorisalone embrace the themes of manufacturing, circular economy, sustainability and technology. They will demonstrate how design crosses disciplinary barriers to generate solutions from the merging of knowledge, presenting alternative and innovative proposals that aim to restore the balance between man and nature.
The creation of sustainable experiences is, in fact, a complex process that requires interdisciplinary cross-breeding, with design as the common link, thus enabling us to call into question the future of our societies and restore a systemic approach.

The furniture design by Norwegian Presence offers a new aesthetic of sustainability, evolving in the interests of circular economy with a collection of long-lasting pieces and a nod towards art collecting. The young designers of Worth Partnership Project – a trans-European research project – will show how design can be reinvented in a changing world through experimentation with new materials and digital innovation. Mentemano will have no difficulty in captivating its audience even in this online setting, thanks to a design that reflects its strong architectural inspiration. Totguard in collaboration with Pinwu will be presenting Weaving Forest, a collection of new furnishing modules made entirely from bamboo, the traditional Chinese material. The co-design platform The Playful Living will be showing their contemporary furnishing solutions in digital room sets, making it possible to visualise moments of life, play and work of a family with three children of different ages.


Technical partners for the 2020 edition of Tortona Rocks are LB, a global leader in technologies for the production of Gres porcelain tiles in collaboration with Margres, another major brand in the manufacturing of this material, and Delta Light, the Belgian company specialised in architectural lighting.