DECORATIVE OBJECTS Furniture may be something that we only tend to change every few years. But while super-luxe may be one trend in a booming market, there are also other, more accessible, ones.

Conversely, there is room for a welcome, Memphis-style playfulness and humour. Andrey Budko’s Hear My Roo oar trophy carpet has plenty: it is a nod to a leopard skin rug, of course, but comes in digitally embroidered wool felt; or there is Hanna Anonen’s uplifting and unique collection of colourful wooden Plizé and Beebee boxes; or Alberto Casati’s vase, based on a bust of Queen Elizabeth.

Hanna Anonen’s Beebee boxes.

Lastly, experimentation with materials is also well to the fore, using both new and old production techniques. Designer Keren Wang, for example, uses spray glazing and plaster moulds to give her ceramics varied colours and textures, while Zhekai Zhang recycles coffee grounds as pigment in ancient pit firing for his work.

Zhekai Zhang’s Coffire pendant lamps

Haminishi Design uses high-intensity bursts of flame to pattern its Graffito metal vases, and Carina Wagenaar reimagines the delicacy of porcelain as a stunning wall-hung medallion.

FINE FURNITURE

This year’s Milan Design Week pays tribute to celebrated Italian architect Gaetano Pesce by exhibiting an 8-metre-high recreation of his Maestà Soffrente artwork, meaning “suffering majesty”, in Piazza Duomo. More furniture reinterpretations of the classic are seen at Salone del Mobile Furniture Fair in Rho.

Alat daybed by Andreu Carulla.

On a macro-scale, there are two countervailing trends in furniture. Like fashion, it is increasingly an exercise in brand power, if not brand over content – a single piece from the likes of Philippe Starck or Marcel Wanders can draw crowds to a showroom, as did Wanders’ BFF modular sofa, which takes the capitonné technique of deep buttoned upholstery and, fittingly, blows up the scale so that one fragment becomes a full module.

Cyryl Zakrzewski’s Dune chair collection

Furniture is less focused on expressing an overall mood. Individual, statement pieces allow the work of younger designers to receive due recognition. Catalan designer Andreu Carulla’s unconventional octagonal outdoor daybed stands out at Calma’s exhibition.

Joanna Sieradzan’s Vila rocking chair

Some ideas still spread: one-piece wooden chairs, for example, are something of a trend – consider elegant examples such as Sollos’ update on the Windsor chair, or more exploratory shapes in the form of Cyryl Zakrzewski’s Dune chair, or Joanna Sieradzan’s Vila rocking chair. Similarly, rattan – another key trend of the fair – gets an overhaul in the shape of Florestan Schuberth and Janis Fromm’s cute Andy chair, and Hong Kong, China-based Studio RYTE’s rattan series bench and table.