By Editor Design.nl / 23-04-2009

Just for this week, the regular clients who normally park their car at Via Savona 6 have to share their parking space with the Tuttobene exhibition.

The driveway entry - accessed from the narrow Via Savona - gets blocked often with cars coming in and out and visitors milling about. A bell rings every time a car needs to enter or exit. The garage staff seem to be rather preoccupied checking out the young female visitors.

From 22-27 April, Tuttobene presents 18 emerging Dutch designers and 5 international designers. Exploring different aspects of sustainability in design, this is the sixth edition of the Dutch group show.

Working with Concrete, Doreen Westphal explores a different application of the industrial material. In a collaboration with a special concrete producer, Westphal has used the material like porcelain, only with less environmental impact. Concrete Lace functions as a room divider while the concrete mugs create a strange new experience of drinking from concrete.

Designed by Studio Re-Creation, a classic chair covered in broken plates evokes memories of history and function. 'The function of the chair as an object to contemplate and rest on, has been disturbed', says designer Nikola Nikolov. 'Now, the comfort of the chair can only be taken from your memories that are embedded in the materials.'

Expanding from his hosepipe furniture, Bok continues his exploration of using materials in a different context. He presented the 'Fence' collection - comprising floorlamps, chairs, a mirror, bookcase and benches, - made from traditional untreated sawed tree trunks, normally used for farm fencing, also in combination with hosepipe.

Also using wood in its natural form, Bo Reudler searched for branches with eclectic forms and curves to use as the base for his Slow White collection. Reminiscent of classical furniture, the pieces in the collection - comprising a chair, table, lamp, compass and cabinet - will always be different due to the random shapes of the branches.

Atelier Schelling & Borsboom's cabinet is a new twist on tradition, its form is based on traditional 17th century Dutch cabinets, clad in thousands of dominoes inlaid to create random patterns.

Also seen from the Tokyo edition were PeLiDesign who showed bamboo versions of his Clicfurniture, Marianne Kemp with textiles woven from horsehair and Damian O'Sullivan with the solar lampion.

Come night, the Tuttobene garage was filled to capacity with party-goers. Held every year on the Thursday, the Tuttobene party is always know as one of the most fun and relaxed parties of the week - no designer sunglasses allowed.

The complete list of Dutch designers for 2009 are by-lin, Floris Hovers Ontwerpen, Marianne Kemp, PeLiDesign, Atelier Schelling & Borsboom, H.U.U.B, Bo Reudler Studio, Plushdepartment, KREJCI, Sustainable Design Collective (More Than Hip & Celia Sluijter), Gerard der Kinderen, Studio-Re-Creation, MVOS, Studio Niels & Sven, Frans Willigers, Womanpower versus ABK, Damian O’Sullivan Design and Bok.

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