“PERPETUUM MOBILE – The Dancing Furniture of Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue’s home” at the Milano Design Week 2022.
• Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects in collaboration with Fundació Enric Miralles, present the exhibition “PERPETUUM MOBILE” from 6–13 of June, at the Milano Design Week 2022;
• Showing as part of Interni Design Re-Generation, the exhibition is dedicated to showcase the furniture designed by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue for their home in Barcelona, now revisited and produced with the support of the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC);
• The furniture and objects exhibited for the first time in Italy, all dynamic and “mobile”, are faithful reproductions of the originals, in some cases impossible to remove from the house, made of American wood and improved in some technical-functional details;
• The “Mistery” table is an unprecedented piece, made in 2020 after the discovery of some drawings by Enric Miralles whose existence was unknown;
• The large canvas centered in the exhibition is curated by Fundació Enric Miralles in collaboration with Fundación Talita, and explores the power of design and sustainable materials from an inclusive perspective;
The home of the architects Enric Miralles (1955-2000) and Benedetta Tagliabue, is recreated in Milan, and for the first time in Italy, thanks to the exhibition of new furniture and objects that tell of their unmistakable way of designing and understanding architecture.
A unique concept, a whole, from the architectural to the object scale, where even the ceiling and the floor are integral parts of it, as suggested at the exhibition itself that reproduces on the floor, as a domestic route, the floorplan of the Barcelona residence of the architects.
An architecture in constant search, analysis and reinterpretation, which is reflected in this transformable furniture, designed to adapt to the multiple and changing situations that were recreated in the great house-laboratory in Barcelona, an old warehouse transformed into an open space where the couple studied and experimented with ideas that they would later apply in many other subsequent works.
Although each piece is unique, they all demonstrate Miralles and Tagliabue’s vision of a “house in motion” – a domestic space in which each piece of furniture does not have a defined place or a set purpose but can be moved or modified to meet the needs of the moment.
“In every project that we have created and are still doing, we try to design, if allowed, custom-made furniture as an integral part of the overall concept. That is why we never thought of developing products on an industrial scale, because each object it is designed for its context and to contribute to the architectural ensemble from a more human scale. For our home, the furniture had to be flexible and in constant movement”, explains Benedetta Tagliabue.
There are many examples of projects where the furniture was made to measure in harmony with the space, from the Scottish Parliament of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK) to the ‘San Giacomo Apostolo’ Church and Parish Complex in Ferrara, Italy recently inaugurated.
Showing as part of Interni Design Re-Generation at the Università degli Studi di Milano, “PERPETUUM MOBILE”, presents the collection of nine furniture pieces that includes tables, chairs and objects designed between 1992-1999, reproduced in sustainable American hardwoods, and never produced for commercial purposes.
The exhibition provides a unique insight into the detail and craft of the architects’ domestic environment, including a recently discovered piece, produced for the first time in 2020, the Mistery table.
The nine furniture pieces exhibited are Mistery (2020), Instable (1993), Troncs (1998), Estudi (1993), Tropical (1994), Dolmen (1995), the Lelukaappi (1995) and Marisa (1992) bookstores, and the series of stools Japonès (1992). All have been faithfully recreated by La Navarra Carpentry in Madrid, based on the drawings and documents from the private archive of Miralles.
