Beyond Function and human intention: A journey through Fuorisalone 2025
By Valentina Gioia Levy
Another edition of the Salone and Fuorisalone has just wrapped up—and while the energy may have felt more measured than in pre-pandemic years, the depth and diversity of this year's offerings were anything but subdued.
What caught our eye was not just the objects on display, but the shifting sensibility behind them. Across the city, we witnessed a growing impulse to dissolve fixed categories—between inside and outside, sculpture and furniture, technology and craft, and even between the human and the non-human.
Whether through living materials, algorithmically generated forms, or the subtle presence of artificial intelligence embedded in process or concept, this year’s edition made it clear: design is no longer solely a product of human intention, but a space of negotiation between natural systems, machine logic, sensory experience, and desire.
Naturalia, Fuorisalone, Milano, 2025—an immersive installation that reimagined Buccellati’s heritage through a dreamlike, forest-inspired setting. Conceived by Balich Wonder Studio under the creative direction of Claudio Sbragion, and brought to life with botanical artistry by Studio Mary Lennox, the exhibition transformed the space into a luminous grove. Visitors wandered through towering moss-covered trees, delicate ferns, and ethereal projections, encountering Buccellati’s silver creations—leaves, coral branches, and woodland creatures—nestled within this surreal landscape.
While the language of contemporary art has influenced design since the 1960s, we are now witnessing a deeper integration—not only in the conceptual processes behind objects but also in the way they are communicated by companies and experienced by the public. At the same time, the philosophical distinction between nature and artifice, between what is man-made and what is born of the earth—a dichotomy that shaped both art and design throughout the 20th century—is becoming increasingly porous.
What emerges is a new set of possibilities, new balances, and the development of a renewed consciousness of inhabiting and expanding space.
One particularly resonant voice in this shifting landscape is that of Hsiang Han Hsu, a young Taiwanese designer we met during the week. Hsu’s approach doesn’t focus exclusively on functionality. Rather, he sees form as a generative principle, open to interpretation and flexible modes of use.
Hsiang Han Hsu, X Table System Lido for Cappelini, Fuorisalone, Installation view at Superstudio, Milano 2025
His installation, titled X Possibilities—on display at Superstudio—featured the X Table System, a series of modular tables with intricate, lattice-like structures inspired by natural patterns. The project, developed in collaboration with Cappellini, was crafted from a combination of fiberglass and recycled nylon, exemplifying Hsiang’s commitment to sustainable materials and biomorphic design. The installation invited visitors to explore the fluid boundaries between nature and industry, art and function—carrying a quiet elegance that resists easy classification.
Speaking of his practice, he told us:
“I don’t see boundaries between nature and design. Everyone loves them, and everyone needs them—we love them and we need them. We need them, and we love them.”
It’s an ongoing cycle that binds necessity and pleasure, function and aesthetics. Presented as a sculptural environment, his pieces stood together like a small landscape of forms—bold, architectural, and charged with meaning.
“I’m not focused on function. I want to break the boundaries between design and art. My pieces can be used, but differently. Maybe unexpectedly.”
Hsiang Han Hsu, X Table System Lido for Cappelini, 2024
His work reflects a broader movement visible throughout this year’s Fuorisalone: designers and companies reimagining their relationship with the environment, rethinking materials, and reshaping the dialogue not only between people and objects—but also between the natural and the artificial, the useful and the poetic.
Another compelling example of this integration between nature, design, and artistic vision was Gucci’s exhibition, Bamboo Encounters, held in the historic 16th-century cloisters of San Simpliciano. Curated by the architectural studio 2050+, the exhibition reimagined bamboo—a material deeply embedded in Gucci’s heritage—as a contemporary symbol of sustainability and innovation.
The show featured works by seven international artists and designers, each exploring bamboo’s potential across different mediums, culminating in a poetic bamboo forest that closed the exhibition path.
Among the featured creators was Austrian designer Laurids Gallée, who presented Scaffolding, a series of bold resin pieces that abstract the structural logic of bamboo into deep blue forms. Gallée approaches design as a field of material exploration—one where form can take precedence over function, but above all, where the transformation of material itself becomes a narrative.
Laurids Gallée, Scaffoldings,Bamboo Encounters at Milan's Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Fuorisalone, Milano, 2025
His pieces often reveal shifting qualities as the viewer moves around them, challenging conventional perceptions of materiality.
Gallée’s inquiry into form and materiality continued in his series Orvalho, presented at the gallery Delvis (Un)Limited. In this collection, cherry wood objects are adorned with a delicate yet graphic ‘grid + vine’ motif—merging ornamental detail with structural logic. The result is a subtle dialogue between nature and craft: the organic curves of the vine pattern contrast with the rational geometry of the grid, echoing the dual forces that shape both natural growth and human design.
Gallée invites us to perceive the object not as a fixed form, but as a living skin—responsive to light, movement, and presence. It’s a poetic gesture that resonates with a growing tendency in contemporary design: to challenge the binary between functional object and autonomous artwork.
