Design matters: Why car companies are crashing Milan’s furniture fair

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Milan Design Week, which runs every April and is officially called the Salone del Mobile, is the world’s buzziest interior design show. An event the fashion newsletter Blackbird Spyplane called the “Coachella of chairs.” It’s the place to be if you really, really love lamp.

Recently, however, car companies have been crashing the Italian furniture fair, so much so that it’s fast becoming a highlight on the international car show circuit, along with the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and The Goodwood Festival of Speed.

And why not? If you’re awestruck by a $10,000 Osvaldo Borsani recliner or a $5,000 USM Haller credenza, then you might also be interested in a techno-futurist chair Kia’s design team cooked up for its Meta Turismo concept car, or the livery for Ferrari’s new 30-metre racing yacht, both also on display at the show.

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Car companies have always laboured over design details. The look of a car and the way it feels from the driver’s seat sway buyers. But as the basic technology underpinning cars becomes increasingly similar – battery power and big touchscreens – design and the experience it creates will increasingly be a differentiator, maybe the differentiator.

This isn’t the first time car companies have muscled their way into another industry’s big show. They’ve dabbled in the art world, putting on events at Art Basel Miami Beach. Last year, Porsche crashed the Venice Architecture Biennale with an installation designed in collaboration with Norman Foster.

And it was only about a decade ago when traditional car companies wanted to show everyone they were, in fact, tech companies. Automakers sidelined the traditional Detroit Auto Show – once the most important show of the year, with dozens of new cars unveiled over two days – in favour of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, putting cars alongside a raft of new TVs and smart refrigerators.

The goal was to use technology as a differentiator. Now, car companies have largely moved on from CES, too, in search of new ways to highlight the distinct selling points of their products.

This year was the fourth consecutive appearance for Kia at the annual Design Week show. Separate from a showcase of the automaker’s recent concept cars, Kia’s designers also put together a surprisingly beautiful exhibit of rooms and passages meant to embody the feeling of the creative process. The installation, called Journey of Reflection, at Museo della Permanente, was entirely car free.

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“What’s especially nice is that [Milan Design Week] is about design, not necessarily about car design, and this combination of art, culture, design and the way we are allowed to share our story,” said Jochen Paesen, head of Kia Future Design Group, in a recent interview with AutoTrader.

Marília Biill, who leads strategic development of colour, material and finishes for Kia, said it’s a privilege to exhibit in Milan. “We work so hard to make those [cars] and when we are here representing our teams, and telling how much effort, how many things were done for each of those models, it feels so good because it’s a chance we do not always have,” she said.

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Indeed, when was the last time you spared a thought for the person who drew 200 taillights before landing on the one fitted to your car? Or the person who designed the centre console to make your small car feel bigger? Designers sweat over these little details and thousands of bigger ones: aerodynamic efficiency, crumple zones for crash safety and so much more.

Paesen and Biill were part of a large contingent of car designers in Milan for the show.

Ferrari’s design chief Flavio Manzoni was on hand to unveil the livery for his company’s new 30-metre hydrofoil yacht, the Hypersail, which can lift its monohull out of the water to “fly” over the waves.

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Audi hired Zaha Hadid Architects to build a pavilion meant to evoke “the essence of progress.” Its connection to Audi’s product lineup was unclear, but the silver pill-shaped building situated in an old palazzo certainly did its job of turning heads.

Mini and long-time collaborator Paul Smith put on a playful English garden party, with the fashion designer’s new special-edition Mini Cooper parked among the bushes.

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Fiat’s designers staged Ciao Futuro!, a display of the brand’s tiny city cars, from the 1957 Fiat 500 to the 1987 Panda and the current Topolino Corallo. It was meant to start a dialogue on the design of Fiat’s next small car, a product that, if done right, could make cityscapes more humane.

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Skoda, Lexus, Hyundai, Range Rover, Italdesign, Maserati and Chinese brand Lepas all showed up in Milan as well.

For automakers, crashing the Milan Design Week is about reminding everyone that cars are more than just a painful monthly payment; they are also design objects. While you could see this as a branding exercise – and it is that, too, no doubt – making cars a part of the wider conversation is a reminder that they don’t exist in a vacuum. Cars are the ultimate example of modern industrial design, practical sculptures that populate our shared streetscapes, for better and for worse.

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