Norwegian Presence 2023 at Salone: A celebration of materiality, circular design and collaboration.

Norwegian Presence returns to Milan Design Week in Brera, taking place between the 18-23 April 2023. In a beautiful new venue at Via Pietro Maroncelli 2, showcasing Norway’s material-focused creative culture and a value for circular design and collaboration. The exhibition features an inspiring and wide selection of designs from independent makers and creative studios.

A highlight in the Milan Design Week calendar, serving as a snapshot of Norway’s burgeoning design scene, Norwegian Presence has been the flagship exhibition of the country’s design talent and manufacturing excellence since its first Salone appearance in 2015. As well as offering visitors an opportunity to discover innovative new products including furniture, ceramics and textiles, Norwegian Presence also offers a wider insight into the material-minded and collaborative creative culture of Norway.

Organisers DOGA and the Norwegian Presence curatorial team have put together a collective of extraordinary designers from, or working in, Norway today. Although diverse in discipline and varied in approach, the designers are unified by their shared focus on materiality, their embracing of circular design practices and their distinctly Norwegian approach to working collaboratively.

The material has played a strong part in shaping the product or object. The selection demonstrates the possibilities of new thinking, using both well known techniques and materials, balancing viability for mass-production with the need to leave as small a footprint as possible – Jannicke Kråkvik, (Kråkvik & D’Orazio)

Some designers are pioneering local sourcing strategies to develop new production models and others are finding premium applications for waste or low-grade materials. Some are adopting intuition-led approaches to craft and others are using a strictly form follows function take to solve problems simply and elegantly.

Whether working with wool or wood, aluminium or clay, this year’s line-up places an emphasis on sustainable Norwegian materials as much as it does on Norwegian design, with many participants working closely with material specialist producers to create sustainable products from locally available materials – keeping the production chain as short as possible.

Given Hydro’s role as the principal partner for the exhibition, aluminium has been chosen as the principal material for the design, with Oslo designer Bjørn van den Berg transforming standard aluminium profiles into spectacular shapes.

Specialising in renewable energy and zero-carbon aluminium, the Norwegian company Hydro works as a material partner with emerging and established designers throughout Norway and has collaborated with Norwegian Presence designers for many years. For the 2023 exhibition, Hydro presents its first collaboration with design luminary Lars Beller Fjetland.

Lars Beller Fjetland has been working with Hydro to develop the extruded aluminium bench Bello!, designed with public transportation hubs in mind, and for both indoor and outdoor use. Made from at least 90% recycled post-consumer aluminium and 100% recyclable itself, Bello! is lightweight, strong, highly durable and available in custom lengths.

Bello! is a delicate balancing act between achieving a low CO2 footprint, a high expected lifespan and a form and functionality that works across time and trends. - Lars Beller Fjetland

Beller Fjetland’s starting point for the project was the process of pasta making, specifically the production of penne and rigatoni. The way in which pasta shapes are formed has clear parallels with aluminium extrusion. This results in a unique, subtly ridged surface finish which gives the bench an alluring tactility.

To find out more about the exhibition, click here

Norwegian Presence, 18-23 April 2023, Venue: Via Pietro Maroncelli 2 at Milan Design Week.