MILAN MODERN

With a history shaped by past masters, the Italian city is in the midst of a revival, led by a new wave of designers, artists, and entrepreneurs.

- Kerry Olsen

In his apartment in the post-industrial Morivione district of southern Milan, designer Maximilian Marchesani serves tea and pink cake from the nearby Bar Luce, designed in Formica and pastels by film director Wes Anderson. Mona, his Lagotto Romagnolo, pads around the white, open-plan apartment in a 1950s social-housing block designed by the great Milanese architect Arrigo Arrighetti. One room is almost entirely taken up by twisted hazel branches and twigs, gathered from parks around Milan, that make up part of his dramatic biophilic light sculptures-the stars of his recent solo show at the prestigious Nilufar Gallery.

Marchesani is part of a dynamic new design scene in Milan, which suddenly feels like the most forward-thinking city in Italy with big ideas, investment, and innovation, spouting new subway lines, hotels, and infrastructure ahead of the Winter Olympics in 2026. "We've had so many great teachers here when it comes to design, but it can be easy to get stuck in history," says Marchesani, his chandelier earring swishing. He's referring to the likes of Gio Ponti, Andrea Branzi, Mario Bellini, Vico Magistretti, and the Castiglioni brothers: giants who have defined the city. "I'm new to this scene, but it feels like we're starting to evolve again and find a new sort of language. And the city's boom means more people are looking for collectible design again."

Recognition has come fast for Marchesani, who hadn't shown his work publicly until last year's Alcova, Milan's indie alternative to the world-famous Salone del Mobile furniture fair. He describes himself as "driven by curiosity rather than a prevailing aesthetic", and his works play with forms of nature changed by human tinkering. The pieces at the gallery use ghoulishly twisted corkscrew hazel trees because humans have encouraged genetic mutations-and non-native parakeets' feathers. In another work, he uses Mona's hair.