Spazzio Rossana Orlandi

At Via Matteo Bandello 14, behind a nondescript facade, you'll find one of Milan's best curated design spaces, the always lovely Spazzio Rossana Orlandi. During this year’s fair the exterior courtyard played host to Talent Milan—and exhibition of 21 recent graduates from 11 countries organized by Li Edelkoort and Designhuis. In the foreground is Phat Knit by Bauke Knotterus, and Guus Van Leeuwen’s Domestic Animals.

The exhibition also included the clever Toy Folder, Rodrigo Solórzano’s proposal for children to get involved in making their own toys out of recycled material (such as the cardboard pictured). With a proposed flashlight-like device the designs can be projected at any scale (by moving forward or backward) onto the desired surface.

With a tactile quality of a stress relief toy, Soft Parcel by Swedish designers TAF, invited visitors to sit by playing with material expectations. Hip ad agencies might want this for their mailrooms.

With its black and white snaking form, Bertjan Pot’s Twist chandelier exuded a contemporary Beetlejuice vibe. Post-post-post modernism is on its way in.

The precision cuts and exquisite luster of Jaime Hayon’s Crystal Cady Set for Baccarat dazzled. Everyone with a digital camera was snapping pics at this point.

Upstairs Nacho Carbonell’s collection grafted insect-like hives onto delicate modernistic forms to create a bizarre new typology of furniture—probably not for sitting in.

Labeled leather boxes filled with various goodies line the walls of Orlandi’s upstairs shop, while a raft of desirable design icons flood the floor of this wonderful retail space. With items that range from 3 to 30,000 euros, there is truly something for everyone here—but you’ll never know what it is before you start poking around.

In the basement Raw Edges, designers Yael Mer and Shay Alkala, exhibited this delicate paper sculpture with a kinetic touch. The thin overlapped sheets of Grove’s paper trees spun like psychedelic gears.

Eindoven-based design Max Lipsey showed these arbor-intensive coat racks in a variety of viridescent colors.

More of a reflecting pool than a swimming pool, the organic shape of this kidney-shaped pool contrasts with the otherwise rectilinear forms at this Modernist apartment building in Milan.