Milan - Salone del Mobile: Palazzo Crespi: Housewarming – Fabrica and Airbnb. In the sumptuous rooms of the very private Palazzo Crespi the exhibition, Housewarming a project by Fabrica and Airbnb. The experiential installation celebrated the connections, which guests and hosts experience through sharing a home, and how these unique relationships begin with a simple welcome. The creations of 19 international designers interpreted the concept of welcome. Guests were invited to interact with the designers, all located in different parts of the Palazzo. From a British tea time to a cappuccino breakfast to the Indian ritual of lighting lamps, visitors left with a sense of belonging to this Milanese home and the cultures each of the Fabrica designers represent a feeling central to any Airbnb experience.
Above. Sam Baron – France - Bienvenus. Sam’s take on the “warm welcome” theme centers on the traditional flower bouquet, which you might give to a host to symbolize affection or love. He reworks and re-imagines it as a large bunch of flowers crafted in paper.
“Working with Airbnb is a true collaboration, as we share the same values on design thinking as a way to propose solutions,” said Sam Baron, head of Design at Fabrica.
Housewarming – Fabrica and Airbnb. Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company, partnered with the celebrated design think-tank Fabrica, to create ‘Housewarming’, an experiential installation.
Housewarming – Fabrica and Airbnb. Daniel Rous, UK – Tea. Daniel had fun with the very English ritual of drinking tea. He created an intricate, hand-blown glass tea station in the Palazzo Crespi ballroom and, because he knows people are very particular about their tea, added a graphic element and offered different strengths in a transparent glass.
Housewarming – Fabrica and Airbnb. Marcello Venturini, Italy – Toeletta. Marcello reinterpreted Toeletta, the ancient ritual of washing your hands or face. Each element of his Toeletta referenced the host city of Milan. He created a soap station next to Palazzo Crespi’s magnificent bathroom where guests were welcomed with three different natural hand-soaps produced in Bologna. These single-use soaps are based on traditional Milanese recipes and engraved with a word taken from the Milanese dialect.
Housewarming – Fabrica and Airbnb. Daniela Mesina, Italy – Cappuccino. Daniela referenced the Italian tradition of welcoming people into their home for a cup of coffee. She was stationed each morning in the Palazzo Crespi ballroom in charge of a sleek coffee machine. Guests were served tongue-in-cheek cappuccinos boasting portraits of Italian cultural icons that are somehow linked with coffee.
Palazzo Crespi - garden
Housewarming
– Fabrica and Airbnb. Aaron
Gillett, Australia – Biophilla. Australians
share a rich biodiversity of the country’s unique geography and ecology which
Aaron’s family uses to welcome guests, by offering plant cuttings. Aaron
continues his family tradition at Palazzo Crespi, offering visitors’ plant
cuttings from two native Australian vines the monstera and the spider plant.
Airbnb rental
Housewarming
– Fabrica and Airbnb. Alex
Rothera, USA – Stickball. Alex recalls his childhood in a poor part of
Philadelphia, where locals would play “stick ball” on the street using the
handle of a broom and a tennis ball cut in half. Alex recreated this game with
three different types of brooms in the Palazzo Crespi and invited visitors to
play.
Palazzo Crespi – The Best in Show