Isola Design Festival 2025 energises Milan with 'Conscious Objects' at Isola

At Isola Design Festival 2025’s new location, BasicVillage, the exhibition Conscious Objects illustrates the district’s overarching theme Design is Human with objects that embody an element of sentience. Conscious Objects, on view from April 7 - 13, 2025, within BasicVillage, which is a former rubber factory, is a collective design exhibition curated by Elif Resitoglu and the Isola Studio team. It is among the seven exhibitions on view at BasicVillage.

Isola Design Festival, part of Milan Design Week 2025, hosts events and exhibitions that intend to acknowledge the evolved human element in design. Citing the progression that humanity has made—from acquiring ancient skills to developing modern technologies—over time, the team at Isola acknowledges both the good and bad impact of such changes. Against this ambivalent reality, Isola Design Festival, now in its ninth edition, urges people to “embrace change by combining human craftsmanship with digital innovation and technologies, while keeping real people at the centre of the design process.”

Hence, Isola’s theme Design is Human, too, is a reflection of the relationship between humans and design, a connection that the Isola Design Group seeks to spotlight and append. With the showcase of engaging, aesthetic and functional designs that utilise innovative technologies, digital processes, artisanal crafts and locally sourced materials and comply with the ethics of social design and environmental responsibility, the design festival seeks to "inspire a shift from traditional design to a broader, human centred approach".

Conscious Objects does so with the showcase of design works by 40 international creatives. These objects are designed to engage the visual, aural, tactile, olfactory and gustatory senses of those entering the gallery space. Further, some pieces on display also encapsulate reactive receptors that get activated upon human movement or interaction. "Showcasing visionary designers and innovators, the exhibition merges sustainability, functionality and playfulness with digital, robotic and human craftsmanship,” the exhibition text promises.

Designed using innovative and ethically sourced materials, the pieces on display are designed with a human-centric approach to balance flexibility, experience and technology. Further, the exhibition connects visitors with the creative and technical processes behind these creations via screens that display product insights, production footage and interactive elements. Further, the olfactory identity of the exhibition is curated by contemporary Italian perfumery Narici. It features the fragrance Siena, made with Tuscan tobacco, diffused through Integra Fragrances technology. The design exhibition also features glass bricks by Carro, a leading expert in glass brick craftsmanship with over 50 years of experience in the industry.

STIR spotlights some invigorating presentations from the exhibition.

Designed to play

Ilaria Critelli, based in Milan, Italy, comes with Face to Face, a collection of objects that come alive only upon interaction. “We live in a frantic era that disconnects us from our deepest essence, making it difficult to recognise and accept our shadow side. In this context, the seven deadly sins emerge as emblematic representations of human weaknesses. My thesis reinterprets the seven deadly sins, traditionally seen as flaws, as manifestations of human complexity and opportunities for growth,” the Italian designer shares. Hence, a wearable table ‘Consensus’ designed as a counter to sloth comes alive when the user moves around with it, while another table ‘Contact’ can only be balanced when embraced, hence transforming the idea of touch as a means for the fulfillment of lust to a gesture of empathy and affection. The ‘Controll’ table facilitates control on gluttony, the wearable seat ‘Confrontation’ encourages self-reflection to overcome wrath, the ‘Confidence’ seat for two ushers trust to conquer greed and lastly, the ‘Comfort’ table encourages the dissolution of pride and envy.

A modular system of magnetic wooden rings that encourages playful exploration. Lee Shmeltz’s A form of one’s own / Human Object explores the relationships between humans and the objects around them through a system of symbiotic furniture. It’s a system that cannot exist without the user's actions and attention, hence exemplifying designs wherein humans are active participants.

The act of play is further appended by Martina Gentile’s ORTO, a game designed to bring players closer to the world of plants. The game leads players to taste, recognise and experiment with real ingredients, building a deeper connection with food and learning about them without even realising it. Vienna-based Natalia-Anastazia Bakula’s Other realities is a cardboard game that promotes empathetic understanding by simulating everyday situations wherein players are forced to enter the reality of other people and understand their perspective and emotions.

Further, Zhichen Qian, based out of Shanghai, China, comes to the design fair with  Jiaobei Gacha, an intelligent capsule machine capable of fortune-telling conversations, psychological states’ analysis and related services. The machine, which a user can interact with, is based on the South Fujian Jiaobei ritual integrated with Japan's Gashapon culture. Yile Zhang’s VAT IN A BRAIN is a device that senses the user’s emotions and visualises a corresponding emotional creature to reflect the same.

Musical innovations

Yarden Shahar’s VS.WAV is an interactive, intuitive musical instrument that invites users to connect with the device via their body and movements. Sungjun Yu’s SOUND POD, on the other hand, allows users to approach sound consciously by immersing themselves in its sound. When a person approaches the SOUND POD, it recognises human presence and generates sound. Meanwhile, Dina Lebbar’s Majmaa is a circular musical oak table engraved with calligraphic motifs and 36 brass characters inlaid on the tabletop. The brass letters emit a musical note upon touching, hence acting like a synthesiser. Fœssura, legno di nota by Officine Condor is a unique speaker that merges nature and technology. Made out of oakwood, it combines stereo sound with natural materials and innovative vibration technology, allowing sound to diffuse organically without visible speakers.

Consciously inclusive

Alessandra Galli, who hails from Delft, the Netherlands, presents OnCue, a computer keyboard for people with Parkinson’s disease. Galli’s design features an ergonomic, modular system with integrated sensory cueing that reduces mistakes and frustration, hence ensuring independent usage.

Ethical and sustainable

Industrial designer Davide Balda’s Archeomaterico studio showcases Telare la Materia, a project aimed at researching new methods and processes to reduce the negative impact of the textile industry on the environment. Further, it promotes the disposal of waste in the regions where it is produced, instead of shipping it to third-world countries. Under the project, Balda proposes the transformation of unsold (defective) garments and fabrics via a grinding process into synthetic and organic textile fibres that can become raw materials for usage as both a building material and new fabric, albeit after due processing.

London-based Ana Bridgewater’s design studio Abalon’s showcase comprises an innovative lighting installation crafted from 3D-printed bio Corallo, a new porcelain material developed by the designer during her internship. It is made using locally sourced low-impact materials. On the other hand, Biomaterials Library showcases biomaterial samples and design objects created by Agnė Kučerenkaitė, Austėja Platūkytė, Dijuota Žilytė, Ekopolimeras, Evelina Kudabaitė, INDI, Indrė Spitrytė-Mikuckė, Katarina Kruus, Sarmite Polakova and Viltė Adomavičiūtė.

Madrid-based creative studio Feral presents The Eye, which is made using waste. The object’s translucent structure interacts with light, hence transforming the space with every hour. Further, its appearance transforms as one moves around it. Michela Puglia’s Angelis, on the other hand, is a footwear reimagined from whisky’s waste and Beijing-based Yuya Zhou’s Bloomglow is a lamp design made out of bioplastic .

Other projects that are material conscious include Sølvbergbols’ Paper Matter, Annah-Ololade Sangosanya's Fungal Skins: Macro, Patch Design’s  Ocean Weave Series, Oliwia Ledzinska’s MOD and Nima Biodesign’s WIM - Wheat Innovation Material.

Built to adapt

Marie van der Kroft’s design studio, Atelier Makr, showcases Pressence metal lamps at the exhibition. These lamps emerge through the natural tension of material, while Lynn Gong’s Height Hacks is a unique chair design featuring rollers that adjust once a person sits on it. Japan’s Yosuke Shimano showcases Take 5 Rubber Project, an artisanal silicone that can be kneaded by hand and cured in a household toaster oven.

Tech in design

Eliane Levy’s Digital Folds is a project aimed at shortening the smocking process by utilising 3D-printed tools. Meanwhile, US-based Human Accounts’ LOBE.01 is a sculptural take on the traditional paper lantern. For this project, the designers employed computational design to generate a new iteration for each lamp, hence ensuring that each product is unique and non-identical.

Yu Xinnan’s  Imagine Memories is aproject that acts as a text and visual generative inquiry into AI’s imagination of human memories, where an AI-driven memory imaginator engages in intimate conversations with users, transforming personal recollections into fluid, speculative visual landscapes. These conversations shed light on AI’s role in human memory formation—not just as a passive archive but as a creative force that reshapes, reinterprets, and co-authors our collective experiences.

Heritage reinterpreted

The CompoStable Lamp by Eva Korae, who is based out of Limassol, Cyprus, is a desktop lamp made using a thermoplastic material that was widely used in the 17th century Europe. The production of Korae’s lamp via artisanal procedures attests to the material’s relevance in creating contemporary shapes. Mini Karake by Studio Tuut is a modern reimagination of the traditional Karake, a copper apparatus used in the production of Arak and distilled waters like Mazaher and Mawared, in Lebanon.

Beyond the aforementioned showcases at the fair are South Africa-based Ksusha Fedya’s attention! sets, which comprises limited edition interior design pieces that are sculpturally construed to hold incense and candles. Meanwhile, Matthew Berkshire’s Whish is a swing seat crafted for transition areas, side seating, bar seating and lounge areas. It reimagines the playground swing for an indoor space, reigniting one’s inner child. Brno-based Monolit presents funerary vessels made out of natural materials, hence offering meaningful and aesthetic options for memorial rites; Brazil’s Murilo Weitz presents Bird’s Nest Collection, a series of sculptural baskets made out of handwoven natural fibres and brass wire.

Some functional outputs at the design event that sensorially append to the visitors’ experience include NOI Creative’s FLOW collection, Shaghayegh Ranjbar’s teCHxlight, Siyu Li’s Traveling Vase I and Studio Eggi’s EGGI Kitchen collection.

Keep up with STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2025, where we spotlight the most compelling exhibitions, presentations and installations from top studios, designers and brands. Dive into the highlights of Euroluce 2025 and explore all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5Vie, Brera, Isola, Durini and beyond—alongside the faceted programme of Salone del Mobile.Milano this year.