Enduring forms in design through technology and craft

Salone del Mobile.Milan, especially within SaloneSatellite, the key topic was how digital tools transform production. Digital Craft.

The detail of the production process is the emerging focal point of the design world.The emphasis is no longer on the finished object, but on the process itself. Across SaloneSatellite, production was presented as something open, adjustable, and responsive. The focus was not only on the object, but on how it is made.

Russo Betak works with shell waste and biopolymers; printing in layers and hand-shaping while still warm. The process remains open until the final moment, reflecting an open production process. The material is not fixed at the point of printing; it remains responsive. The result is lightweight, almost fragile, yet structurally sound. What emerges is a transition between states rather than a finalised object.

IOUS Studio adopts a similar approach to production with clay. Using large-scale 3D printing in design, they treat clay as a material that can still react and change. The process is computational, but the outcome is not fully predetermined. Surfaces are not controlled to perfection. A degree of unpredictability remains, pointing to material behaviour in design. The material is allowed to perform rather than simply execute.

Jüngerkühn works on porcelain with robotic arms. Patterns are created digitally, yet the result is never the same. The system introduces variation instead of removing it. Each piece carries small differences that feel closer to craftsmanship than automation. The work sits between craftsmanship and automation. The surface records deviation rather than uniformity.

What brings these approaches together is not just technology; it is their visibility within a platform like Salone. Especially SaloneSatellite opens such experimental production approaches to discussion. These works are not shown as isolated objects, but as processes.

Machines are no longer just tools for efficiency. They are part of a process that remains open to material, variation, and adjustment. Control is no longer defined only by precision. It also includes response, deviation, and change.

Craft remains a part of the process. But its boundaries have expanded.

A point gaining increasing importance in the design world, the details of the production process.