Some materials hold more than form. They hold time.
During earlier visits to Milan Design Week, certain works stayed present not because of scale or spectacle, but because of the way they approached nature. Not as decoration, but as something fragile, almost untouchable.
The work of Marcin Rusak encapsulates natural elements within translucent layers of resin, forming objects that exist somewhere between furniture and fossil.
Within the context of Forum Florum, presented in 5Vie, flowers, stems and fragments are no longer alive, yet not entirely preserved. They shift, discolour and evolve over time. The object becomes a record rather than a fixed form.
What stands out is the tension between control and loss. The act of encapsulating suggests preservation, yet the material allows change. It is not about keeping nature intact, but about acknowledging its impermanence.
This introduces a different reading of natural materials within design. Moving away from freshness and growth, towards memory, ageing and transformation.
To give an impression of what to expect, these images are from last year during Milan Design Week 2025.
There is a quiet emotional charge in this approach. Especially when considering a background shaped by working closely with flowers, where the lifecycle is immediate and visible. These objects extend that moment, but never freeze it completely.
While mapping Milan Design Week 2026, it raises a clear question. What does it mean to design with nature, when permanence is no longer the goal?
Selection over completeness.
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