DAAA Haus celebrates ‘the silent power of nature’ with its installation Selva Viva at Milan Design Week
“Selva Viva is more than just a mere installation. Selva Viva is an ecosystem designed to remind visitors that nature is essential not only for its beauty but also for collective well-being.”
This is the concept at the heart of DAAA Haus studio’s installation for Fuorisalone 2025, an event on the Milan Design Week calendar.
Milan Design Week transforms the Italian city’s streets into a bustling hive of creativity, and, within a historic building on Via San Damiano 2 inside the Durini Design District is a lush space curated by the Malta-based studio – with offices in Milan and Ragusa – that demonstrates decorative artefacts and its own designer collaborative pieces.
The space is designed as a figurative salve for the soul, where visitors are invited to pause, unwind and reflect on the profound power of nature, in line with the themes of sustainability, technology and innovation embraced by this year’s edition of Salone del Mobile – the largest event of Milan Design Week.
“A full immersion in lush greenery, filtered light, and organic fragrances will allow visitors to appreciate the quiet power of nature,” says DAAA Haus, who partnered with landscaping company ILA for its use of natural, hand-treated and sculpted tree trunks with high-quality artificial foliage for its set-up.
“Selva Viva will serve as a manifesto for biophilic design, an invitation to integrate nature into our spaces in meaningful ways and underscoring that true design innovation does not replace nature but works in harmony with it.”
The space is designed as a figurative salve for the soul, where visitors are invited to pause, unwind and reflect on the profound power of nature, in line with the themes of sustainability, technology and innovation embraced by this year’s edition of Salone del Mobile – the largest event of Milan Design Week.
A display of distinct collaborations
On display at Selva Viva – open until 12th April – are a number of new and enduring projects that DAAA Haus has collaborated on with several strategic partners, including ‘Bloom’, a collection it designed for Contardi Lighting inspired by the Calla lily.
The outdoor lighting collection creates a sensory experience for gardens and green spaces that transforms into a decorative object when the light is off.
A new rug collection designed by DAAA Haus’s creative director Keith Pillow, Trame, has been unveiled. Designed for Cardex in collaboration with Indian carpet brand Jaipur Rugs, the collection features gentle patterns inspired by rolling hills and undulating landscapes, hand-crafted using natural fibres and time-honoured embroidery techniques.
The multi-purpose Hera collection designed for Palladio Concepts can also be viewed at the installation. Inspired by the last standing columns of the Greek temple built to honour the goddess Hera, each piece can be used as a pouffe, a plant pot, a storage container or a decorative column, making it a transformative item with a broad variety of uses.
A recent collaboration with Halmann reinforces the studio’s pursuit for sustainability. With Stonecutz – a collection of home accessories ranging from candle holders and bookends to trays made from discarded marble fragments – DAAA Haus was inspired by the significant surplus of high-quality material generated from luxury marble production.
“We transformed these remnants honouring craftsmanship and material integrity, merging past and future in objects of beauty and resilience.”
Drifting in between these artistic set-ups and tying them all together is a scent of the studio’s own making, 1983 Mediterranean Summer – a candle infused with notes of citrus, cinnamon, and seaside aromas “evoking a journey back to the romantic nostalgia of sun-drenched seaside days in 1983”, emphasising the multi-sensory experience at the heart of Selva Viva.
