{"id":269174,"date":"2025-12-16T15:27:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=canvasflow&p=269174"},"modified":"2025-12-19T00:13:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:13:28","slug":"creative-voices-formafantasma","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/creative-voices-formafantasma\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Voices: The Design Duo Behind Formafantasma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Marking Cassina\u2019s 60th anniversary producing Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Periand furniture, \u201cStaging Modernity,\u201d a performance and installation at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber during Milan Design Week 2025. Photography by Omar Sartor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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December 16, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Dan Howarth<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Creative Voices: The Design Duo Behind Formafantasma<\/h1>\n\n\n
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Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi are among the most inquisitive and intellectually rigorous Italian designers working today. Everything that enters their orbit is meticulously examined, questioned, and then artfully reimagined for the benefit of both people and the planet. Born in Emilia-Romagna and Sicily, respectively, the two met as students at Florence\u2019s Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche. After earning master\u2019s degrees at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands\u2014where they led the GEO-Design department until 2023\u2014they founded Formafantasma<\/a> in 2009, their Milan-based studio distinguished by the curiosity, playfulness, and borderline obsession it brings to every project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The studio\u2019s name was inescapable during Milan Design Week 2025<\/a>, from the Drafting Futures Arena, a dedicated discussion space at the Salone del Mobile, to a performance-based exhibition for Cassina at a theater in the city center. Formafantasma\u2019s ongoing collaborations with heritage Italian brands like Prada and Rubelli also extend far beyond product collections, unearthing and expressing the DNA of these historic companies. A recent fascination with the relationship between domesticity and modernity, and its legacy across contemporary systems and production, has also guided the firm\u2019s commercial work for Artek and Vitra as well as collectible design for the gallery Friedman Benda. Throughout the duo\u2019s practice, however, they\u2019re always careful to avoid clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Andrea Trimarchi (left) and Simone Farresin, life partners and cofounders of Milan-based studio Formafantasma, in the city\u2019s Bagatti Valsecchi Museum. Photography by Gregorio Gonella.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For example, Farresin and Trimarchi\u2019s deep sense of care for the environment has driven painstaking technical research into easily repairable modular lighting and spurred imaginative literature aimed at educating the next generation on climate issues. Their approach eschews typical \u201ccorporate sustainability,\u201d and instead aims to redefine the cultural structures that shape our economy and production. We spoke to them recently about project highlights from the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formafantasma Cofounders Talk Design, Collaboration, and More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Interior Design: Which have been particularly exciting projects for you over the past year?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Simone Farresin: The ongoing \u201cPrada Frames\u201d talks series has become something we truly enjoy. It\u2019s rare to work with a brand where you can do something consistent, thoughtful, and genuinely engaging. It allows us to focus deeply on subjects we care about. Cassina\u2019s \u201cStaging Modernity\u201d was both peculiar and adventurous for us\u2014intellectually stimulating and aligned with the brand\u2019s objectives. On a smaller scale, we developed a children\u2019s publication, Down Under.<\/em> It may not have had the same budget as the others, but it allowed us to explore our interests in a new and meaningful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marking Cassina\u2019s 60th anniversary producing Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Periand furniture, \u201cStaging Modernity,\u201d a performance and installation at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber during Milan Design Week 2025. Photography by Omar Sartor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: \u201cStaging Modernity\u201d was an unusual theatrical presentation marking the 60th anniversary of Cassina producing works by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand. How did you conceptualize it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SF: We believe the past should always be viewed critically, which doesn\u2019t mean dismissively. The work of Perriand and Corbusier is incredible, but it\u2019s still a product of its time. It\u2019s interesting to reinterpret that through contemporary lenses\u2014ecological, cultural, and philosophical. During Milan Design Week, we feel a responsibility to honor the spaces we occupy. That led to a performance in a theater instead of a conventional installation. The format let us explore the relationship between bodies and chairs\u2014not literally, but as a way to deconstruct icons of modernism. We involved thinkers and writers we admire: Emanuele Coccia, Andr\u00e9s Jaque, and Feifei Zhou. At a certain point, we handed it over to director Fabio Cherstich to respond to our ideas. It was nerve-racking but beautiful to let it go. The result was surprising in the best way\u2014unpredictable, collaborative, alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A performer dressed in Jil Sander costuming. Photography by Omar Sartor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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At \u201cStaging Modernity,\u201d images of the natural world in dialogue with iconic pieces reflecting Corbusier\u2019s \u201cmachines for living\u201d dictum. Photography by Omar Sartor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Animal model figures populating the display platforms. Photography by Omar Sartor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ID: How did the Down Under<\/em> book take shape, and why is educating young people about environmentalism important to you?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Trimarchi: We were looking to make something serious and respectful, not patronizing. We all had those books as children that seemed boring at first but became fascinating later\u2014that\u2019s the feeling we sought. True change requires rethinking today\u2019s worldview, and education is where that begins. It\u2019s meant to be transgenerational\u2014something adults can learn from, too. It\u2019s personal, even playful, with stories that reflect our own perspectives\u2014and even include our dog!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A spread from Down Under featuring petrography by Roland Dreesen. Photography courtesy of Formafantasma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A mockup of their picture book, Down Under: The Curious Fall of a Boy Who Knows Nothing and Becomes Everything, published last summer by Nero Editions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Another spread with an illustration by Cl\u00e9ment Vuillier. Photography courtesy of Formafantasma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ID: Tell us about your \u201cFormation\u201d exhibition of furniture and lighting with Friedman Benda gallery in New York.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AT: Marc Benda asked us to think about \u201carchetypes,\u201d so we looked at laptops to inform lighting proportions, and the \u201cplank\u201d as a timeless construction element. More importantly, we asked what it means to design for a gallery today. We didn\u2019t want to make amorphous, overly expressive \u201cgallery pieces\u201d\u2014the kind of blobby forms that have become clich\u00e9s. Instead, we aimed for something rigorous, thoughtful, and expressive in a quieter way. You don\u2019t need a strange form to make something meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Shakers: A World in the Making,\u201d an exhibition this summer at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Photography by Bernard Strauss.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: What was your approach for \u201cThe Shakers: A World in the Making\u201d at Germany\u2019s Vitra Design Museum this summer?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SF: We\u2019ve always loved the Shakers, but this project let us go beyond the iconic furniture to consider its inherently female-oriented origins. We were drawn to the idea of textile labor\u2014the everyday work of ironing, folding, and caring for linens. That became the basis for the exhibition: using modules derived from tablecloths and bed linens in simple gestures, such as hanging cloth on string to define space. We wanted it to feel deconstructed, almost like a toolkit that could be folded away, rather than a heavily designed installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Rubelli, Martora polyester velvet on the chair, with Zigzag embroidered cotton\/polyester\/acrylic in background. Photography by Claudia Zalla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sophie polyester Jacquard in background and Frank polyestervelvet upholstery for Rubelli. Photography by Gianluca Bellomo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ID: You\u2019ve been working extensively with Flos<\/a> lighting. What\u2019s your latest collaboration?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SF: SuperWire, one of the industrial projects we\u2019re most proud of. It took four years to develop. The most innovative aspect is that users can repair or replace the LEDs themselves\u2014something rare in contemporary lighting. The technology is unique, using elongated light sources instead of standard strips, and the design evolved naturally from that. The objects have a slightly architectural look, with many visible screws, which we like because they feel both forward-looking and familiar. It\u2019s about transparency and circularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The SuperWire installation at the Flos showroom in Milan. Photography by Marco Cappelletti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: What themes or ideas do you want to explore next?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AT: We\u2019re increasingly interested in influencing production systems rather than just designing products. We\u2019re still fascinated by modernity\u2014maybe even obsessed\u2014and how its values continue to shape our thinking. We want to keep exploring what modernism erased, especially in relation to domesticity. And internally, we\u2019re rethinking how our studio operates, making space for self-initiated research so it doesn\u2019t get overshadowed by commercial work. Finding that balance is our next big goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A cherrywood and acrylic chandelier from \u201cFormation,\u201d an exhibition of limited-edition furniture and lighting in collaboration with New York gallery Friedman Benda. Photography by Marco Cappelletti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A table lamp from SuperWire, a collection of consumerreplaceable LED-strip fixtures for Flos. Photography courtesy of Flos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From the Teorema fabric collection for Rubelli, Kyoto acrylic\/cotton\/silk drapery and Sherlock wool\/cotton\/viscose upholstery. Photography by Claudia Zalla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The collection\u2019s Sharky polyester\/nylon drapery and Scratch viscose\/cotton upholstery. Photography by Claudia Zalla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Spine, a wall-mounted bookshelf in natural ash for Cassina. Photography by Luca Merli. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The SuperWire floor lamp, a tribute to Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni\u2019s classic 1954 Luminator. Photography by Claudia Zalla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Incorporating cherry, aluminum, acrylic, and linoleum, the table lamp from \u201cFormation.\u201d Photography by Marco Cappelletti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n