Highlights from our Alcova exhibit at Milan Design Week (April 16-21)
Hosted by ALCOVA1 at the Villa Bagatti Valsecchi2 for Milan Design Week 2024, we transformed a wing of this historic villa into an exhibition space that showcased a new collection of wearables produced under Studio, our innovation lighthouse where ideas are brought to life with brands that exemplify the future of craft.
The Exhibit
“It’s an Italian villa! We need more romance.” said Lillian Hardy, our art director. With Cooper Gill at the helm along with versostudio and the rest of our amazing team3, a freewheeling effort was made to design an experience that read like a love letter from earth.
Shoes emerged from dunes as a nod to volcanology and Fire of Love. A double arch colonnade bifurcated the room, with the back-of-house inspiring technical curiosity through various touchscreens and touchpoints. Attendees were encouraged to play with objects and materials and test drive Studio OS for the first time.
Our Vision: Born from Powder
A thin layer of powder4 is spread across the bed, selectively sintered with hot light. This process repeats itself layer by layer, thousands of layers at a time, tuned at the voxel level, until a recognizable form emerges from the dust. Like a buried artifact, the printed object is excavated from TPU powder and thoroughly cleaned in preparation for finishing and assembly. This method of 3D printing is called Powder Bed Fusion, and it’s a mesmerizing process. Christy Lai, who leads software at HILOS, calls this powder “shoes in the raw”.
To juxtapose: have you ever seen an active volcano throw pyroclastic ash into the air? This fallen ash, or tephra deposit, is the raw material of creation. It’s a journey from the center of the earth to the liberated surface as additive poetics of form. Our landscape has been printing 24/7 since the beginning of time, and with it, co-authoring every chapter of the human condition onto geologic record. We too, are printed from these particles, or as Carl Sagan would say: cooked in the hearts of stars. The volcano is earth’s original 3D printer.
The dunes embody the analog of modern creation, and our mission was to spark a dialogue using the material that connects us to Earth and to each other. It’s still awe-inspiring to imagine that a pile of sand or TPU powder could somehow transform into your favorite wine glass or 3D-printed sneaker. While nature is a true inventor, it takes human ingenuity to invent the tools that transform these primitives into wearable art, and human responsibility to ensure our methods are sustainable for a greener future. And this is where Studio OS comes in.
Hello, Studio OS
During our time in Milan, we unveiled a new product creation tool to the public. Studio OS is the first generative design software to leverage AI models trained on 3D footwear, turning concepts into wearable realities with uncompromising speed, flexibility, and control.
