Children of the World

Sometimes literal translations just don't make it. Consider the "Contaminazioni" exhibit, presented at the Nhow hotel in Milan for three months in 2009.

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 3/1/2011 12:21:00 PM

Sometimes literal translations just don't make it. Consider the "Contaminazioni" exhibit, presented at the Nhow hotel in Milan for three months in 2009. There's absolutely no negative connotation of disease tied to the chairs and benches in the Contamina series by Federico Delrosso Architects. Instead, Federico Delrosso explains, "Design is a thought that, at times, produces beneficial contaminations, especially when it succeeds in involving seemingly distant subjects."

Children and video art certainly seem to fall into the "distant" category. After fabricating the seating prototypes-truncated pyramidal forms in lacquer, iron, Cor-Ten steel, or wool felt-Delrosso set them up on the gravel of the hotel's courtyard so that children could play around the installation in a performance imagined by an artist. A video-art piece, meanwhile, looped through scenes of fluttering butterflies.

After Milan, "Contaminazioni" traveled to the Istanbul Design Weekend, and Delrosso hopes to bring a version to New York to coincide with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. "The impact on my firm has been notable from a communications standpoint. Online coverage exposed me to a new audience," he says. Now that Extra is manufacturing the collection, proceeds from sales of the prototypes will benefit Save the Children.