Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: Formafantasma revisits the masculine codes of modernist design
Formafantasma wins a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025, for its Milan exhibition ‘La Casa Dentro’, which took to task the inherent masculinity and conservatism at the heart of modernism


The presence of Formafantasma within the design industry reached levels of near-ubiquity in 2024. Cynics might say the breadth of their involvement demonstrates a lack of courage and imagination on behalf of brands. We heartily object. The rigour and quality of Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin’s work is consistently relevant, always fascinating, urgent, even. They stand apart and, excitingly, their mode of critical digging into the systemic forces of life is inspiring a new generation of design progeny to follow suit. For brands, working with Formafantasma is like therapy: the past is mined and overturned to pave the way for a leaner present and a cleaner future.
So Formafantasma’s place on the Wallpaper* Design Awards podium this year was never in question. The project that we have chosen to award was a curiously moving exhibition at ICA Milano, curated by Alberto Salvadori. ‘La Casa Dentro’ (The Home Within) took to task the inherent masculinity and conservatism at the heart of modernism, no less. Modernism was celebrated for its radical departure from what came before; a post-war world needed a new ideology and it had the appetite, imagination and industrial capability to realise it. Modernity meant efficiency, sobriety, rationality. At the crux of ‘La Casa Dentro’ was the question: what was left behind?
Formafantasma's ‘La Casa Dentro’ exhibition wins a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025
The answer was presented as decoration, ornamentation, idiosyncratic detail and sentimental charm. Across furniture and lighting, constructed principally with tubular steel – that enduring emblem of modernism – Formafantasma introduced wooden planks and silk upholstery, embellished with surprising colour, in places embroidered with dainty floral motifs. These moves represented the intrinsic warmth of domesticity, holding space (if you will) for the personal within the essential or universal that those modernists strove to achieve. The designers described their impetus to ‘queer the codes of modernist design’. The juxtaposition was powerful: emotional, intellectual and profoundly memorable.
A version of this article appears in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.

Hugo is a design critic, curator and the co-founder of Bard, a gallery in Edinburgh dedicated to Scottish design and craft. A long-serving member of the Wallpaper* family, he has also been the design editor at Monocle and the brand director at Studioilse, Ilse Crawford's multi-faceted design studio. Today, Hugo wields his pen and opinions for a broad swathe of publications and panels. He has twice curated both the Object section of MIART (the Milan Contemporary Art Fair) and the Harewood House Biennial. He consults as a strategist and writer for clients ranging from Airbnb to Vitra, Ikea to Instagram, Erdem to The Goldsmith's Company. Hugo has this year returned to the Wallpaper* fold to cover the parental leave of Rosa Bertoli as Global Design Director.
-
Warp Records announces its first event in over a decade at the Barbican
‘A Warp Happening,' landing 14 June, is guaranteed to be an epic day out
By Tianna Williams
-
Cure your ‘beauty burnout’ with Kindred Black’s artisanal glassware
Does a cure for ‘beauty burnout’ lie in bespoke design? The founders of Kindred Black think so. Here, they talk Wallpaper* through the brand’s latest made-to-order venture
By India Birgitta Jarvis
-
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be shown at Tate Modern
The 42-panel quilt, which commemorates those affected by HIV and AIDS, will be displayed in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in June 2025
By Anna Solomon
-
Aboard Gio Ponti's colourful Arlecchino train in Milan, a conversation about design with Formafantasma
The design duo boards Gio Ponti’s train bound for the latest Prada Frames symposium at Milan Design Week
By Laura May Todd
-
The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 winners are…
Find every Wallpaper* Design Award 2025 winner here, and in the February print issue, spanning art, architecture, beauty, design & interiors, fashion, tech, travel and watches & jewellery. Watch the Wallpaper* editors talk about the judging process and the themes that unite this year's winners
By Bridget Downing
-
Our highlights from Paris Design Week 2025
Wallpaper*’s Head of Interiors, Olly Mason, joined the throngs of industry insiders attending the week’s events; here’s what she saw (and liked) at Paris Déco Off and Maison&Objet in the City
By Anna Solomon
-
Florim’s new ceramic surface collection is an ode to tactility
A primal pleasure, Matteo Thun and Benedetto Fasciana’s SensiTerre collection of ceramic flooring and cladding surfaces for Florim is a Wallpaper* Design Award winner
By Hugo Macdonald
-
Isabel + Helen on bringing the Wallpaper* Design Awards to life
Step behind the scenes of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 cover. Designed by Isabel + Helen, it is a welcome reminder that we still have magic in our own minds and hands
By Hugo Macdonald
-
Discover Interni Venosta, the new furniture label where craft and beauty speak for themselves
Interni Venosta, the new furniture label of Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, is a perfectly pitched celebration of craft, quality and nostalgia- winning a Wallpaper* Design Award
By Hugo Macdonald
-
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: the best furniture and design objects for 2025
The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 present the best new furniture and interior accessories, while global design director Hugo Macdonald and head of interiors Olly Mason reveal what makes a winner
By Hugo Macdonald
-
Wallpaper* 2025 Design Awards issue is on sale now – and full of star turns
Welcome to the Wallpaper* 2025 Design Awards issue; get your copy to discover the best in design, fashion, technology, architecture, interiors, travel and art
By Bill Prince