On April 8, 2025, the global design industry's attention shifted to Milan, Italy. As the most influential event in the field of design, the Milan Design Week kicked off with a design exhibition themed "Sustainable Habitat " at the ADI Design Museum.
In this grand ceremony, Pablo appeared with two major works - the installation work "Shunde · Loong" and the cross-border cooperation with young artist and designer Feng Lai "Plane Tree", to convey to the world the profound thinking of Chinese enterprises on sustainable development with oriental wisdom and avant-garde design language, and opened a cultural dialogue across time and space.
ADI Design Museum
The ADI Design Museum in Milan is known as the "Temple of the Design", with a collection of classic Italian designs spanning half a century. Each piece carries the fusion of industrial civilization and humanistic spirit.
Inspired by the Loong Boat in the Lingnan intangible cultural heritage culture of China, Pablo's exhibition work "Shunde · Loong" combines seven furniture works into a winding Loong Boat shape, and endows each piece of furniture with a unique soul through the red, green, black, white, yellow and other traditional Loong Boat colors. The device not only shows Pablo's ultimate pursuit of design and technology, but also symbolizes Chinese enterprises' progress in the wave of globalization with the Loong Boat spirit of "unity, cooperation and brave struggle".
PABLO NOW | Lu Biaobiao SHUNDE·LOONG
"The Loong Boat is a symbol of the collective wisdom of the East, and the essence of 'Sustainable Habitat' is to build a symbiotic relationship between man and nature." Steven Feng, general manager of Pablo, said, "We hope to use furniture as a medium to let the world see the persistence of harmony and inheritance in Chinese culture." This concept coincides with the curator Massimiliano Mandarini's idea of curation.
He emphasized, "Pablo's creations perfectly balance tradition and innovation, rooted in cultural memory and pointing to the possibilities of future life.”
PABLO NOW | Lu Biaobiao SHUNDE·LOONG
If "Shunde · Loong" is a contemporary interpretation of traditional culture, then the "Plane Tree" cabinet jointly established by Pablo and Feng Lai is a more experimental crossborder exploration. Inspired by the peeling traces of plane tree bark on the streets of Shanghai, these ancient tree species transplanted from Europe a hundred years ago have formed mottled texture under the erosion of time, which has become a metaphor of "impermanence of life" in the eyes of artists.
PABLO NOW | Feng Lai Will I Shed Away
Feng Lai translated the texture of plane tree bark into design language: the mirror fragments cut by laser simulated the moment of bark peeling, and the audience stared at the "transformed self" in the incomplete reflection; The surface of the stacked cabinet is patterned with bark cracks, symbolizing the nonlinear flow of time;
The English question "Will I shed away?" in the mirror collage directly strikes at the empathy of Eastern and Western audiences towards the essence of life. This piece of work is not just a piece of furniture, but also an immersive philosophical experience. As Feng Lei said, "The shattered mirror is both the end and the starting point of a new life - the meaning of design is to tear apart conventions and make every 'peeling' an opportunity for dialogue.”
PABLO NOW | Feng Lai Will I Shed Away
To accurately present the "broken feeling", Pablo and Feng Lei have undergone dozens of experiments, combining traditional leather craftsmanship with laser cutting technology, ultimately allowing the bark texture to naturally "grow" on the cabinet.
This extreme pursuit of details is precisely the epitome of the brand gene of "culture as the core, innovation as the blade" of Pablo.
The core of the "Sustainable Habitat" theme exhibition at Milan Design Week is to explore the possibility of mutual benefit and coexistence between humans and nature. Pablo's exhibition works, from material selection to cultural expression, all reflect this concept"Plane Tree" cabinet is based on natural leather and recycled metal,and strives to find a balance between artistry and environmental protection.
Curator Dai Bei said in an interview, "Chinese home furnishing companies are moving from 'manufacturing' to 'smart manufacturing'. The uniqueness of Pablo lies in their integration of sustainable concepts throughout the entire product lifecycle from material research anddevelopment, process innovation to cultural storytelling, every step attempting to respond to global issues." This viewpoint coincides with market data: according to Grand View Research, the global market size of environmentally friendly furniture will exceed 80 billion US dollars by 2030, and China's research contribution in the field of sustainable design has accounted for one sixth of the world's total.
From Paris to Milan, from being seen to speaking out actively, Pablo's journey to the sea reflects the transformation of China's home furnishing industry. In the last century, Chinese companies knocked on the world door with OEM manufacturing; Nowadays, brands represented by Pablo are building global influence through the OBM model. As Massimiliano Mandarini observed, "China is no longer just the world's factory, but has cultivated independent design thinking and international dialogue capabilities.”
"Sustainable Habitat " is not only an exhibition, but also a bridge. When "Shunde · Loong" carries the soul of Lingnan culture into the ADI Design Museum, when the philosophical questions of plane tree in Shanghai echo under the spotlight of Milan, the design languages of the East and the West resonate quietly at this moment. Pablo's works prove that a sustainable future requires mutual learning and coexistence among different civilizations; Chinese design, with a humble and confident attitude, is providing the world with an Eastern answer.
