Power, Poetry, and a Sofa Named Beluga — ATRA Rules MDW 2025
Where Brutalist Poetry Meets the Future: ATRA at Alcova, Milan Design Week 2025
Every April, Milan becomes more than a city — it becomes a moodboard. And this year, tucked within the evocative walls of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi during Milan Design Week, a certain installation doesn’t just catch your eye — it catches your breath. Presented by the elegant Galerie Soleille, ATRA’s presentation at Alcova 2025 is a sensory symphony of sculptural presence, material poetry, and unapologetic design boldness.
This isn’t just furniture. It’s philosophy in form.
Welcome to Soundscape — a curated, visceral exhibition where the raw, ancient textures of lava stone meet the futuristic whispers of brutalist elegance. In this immersive landscape, ATRA unfolds its language of design, speaking fluently in the dialects of memory, power, and imagination.
Photo curtesy of ©ATRA
The Seductive Dialogue Between Form and Function
At the center of the installation is the now-iconic Beluga Sofa, designed by ATRA’s visionary founder Alexander Díaz Andersson. Monumental yet inviting, sculptural yet soft, the Beluga is less a seat and more a sanctuary. Nearby, a geometric travertine side table stands like an altar — grounding, essential, and deeply refined.
But it’s the SKIN, a limited-edition silicone shell designed for the Beluga, that elevates this moment into conceptual art. It’s both an armor and a gesture of vulnerability — a poetic reminder that even design needs protection. SKIN envelops the sofa while sealing its narrative, a metaphor for permanence in a world obsessed with ephemerality. ATRA dares to ask: what if luxury wasn’t just seen, but sealed?
ATRA: Designing for 2100, Living for Today
Founded in a fusion of Swedish sensibility and Mexican soul, ATRA has carved out a distinct presence in the world of collectible design. Rooted in centuries-old craftsmanship and driven by future-forward vision, the studio redefines what it means to create timeless pieces in an age of fast everything.
You may have seen ATRA’s celebrated Earth Year 2100 collection at Design Miami/Basel, or sipped at the UNESCO award-winning Ilis restaurant in New York, cocooned in ATRA’s atmospheric interiors. This is the same ethos now quietly pulsing through the alcoves of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi — bold, sculptural, serene.
Founder Alexander Díaz Andersson, who splits his time between Mexico and Los Angeles, distills a life of global movement into every line and curve. His design signature? A magnetic interplay of brutalism and sensuality — part sculpture, part soul.
More Than an Installation
At Alcova, where each room is a portal, ATRA’s space is a meditative crescendo. You don’t merely view the works; you feel them. They ground you. They make you pause. They remind you that design, at its best, is not decoration — it’s experience.
Presented with the grace and finesse of Galerie Soleille, this installation isn’t just a highlight of Milan Design Week 2025. It’s a quiet revolution — a whispered reminder that the future of design will not be loud, but deeply felt.
Because true design doesn’t shout. It resonates.
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