Big names in the architectural scene such as
David Chipperfield, Daniel Libeskind, Audrey Large and Philippe Starck created
funeral urns for the exhibition "
The Last Pot" by
Il Tornitore Matto by Alessi at the
Milan Design Week.
Michael Anastassiades, Michele De Lucchi, EOOS, Naoto Fukasawa, Giulio Iacchetti and Mario Tsai also created urns for the show aimed at redefining the concept of the containers used to hold the ashes of cremated individuals after death.
The Alessi design guide - an Italian design company founded by Alberto Alessi known for transforming everyday objects into pieces of functional art - created the exhibition to explore the possibilities of an object that goes unnoticed by designers, as well as wanting to surprise people. "We create them [containers] for countless purposes, constantly seeking to make them more beautiful, better built, and perfectly suited to the intended use," explained Alessi. "However, there was one container we had not explored, a category of design that had received surprisingly little attention: funeral urns," he continued. In parallel with the exhibition, Alessi created a book that will further explore the theme of The Last Pot. Fukasawa designed an urn in the shape of a traditional house made from unglazed clay, which features windows and cutouts in the central door. De Lucchi also explored the house shape to demonstrate the idea that the container is the final home of a person. The professional created a pair of urns - one for humans and the other for pets - made of oak, birch, ash, and spruce. Starck created a pair of contrasting urns. Named "The Last Spotengraved glass cube with a head on top of the geometric shape. The urn Bone to Bone from the professional, more playful, looks like a metallic bone and a luminescent pillow, suggesting the object’s purpose to hold ashes of pets. Chipperfield, in turn, designed a silver-plated steel container with a flattened spherical shape to be "a discreet presence for deeply personal moments". Similarly to Chipperfield's rounded metal urn, Anastassiades followed the same line but dared to choose the shape of an egg. EOOS also opted to create a metal urn, called Totem and capable of being separated into three functional pots. In contrast to the metal urns, Large, who was named emerging designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023, created a piece made of pink marble. Entitled Hidden in Life, Tsai's urn was described as "a discreet and intimate everyday object". Designed to stay on a shelf, the reflective urn has the shape of a large book and a lid that can be opened. Libeskind designed the so-called Khora to "integrate harmoniously into contemporary projects", as it "explores the concept of immortality through an essential and universal shape: a cube within a square." Viewed from the front, it looks 2D, but from the side, it becomes clear that the cube is supported by two glass panels. Finally, Iacchetti's urn is a black container with a "soft shape" called Teardrop. The piece is positioned on a marble base that allows its display in various ways. 
