Architect Michele Perlini’s NO.MADE brings luxury to wanderlust

Luxury has made its way to the most off-track, isolated travel destinations - but there has still remained an unspoken need for the comforts of home. With NO.MADE, architect and designer Michele Perlini has bridged that gap. Defined as a micro-home, NO.MADE is a luxury mobile home that you can pack up and transport with ease to even the most spectacularly secluded location. The design was unveiled at Salone del Mobile in Milan earlier this year, and takes off on Perlini’s 2018 EDEN Luxury Portable Suite, which won an ICONIC Award for innovative architecture.

As ambitious as its compact size, the NO.MADE luxury mobile home matches Perlini’s commitment to sustainable design with luxury living. The front-facing façade is made up of clear, anti-reflective glass, held up on a corten steel framework - designed such that when the blinds are up, the viewer may feel immersed in the surroundings. The prototype was presented on a busy Milanese street during Salone del Mobile, but it is clear that NO.MADE is meant to be out in the wilderness - as a lake cabin, perhaps, or a beach-front retreat. The idea is to be one with nature but the materials Perlini has used also ensure that you leave minimal impact on your surroundings.

“The entire project was conceived from the outset as a completely sustainable model,” explains Perlini, whose studio has been dedicated to sustainable architecture and design for years. The home is energy-efficient, with walls made of high density mineral panels, and insulated with fibre cement. The furnishings are also made of all-natural materials and recycled Plexiglass.

While Perlini admits it was a challenge to maximise space, and bring design concepts to life given the limitations of sustainable materials - the layout itself appears effortless. The space is conducive for easy, natural movement and nothing about the furnishings suggests they were made to measure for a compact space. Perlini attributes this to his use of colour and material, “We thought of a minimal mood inside with a slightly vintage pop touch,” he explains. “The walls, the fabrics and the colour temperature of the lights are very domestic and warm.”

NO.MADE is not for the average traveller or a nature-enthusiast, but it does raise an interesting point about compact design. From its layout to its clever use of sustainable materials, NO.MADE is a proof that good, responsible design can come in any size and want for space does not ever need to hold you back. Perlini’s design ideology, for one, remains the same, no matter what size structure he works on. “I think that first of all a product should be useful, and make the people who use it happy,” he says, simply, before adding, “without compromising the resources of our planet.”