6:AM has been building quite a momentum, most notably since their collaboration with Bottega Veneta on the seating for the Summer 2026 runway show: blown glass stools, never done before at that scale. With their center piece are new designs across lamps and furniture, exciting experiments with glass that interpret Murano aesthetics with a fresh lens. A few days after our visit to the exhibition, we sat down with co-founder Edoardo Pandolfo at the Piscina to talk about how the collaboration with Bottega Veneta happened, how showing up at 6AM helped them to earn their respect with traditional glass makers in Venice and why repetition is their source of inspiration.
Edoardo Pandolfo and Francesco Palù from 6:AM.
My name is Edoardo Pandolfo and I am one of the two founders of 6:AM, a brand based in Milan and Venice. We are here at Piscina Romano, the setting for our exhibition at this year's Salone del Mobile: "Over and Over and Over and Over" - an exploration of how our pieces become architectures and large-scale installations through the repetition of a single module, our products. We are specialised in artistic glass - blown glass, fused glass, cast glass - so it's very much about light, natural light, and big dimensions.
This is your second show at a former swimming pool - last year Piscina Cozzi, this year Piscina Romano. What is it with you and swimming pools?
It was a chance, really. We got in contact with the semi-public company that manages unused buildings in Milan - spaces that no longer serve the functional purpose they were built for and are in search of a new meaning in the city. Last year we saw the underground dungeon of Piscina Cozzi, which is a beautiful, still-functioning pool in Milan, but the lower spaces were completely abandoned. We said, "Don't you have another space?" and they showed us this one. We thought it was too big at first, so we cleaned up Piscina Cozzi for the first show - and then during last year's Salone we confirmed this space for this year. That gave us more time to think about it and fill it with our pieces. It takes time to create a big show with a small team. We started working on it the day after last year's Salone ended.
At Piscina Romano.
Why 6:AM and not 6:PM?
I like both, honestly. But 6:AM is a tribute to the early days of our adventure, me and Francesco. We started as rookies in Murano, which is a very tough place to navigate. The artisans have been there for generations and they don't trust you easily, especially if you're young and you don't come from Murano. I come from Venice, the neighbouring island - so they'd say, "You speak our language, you're okay," but at the beginning they would only give us the first hours of the day, because the rest were booked by established clients.
We understood that showing up early was a way to earn their respect. If you arrive as early as they do, they're more inclined to listen to you, to explain things. They see the effort - you wake up at four, take the boat, it's raining, it's winter, it's dark and cold. You go with them, and they start opening up. That matters, because glass is a very complicated medium. Someone needs to explain things to you. Those first two hours of the day were fundamental for us to understand how glass actually worked, and that shaped our entire design practice afterwards. Sometimes we'd just go to watch, not even to make anything.
Your exhibition explores repetition as a creative force. At what point does it get boring - or does it never?
Repeating is not about creating - it's about perfecting. The creation of something might take two seconds, ten seconds. But refining it and bringing an idea to life takes a lot of repetition. You can have a thousand ideas, but if you can't bring them down to earth, they're useless.
In the literal sense: the artisans need to repeat the gestures of blowing or casting many times before they get it right. They have to repeat until they control the craft. We do the same with ideas - we repeat the way we design, the way we structure. Design is a small part; it's the original, most visible part. But everything behind it is just as important. We have a small, dedicated team, and every person repeats the same routines every day - logistics, administration, legal, trademark, packaging, branding, press - in order to keep a structure and build something lasting. You need to show up and do it. That's the creative force.
Does that thinking around repetition also carry into your personal life?
I go obsessive with songs. When I like one, I listen to it all day until it leaves my mind. But more broadly: I don't have a regular schedule. I might be in Venice on Monday and New York on Wednesday and then London. So I need routines, I need repetition, to keep my brain between my ears. Otherwise I'd go crazy.
glass stools by 6:AM, made for the Bottega Veneta Summer 26 show.
The centerpiece of the exhibition was created for the Bottega Veneta show last year - incredible work. How did a project like that come about?
A lot of attention was being poured towards us in the run-up to our 2025 Fuorisalone exhibition, Twofold Silence - not from the mass, but from people who work in this field. At a dinner during that time, I found myself sitting next to Bartolomeo Rongone, who was then CEO of Bottega Veneta. We talked, but not about work - just other things. At the end I invited him to the exhibition. He came. And separately, Bottega's architecture team had already independently wanted to visit the show. We ended up participating in a pitch for the seating of their summer 2026 fashion show. Louise Trotter, creative director at Bottega, chose to go entirely with our glass seats - the seats we designed, and that was it.
The execution was the most important part, and also the riskiest. The fact that 400 guests - very important people - had to sit on them without them breaking. One underestimates what it takes: the idea matters, but the execution by our team was flawless. The whole production ran through the summer. We delivered, and it went viral instantly.
Bottega Veneta Runway Show Summer 26.
You and Francesco work as a duo. What's the one design decision you always disagree on?
It's very natural, the way we interact in terms of design. I trust him on many things, he trusts me on others. The most important thing for us is the hierarchy of ideas - if it's clear that one idea is better than the other, we just don't discuss it. I'll say, "Your idea is better than mine," and drop it. If I'm not convinced, one of us will let it go.
We both did team sports for many years, and that left its mark. We both believe in the team before the individual - although one might argue the team is made of individuals. But for us, it's really about the team. Delegating is a fundamental part of how we work.
Bar Pieno, outside of the 6:AM exhibition.
What's overrated or underrated at MDW this year?
Milan right now is just wonderful. There's great energy everywhere. Yes, some people queue for hours for a toothpaste stick or a little gadget, but others queue for genuinely interesting things. Great exhibitions, great weather, great food. It's the most wonderful celebration of design in the world, and the more I travel and go to other design weeks, the more I want to invest in being here.
We can do interesting things because we're here, and I think that gives us a duty to do it well. Salone is made by participations like ours, all the names that show up and contribute something real.
