62nd Edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano
The new frontier of the Salone del Mobile.Milano: to be an open ecosystem and experience capable of connecting and offering a great many visions of the future to the design community.
Evolution and innovation are the key words for the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, which from a strictly trade fair event is increasingly becoming an inclusive, value-based, responsible context and fabric, generating relationships, narratives and projects relevant to the design community all year round.
The 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will take place at Rho Fiero Milano from 16th to 21st April, not only bringing “beautiful” and “well made” products back onto a uniquely important international stage, but doing so with a new, bold, literally “out of the box” approach, a necessary condition for innovating itself and evolving. A challenge that has called for vision, listening, the ability to analyse, enthusiasm curiosity and a good dose of resilience and elasticity to bring benefits to the entire design system with a view to constantly improving the trade fair experience. All this within the context and for the good of ecological transition.
The upshot has been the relaunch of the optimisation of the layout and visitor paths in EuroCucina and the International Bathroom Exhibition, thanks to the contribution of neuroscience and the adoption of a human-at-the-centre philosophy; a total redistribution of the pavilions with a view to grouping the exhibitors by content and visitor target so as to amplify the value and meaning of the visitor experience; an exceptional, packed and multidisciplinary cultural offering throughout the entire event; a constantly evolving communication campaign which, by harnessing artificial intelligence, picks up on the conversations of the international design community; the collaboration with the Department and School of Design at Politecnico di Milano University, in a bid to study the Salone-as ecosystem, exploring the phenomenon and its socio-economic impact on the region. Added to this are the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of SaloneSatellite with an exhibition at Triennale Milano which goes beyond the traditional exhibition canons, and will be a very real Wunderkammer of objects, prototypes, sketches, stories, images and testimonials.
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “Capturing new trends, the evolution of an entire sector, by involving and listening to communities near and far, identifying new approaches, methodologies and technologies, experimenting, being on the frontier, as they say: this is still the ambition of the Salone de/ Mobile today. Neuroscience, artificial intelligence, new formats and paths, a unitary but widespread cultural project, encompassing consistency and multi-disciplinarity. David Lynch’s thinking rooms, the Salotto NY installation that takes us underwater, using poetry and numbers to take stock of the state of the art of the bathroom industry. Then there are the talks with a large number of guests, including the Pritzker Prize-winner Francis Kere and the visionary performances of artists and food designers: everything has been designed to offer visitors and exhibitors an exceptional experience in terms of content and container, impossible to replicate except here, at the Salone di Milano, unthinkable to miss, even though it is not limited to a single week, but is spread throughout the whole year thanks to the driving and inclusive force of our digital platform.”
The 2024 events will bring together more than 1,900 exhibitors, including 600 young talents under 35 and 22 design schools. The Salone will create worlds – the Salone lnternazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Workplace3.0, S.Project, EuroCucina with FTK, the International Bathroom Exhibition and SaloneSatellite – the single storey layout, the aesthetic paths, the experiential spaces and the rest and relaxation areas will be renewed; there will be conferences and round tables with international guests, vertical workshops on hot design topics and formative meetings for young people; there will be immersive and interactive site-specific installations for learning about the state of the art of the industry or reflecting on the physical and emotional value of interiors; it will stage artistic performances generating visions of tomorrow; it will build a circular bookshop and arena, as well as a new design library. All this in a bid to give visitors the opportunity for an exciting, subjective and memorable exploration, the only one capable of creating long-term connections (business connections included).
“The appointment with the Salone def Mobile.Milano will, as always, be the industry’s most important business opportunity and a chance for the entire wood-furniture supply chain to show off the quality of its production, in which research, innovation, craftsmanship and sustainability come together. We represent a sector that in 2023 had a turnover of 52.6 billion euros, around 20 billion euros in exports and 32.7 billion on the domestic market, closing the year 8.1% down on 2022, albeit at higher levels than in 2019. In the face of a physiological decline in domestic demand, following two years of exceptional growth, also due to important consumption stimulus, our furniture macro-system has a turnover of 28 billion euros, 53% of which derives from exports worldwide, despite an uncertain economic context, with the main reference markets such as Germany and the United States struggling. Given such a complex and evolving situation, being able to count on an international showcase such as the Salone def Mobile.Milano is crucial factor for us, an event that will allow us not only to dictate trends to industry professionals, the press and visitors, but which will also enable exhibitors to gain a broad picture of markets all over the world.
FederlegnoArredo, which represents the beautiful, well made and sustainable supply chain, strengthened by the added value of our design, confirms its commitment to its member companies from the Rho Fiera Milan pavilions, in the firm belief that competitiveness goes hand in hand with a concrete commitment to the issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability, commented Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo.
April this year heralds the biennials EuroCucina, with its collateral event FTK, Technology For the Kitchen (Pavilions 2-4) and the International Bathroom Exhibition (Pavilions 6- 10) which will be boasting new exhibition layouts, reworked by Lombardini22, a leading group on the Italian architectural and engineering scene. At the request of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, and for the first time in a trade fair context, the studio has harnessed neuroscience to improve the visitor experience, analysing visitors’ neurological, emotional and perceptual reactions to the various paths, and the location and distribution of the exhibition and rest areas. After a number of experiments in a virtual environment, the loop-shaped circuit chosen for both biennials turned out to be more intuitive, simpler to navigate and easier to remember, while allowing the exhibition offering to remain meaningful along the entire route. Unlike past editions, there will be a symmetrical path backing onto the stands on the exterior perimeter walls, the main pathways have been widened to improve navigation, with cultural installations and quiet areas provided to counter the typical museum fatigue that can hit even at the Salone despite all the wonders on display. In particular, it will now only take a 640 metre walk to visit all the stands, unlike the previous 1.2 kilometres.
This also marks a special year for SaloneSatellite (Pavilions 5-7), which will mark its 25th edition with 600 talented young designers and 22 design schools. This year’s theme will be Connecting Design Since1998, showing how this event has “weaned” and nourished more than 1,400 budding designers and forged fruitful relationships between cultures and projects from all over the world for a quarter of a century. To celebrate this milestone, an exhibition at Triennale (from 16th to 28th April) – with an exhibition project by Beppe Finessi and set up by Ricardo Bello Dias – that rethinks the entire history of the Exhibition without simply resorting to a parade of objects: on the contrary, it will showcase the wonderful and complex relationship between the manufacturing world and these young talents, who have brought new ideas to design and the domestic universe from places all over the world.
Going back to the neuroscientific approach, given that the brain is spurred to get out of its comfort zone by art, culture and aesthetics, which can become very powerful channels for opening the mind and triggering innovation, the Salone has developed a cultural programme of new forms of experimentation, comparison and in-depth analysis. This proposal will be scattered (unlike City of Lights which took place entirely at Euroluce) because it is designed to overwhelm the visitor, with all its beauty, all along the visitor path.
There will be three great installations. The first, Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room (Pavilions 5-7) comes to the Salone del Mobile from David Lynch, the famous director of films that channel the subconscious. Two identical, and mirrored “thinking rooms” are conceived as symbolic doors that must be entered in order to immerse oneself in the event. Through them, the Salone del Mobile.Milano is reflecting, in an original and imaginative way, on the production of interiors and on how this is deeply connected with the interiority of those who furnish that particular space not for mere decorative reasons but because it is experienced as an external projection of the self.
Ethics, sustainability and technology, but also the power, fascination and fragility of water. Under the Surface, the second installation designed and produced by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi for the International Bathroom Exhibition (Pavilion 10), was born of many different considerations. How far has bathroom furniture come in terms of water sustainability? Under the Surface engages visitors in an immersive sense and pushes them to reflect on the subject of a positive and respectful relationship with the most precious resource on earth andonthe role the bathroom furnishing supply chain can play in steering us towards a more conscious use of water. The installation takes the form of a submerged island, which triggers a visual and evocative yet also profoundly educational narrative, to help visitors become aware of the environmental impact our daily habits related to the useof water can generate. The reflections of light, which move and change incessantly, represent data on global water consumption, while the innovative use of dynamic visualisation illustrates the technological and manufacturing progress related to safeguarding water in the field of bathroom furnishings.
Right in the centre of EuroCucina, a large, fluid and welcoming stage will host six independent and international food magazines which, along with artists, designers and chefs from all over the world, willpresent an unprecedented and original vision of the present and future of the ingredients that nature has to offer. All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances is the overarching title for six projects involving reflections, shows, talks and taste experiences that will unfold day by day. The magazines Family Style (United States), L’lntegrale (Italy), Linseed Journal (United Kingdom), Magazine F (South Korea), The Preserve Journal (Austria) and Farta (Portugal) will throw open debate on the challenges and opportunities the food sector has to offer the design world. Through the combination of food and design, multiple opportunities for exploration open up. When it comes down to it, food is a product and a project like any other, which is why these six experiences are designed to be an exhortation to break down barriers and throw open new avenues for the advancement of experiments in the field of food that will make a difference to the future of human beings on this planet. The installations can be visited during opening hours, while the food tastings and presentations of projects and publishing visions that accompany the will be held live at 2.30pm.
A fresh programme of Talks and Round Tables, entitled Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives, curated by Annalisa Rosso, will bring together some of the most interesting people around today whose virtuous practices are laying the ground for a different and more aware future. The morning talks will be held at 11.00am in the Drafting Futures Arena designed by Formafantasma, reusing the seating from the previous edition and entirely covered with a carpet printed with abstract designs, its pattern reminiscent of the doodles we make while thinking hard or during telephone conversations – unconscious traces of complex trains of thought. In the middle of the stage, the architects Francis Kere, Pritzker Prize-winner, will beinterviewed by Giulia Ricci journalist for DOMUS; then John Pawson will chat to Deyon Sudjic, author, critic and curator; Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang Founding Partner will talk to Johanna Agerman Ross, Contemporary Design Curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and lastly Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, will be interviewing Salone del Mobile.Milano President Maria Porro. The Round Tables, organized with the Salone Nautico lnternazionale in Genova, will tackle some of the most crucial issues currently facing design and architecture, such as the useof artificial intelligence, the relationship between sailing and design and the latest developments in the hospitality industry. In both cases, all the debates will make it clear that project, design and architecture are capable of understanding the present and imagining the future, throwing open new paths, finding solutions, gauging what is possible and triggering insight and imagination. A new project will also be inaugurated in the Arena at this edition: the Salone del Mobile Library, also designed by Formafantasma, which, at the suggestion of the speakers at this and future editions of the event, will house the books destined to change our actions and future prospects – for the better.
Following the success of last year’s debut, the Corraini Mobile bookshop will again be set up next to the Arena this year, curated by Corraini Edizioni and designed by Formafantasma for the last edition, carrying a wide selection of international publications devoted to the world of design, art and illustration, as well the theme of food and food design, on display as well as for sale, and representativeof morethan110 publishers. There will benoshortage of books for children of all ages, to help them find out more about the world of design in a fun and original way; as well as limited edition posters and graphics, ceramics, small artefacts and unique pieces, curiosities and rarities. A space that will dialogue with the installations and the set-up of the fair, becoming an integral part of the exhibition.
While the common thread of the installations and projects at the Bathroom and Kitchen biennials and the narratives at the Talks and Round Tables already has environmental, economic and social responsibility at its heart (the Salone has been ISO 20121 certified since the last edition), the new collaboration with the Department and School of Design of Politecnico di Milano University geared to setting up a permanent observatory for the analysis of the Salone del Mobile Design Week ecosystem and its impact on the community in terms of sustainability, inclusion, circularity, growth and skills transfer, represents the greatest project that the Exhibition has ever tackled in this area. This project aims to investigate the Salone-as-ecosystem in an original interpretative key, exploring the phenomenon in terms of its socio-economic effect on the territory, thanks to the collection and analysis of new indicators, as well as well the collective and plural reflections of stakeholders active on the scene. This first stage will lay the ground for a Salone del Mobile Observatory, a permanent platform dedicated to identifying opportunities and challenges affecting the Salone del Mobile.Milano and the city.
In addition, the Event has renewed its Sustainability Policy, raising the bar in terms of its objectives and increasingly active and responsible involvement and has already set in motion, procedures to identify certified suppliers or suppliers able to provide recyclable or reusable solutions and materials for building the common parts, and it will strive to confirm its role as a stage and sounding board for business models structured along paths of responsible and inclusive development. It will choose institutional partners that already have people and the planet at the heart of their strategies and that have already espoused the guidelines for sustainable installations proposed to the exhibiting companies last year. The event is also confirming its adherence to the United Nations Global Compact.
Innovative and extremely contemporary, the new Salone del Mobile.Milano communication campaign has been devised and produced by Publicis Groupe with the scientific collaboration of Paolo Ciuccarelli, Professor of Design and founder of the DensityDesign Lab at Politecnico di Milano University and the Center for Design at Northeastern University in Boston. The concept underlying the campaign is Where Design Evolves, which encapsulates the evolutionary essence of the Salone del Mobile.Milano and translates it into a visual and conceptual language, with three different key visuals telling a single huge story which sees the design communities, professionals in the sector and the experience of the event itself as the protagonists. It is not, therefore, simply a matter of displaying an effective artwork, but of involving, dialoguing with and exploring the powerful relationship between design and those who live it, between those who create it and those who talk about it and of producing a visual account of it, harnessing Artificial Intelligence to illustrate its evolution. The data-driven methodology adopted for the creation of the campaign is an example of the way in which Artificial Intelligence combined with human creativity is capable of forging an unprecedented dialogue between the Salone and its global audience.
While innovation today largely concerns the digital dimension, the event’s online platform – which serves as a form of primary connection with the visitor and the exhibitor – will play an even more crucial role, expanding and strengthening connections, to create a complete and engaging experience that is also aimed at nurturing the relationship with the community on social media. Thus, for exhibitors, in addition to the introduction of packages of diversified digital and communication product solutions, the matchmaking and appointment booking services at the stand will be fundamental, making it possible to optimise the time spent at the trade fair and forge quality contacts in real time. For visitors, on the other hand, the online ticketing services, exhibitor wayfinding and the chance to plan visits thanks to the huge range of dedicated services available, will prove extremely useful. To strengthen its connection and relationship with the community, the Salone has finalised projects capable of narrating the complex world of design in a contemporary narrative key, involving authoritative figures from within the sector, who will not only bring their professional value, but will also add depth and authenticity to the story, consolidating the Salone’s capacity for cultural promotion. This has informed, the web series Behind the Doors, for example, which involves internationally renowned architects and designers, including Lissoni, Formafantasma, Palomba and Serafini, and the podcast Design Forward, developed with the curator Maria Cristina Didero. The content strategy is geared to high quality, diversification, new languages and effective multi platform distribution, reflecting the Salone’s constant commitment to enhancing a complex world, packed with stories, perspectives and information. In the run-up to the trade fair period, the narrative will continue to be enriched with content aimed at further promoting the exhibitors, and facilitating the knowledge and navigation of the event in order to better plan visits. Furthermore, the collaboration with Fuorisalone has been confirmed again for this year, enhancing the visibility of the exhibitors by strategically identifying their locations in the fairground pavilions and their events in the city on the Fuorisalone.it map. The community continues to grow, as does the performance of the content, registering over 450,000 interactions in 2023 and more than 110 million impressions. The official Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 hashtags will be #salonedelmobile2024 and #wheredesignevolves
“The ability to innovate, to anticipate trends and promote the beautiful and well-made, giving young people the space to express themselves has always been the added value of the Salone def Mobile.Milano and this is also true of the 2024 edition. Few events are able to interpret and address the challenges of the contemporary world with the right mix of creativity and pragmatism. The Salone def Mobile di Milano is one of these. An event that is not limited to being a showcase of excellence and avant-garde in furnishing and design, but pushes further, creating and nurturing extraordinary worlds both inside and outside the exhibition space that bring architects, designers, manufacturers and many companies that work and operate in this sector in Italy and abroad, and many, many visitors back to the city year after year. The Salone is part of Milan – and that is something we are increasingly proud of,” said the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala.
Underscoring the mission for inclusion, service and training that the Salone del Mobile.Milano has always carried forward, and reconfirming its international role, the Hospitality Project will be renewed for the ninth year, thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, Fondazione Fiera and the city’s leading design schools – NABA, Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti, IEDEuropean Design Institute, Design School/Politecnico di Milano University and Domus Academy – which represent educational excellence in the field of design and architecture. This collaboration should be seen as a key factor in a process of rapprochement between the world of school and the world of work, which is based on dialogue and the sharing of experiences and opportunities for growth. The Salone willsetupwelcome stations located at key points in the city, manned by a hundred students who will provide the public with information on moving around the city, on the fair itself and also on the main events taking place in Milan that particular week. Young people will have an opportunity to dialogue with professionals from the design industry, learn about the dynamics and mechanisms of organising an event such as the Salone, and take part in open lessons dedicated to them, as well as in all the multidisciplinary cultural initiatives being held this year.
In the spirit of ever greater openness to the exchange and circulation of ideas, culture and creativity, and to underscore the powerful, valuable and tight bond with the city of Milan, the collaboration with the Teatro alla Scala Foundation continues for a fourth consecutive year. It is a combination born of the desire to marry common values, which has the dual objective of promoting and valorising the talent of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra as well as offering the design community an opportunity to enjoy a unique experience. Conducted by Riccardo Chailly and sung by tenor Juan Diego Florez, this year’s programme contains nine of the most famous pieces from masterpieces by the masters of opera: from Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco Symphony to Vincenzo Bellini’s Overture to The Capulets and the Montagues and Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, among others.
Launched in 2017, the long-running institutional partnership between Intesa Sanpaolo and the Salone continues to flourish, with Italy’s leading bank accompanying sectors such as design and furnishing and Made in Italy, in a bid to underpin a fundamental supply chain for the country’s supply chain, with incentives for companies on the path to digitalisation, curbing environmental impact and developing activities abroad with ad hoc tools. Entering its first partnership with the Salone is Aesop, the cutting edge company which offers face, hair and body care formulations shot through with a genuine interest in sustainable and intelligent design – its approach to spaces and objects, shared by the Salone, has always been an integral part of the brand, in the firm belief that few things are more conducive to a life well lived than well thought-out design, a subject that will also be the focus for the talks held by the brand in the Drafting Futures area at the Salone. The collaboration with Panerai, the Official Salone del Mobile.Milano Timekeeper, continues, underscoring the historic connection between the two brands. As is traditional, our official partners Piquadro, Ca del Bosco, S.Bernardo and illycaffe have confirmed their support and Radio Deejay, Radio Capital and Radio m2o will be back providing the soundtrack – and more – to design during the entire week. Highsnobiety will also be back with the multichannel Not In series, which celebrates cultural capitals all over the world. Not In Milan will be presenting six ready-to wear pieces that channel the rich legacy of the event. After last year’s T-Shirt Icons success, the new collection will comprise a printed shirt, a graphic sweatshirt and various accessories.
The 2024 edition of the International Bathroom Exhibition will also see the start of a new, important collaboration with ANGAISA, the Italian Association of Italian Plumbing and Heating Distributors, a member of Confcommercio and Federcostruzioni. ANGAISA will be present, for the first time, with its own stand located in the reception area in Pavilions 6/10, providing an information point for its members and for all professional operators visiting the Salone. “It gives me great pleasure to be able to announce this prestigious collaboration to the market, which will see our participation in one of the most important trade fairs in the world, an essential showcase for so many excellent Made in Italy products,” said Maurizio Lo Re, President of ANGAISA. The specialist distribution of the plumbing and heating sector, represented by ANGAISA, is characterised by structured companies, whose strong point lies in the quality of their offering, their skills and their services.“The2024 edition marks a new partnership that I believe is strategic for our association, and that I hope will be further consolidated over the years to come. It is confirmation of the fact that ANGAISA looks extremely closely at both the technical sector and the “aesthetic soul” of the plumbing and heating supply chain,” concluded Mr. Lo Re.
The Salone del Mobile.Milano sees Federlegno Arredo Eventi actively collaborate with the ITA- Italian Trade Agency, which supports the economic and commercial development of Italian companies abroad and promotes the attraction of foreign investments in Italy, in order to come up with a set of strategic activities to stimulate the interest and participation of foreign operators in the various editions of the Salone – buyers, architects, interior designers and journalists in particular. This year too, ITA has lent important and invaluable support to the Salone del Mobile.Milano to bring the largest possible number of skilled foreign professionals to Milan, testament to the country’s ability to create a system that will benefit both businesses and territories.
Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024: all the figures for the 62nd edition
The 2024 edition promises to be packed with people and projects: 172,500 m2 of net exhibition space and almost 1,900 exhibitors – including the 600 SaloneSatellite designers – 30% of them foreign companies (excluding SaloneSatellite).
Work has begun in earnest on the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. Seven main events will be held contemporaneously at the Rho Milano Fairgrounds, from Tuesday 16th to Sunday 21st April, open to professionals every day from 9.30 to 6.30, and also open to the public on the Saturday and Sunday.
The Salone lnternazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and Workplace3.0 will be accompanied by the biennial EuroCucina – along with FTK – Technology For the Kitchen, the event devoted to built-in domestic appliances, hoods, and cutting edge kitchen technology – and International Bathroom exhibitions. S.Project, a cross-cutting space devoted to design products and decorative and technical interior design solutions, is also being held, as is SaloneSatellite, with its talented designers under 35, now into its 25th edition.
Salone del Mobile.Milano
Over 172,500 m2 of net exhibition space and almost 1,900 exhibitors 30% of them foreign companies (excluding SaloneSatellite).
Salone lnternazionale del Mobile, International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Workplace3.0, and S.Project
Over 1.000 exhibitors (31% of them from other countries) ranged over 127,000 m2
EuroCucina, FTK, Technology For the Kitchen
100 exhibitors (35% from abroad) ranged over 24,000 m2
International Bathroom Exhibition
180 exhibitors (25% from abroad) ranged over more than 18,000 m2
SaloneSatellite
600 designers and recent graduates from international design schools, ranged over 3,500 m2
The Biennials.
New Format and Paths
EuroCucina and the International Bathroom Exhibition: the new circuits make for improved concentration, navigation, enjoyment and less stress.
Thanks to listening, to neuroscience and to ongoing research geared to innovation and experimentation, the EuroCucina, FTK, Technology For the Kitchen and International Bathroom Exhibition experience has become more engaging and streamlined, allowing visitors to focus on information they find really relevant, improving their ability to orient themselves and remember which stands they visited.
The 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano marks a significant milestone in the development and evolution of the format and visitor experience at the fairs, thanks to the new collaboration with Lombardini22, a leading group on the Italian architectural and engineering scene, which has reworked the exhibition layout of the biennials devoted to Bathrooms and Kitchens in a bid to create an increasingly contemporary, efficient and rewarding business platform. Thanks to the inclusive spirit of the Salone and the holistic approach to the project by Lombardini22, professionals specialised in strategic design, neuroscience and universal design have contributed to the evolution and innovation of the paths through the pavilions. This made it possible to assess the unconscious needs of visitors, lessen the cognitive load during visits, analyse flows and virtually verify the masterplan for the layout of the pavilions.
Cristian Catania, Reinventing Fair Project Director at Lombardini22 had this to say: “In order to showcase innovation, we need to become innovation. We are supporting the Salone de/ Mobile.Milano through a change of paradigm, from exhibition to experience. By pooling our skills, we have built an integrated and comprehensive process of gradual evolution. It all starts with the general layout and the awareness of the importance of the space as an enabling and attractive factor. Thanks to the masterplan, the values of recognisability, comfort, involvement and time have been implemented. Our project is designed to express the complexity and stratification at the fair that no longer coincide with the product alone or with the purely commercial dimension, but also and especially with the quality of the experience offered to visitors and with the guarantee of visibility for the exhibitors. The spaces work in order to make the event work.”
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano commented: “The redesign of the 62nd edition of the Salone de! Mobile stems from listening to visitors, to the exhibiting companies and the stakeholders from the bathroom and kitchen world, during interviews in the field or in thematic working groups, in order to gather their perceptions, desires and needs. This led to the integration of technology and home automation and to a desire to give even greater visibility to smaller and newer companies. We also wanted to go a step further than we did with Euroluce, focusing on innovation by leveraging neuroscience. Lombardini22 analysed the emotional behaviours and unconscious reactions of the people who move around and man the pavilions and stands, in order to better design the layout of the spaces and create a truly rewarding visitor path.”
To this end, the paths through EuroCucina, with FTK, Technology For the Kitchen integrated into its spaces, and the International Bathroom Exhibition have been redesigned, in a bid to optimise times and spaces and simplify visits, making them fuller and more streamlined, whilst guaranteeing equal accessibility and visibility to all the exhibitors. This project dispenses once again with the classic cardo and decumanus footprint and reimagines the layout in a more urban loop form, making visits more rewarding but less tiring, more efficient but less scattered.
That’s not all, however. This year, the Salone del Mobile.Milano was the first of all the international trade fairs to turn to neuroscience to gauge the levelof visitor satisfaction and improve the visitor experience, optimising the exhibition paths and assessing visitors’ reactions to the various types of display. Rather than the previous chessboard layout, which required a great deal of cognitive effort, the newloop-shaped layout is more intuitive and easier to navigate. Because of the modular nature of the grid, the traditional design of the pavilions offers pure functionality, ease of trading within the spaces and technical perfection, but nevertheless contains some weak points, such as the high number of streets, the lack of reference points, the presence of asymmetrical paths right along the perimeter of the pavilions in which the stands are arranged on one side of the pathway only.
However, thanks to the new layout, the exhibition offering remains meaningful along the entire left and right perimeter of the visitor walkway. In particular, a symmetrical path has been created by backing the stands onto the outer perimeter walls, leaving the technical walls out of sight of visitors. The main paths have been widened and provision made for cultural installations and quiet areas to counter the typical museum fatigue also induced by trade fairs. It will only take a 640 metre walk to visit all the stands, rather than the previous 1.2 kilometres. A clear distinction has been made between the main paths, which are at least 6 metres wide, and the secondary ones, making the exhibitions easier to navigate, and cultural installations and quiet areas have been incorporated into the wider pathways.
Lombardini22 has also designed the display for one of the cultural offerings at EuroCucina: the central space dedicated to food design. This area is conceived in the manner of a distinctive and modular stage, powerfully distinctive yet neutral at the same time, and will host on a daily basis a trade magazine, a performer, an artist or a brigade of food designers from all over the world, who will present an unprecedented and original vision of the present and future of food. The area is distinguished by its unusual star shape, its curves and inlets are easily adaptable to the content and to the food designers’ work areas. The perimeter curtains, neutral in texture, fabric and colour, can also be modulated in order to throw open or close off the space as required and to create ad hoc settings. Even the light focused on the outline of the star – cold or warm, on or off, white or coloured – can be regulated to allow for a further degree of customisation and configurability. The space as a whole provides for two adjacent and interconnectingareas. On one hand there is the functional area with the laboratory and impressive work bench and, on the other, a display space for independent international books and magazines devoted to the world of food design. The technical firewall between the two spaces has been turned from an obstacle into a design opportunity, and will host video screenings. The entire display is circular and fluid: the continuity of the finishes highlighting the hybridisation of the spaces.
EuroCucina 2024. From multifunctional space to an open and holistic communal project.
The24th edition of EuroCucina, the sector’s most authoritative exhibition and an opportunity for interface and discussion for the top Italian and foreign companies within the industry and a unique opportunity to scope the latest trends for the space that has nowbecome the focal centre of the home, reflecting new needs, stories and values, is on from 16th to 21st April at Rho Fiero Milano.
Now into its 24th edition, EuroCucina, the benchmark event at international level, will feature exhibitors brought together by the wide range of goods and the high quality of the products on show mainly, but not exclusively, located in Pavilions 2 and 4 for the first time. The furniture companies that will be showcasing total living solutions will be presenting their kitchen proposals on their respective stands.
While a holistic approach to home living has become a sophisticated yet necessary design direction in this day and age, kitchens are reprising their central role, offering and taking up an increasing amount of space to devoted to families and friends and all the associated activities. Kitchen design reflects the narrations and the values of a complex era: the desire for conviviality, wellbeing, serenity, nature and sustainability. This has informed spaces with a nod to Scandinavian or Japandi minimalism, organic shapes and natural materials and colours that evoke a sense of tranquillity and comfortable good looks.
The kitchen has thus become the absolute barycentre of the modern home, an open and fluid space, no longer merely hybrid and integrated but also capable of eroding square metres of living space or sharing important functional elements with it. In this multifunctionaland versatile area, the central element is the island, which has become even larger, well-equipped and technological and, sometimes, doubles or contains retractable workspaces in which meals can be hosted, with seating of various kinds, as well as other activities such as smart working, homework and relaxing with friends. New accessories, such as wine cellars and indoor kitchen gardens will appear and become incorporated. Responding to the need for order, cleanliness and inner calm, pop-out and walk-in kitchens are back with increasingly highly engineered door systems serving to discreetly hide equipment, domestic appliances, larders and taps and fittings. Testament to the increased importance of this room, there’s no shortage of new, elegant proposals for eat-in kitchens with large dining tables shared with the living room – creating a single living space, characterised by a stylistic continuum of consistent and homogenous areas. Innovative design elements thus create exciting transitions between kitchens and sitting rooms with transparencies and top-quality materials: articulated and accessorised bookcases, open shelving and modular boiserie systems connect the spaces, providing both storage and personality. Lastly, kitchens will tend to escape the domestic walls to become outdoor, with mega-accessorised, sometimes portable solutions, that marry versatility, practicality and high-quality materials and performance.
A natural aesthetic, be it real or emulated, largely characterises the new kitchens. A desire and need for and awareness of the environment, combined with a growing appreciation of wabi-sabi (the celebration of the imperfect beauty of organic forms and materials), has led to the use of stone, granite, quartz and marble, as well as porcelain stoneware and ceramic clays which, thanks to extremely advanced industrial production, realistically reproduce a great many aesthetic material effects, responding to the increasingly pressing need to reconsider the relationship between natural and man-made and to reassess the distinctions between artificial, synthetic, organic and inorganic. Thanks to technological innovation, materials have improved in terms of surface hardness, resistance to chemicals, abrasion, impact, UV rays and thermal shock, ensuring a lower likelihood of deterioration over time. On the other hand, wood (light wood in particular) is one of the preferred materials for furnishing finishes in this particular room. This has led to increasing tactility when it comes to kitchen space design, which isn’t just a passing trend but a reflection of our desire for a more sensory and engaging domestic experience. Materials such as bamboo, rattan and jute also have a significant part to play in this, guaranteeing a tangible and ever-present touch of nature. The only exception to this is the return of stainless steel, owed to the aesthetic of professional kitchens, which have become popular thanks to the many programmes and culinary geniuses that allow us to fancy ourselves as Michelin Star-worthy home chefs, and spacious, essential and easy-to-clean work areas. Stainless steel, in fact, stands out for its durability, hygiene, ease of maintenance and sustainability, being 100% recyclable.
Shapes are becoming softer and rounder, dictated by the need for cleanliness and rigour, enhancing the functionality of the space. Colour shades are also inspired by the colour spectrum of nature, often boasting a mix of soft tones reminiscent of the herbs and spices commonly used in cooking – sage, rosemary, lavender, saffron and basil. Green reigns supreme in all its different shades, flanked by warmer tones such as terracotta red, yellow and Bordeaux, as well as neutral shades. Lending a dramatic touch, blue is back in vogue, going beautifully with shades of gold and pink.
As in every other space in the house, sustainability remains one of the key trends for 2024: responding to demand from consumers that have become aware and involved, companies are investing increasingly in sustainable, low carbon footprint production cycles, and in durable solutions that also take account of product end of life.
FTK, Technology For the Kitchen 2024. Smart built-in household appliances take the stage.
The natural complement to EuroCucina, FTK, Technology For the Kitchen will feature smart, responsible and inclusive technology for a more sustainable future. From 16th to 21st April at Rho Fiero Milano, Pavilions 2-4.
There’s no doubt about it – we can expect to have more and more smart – and therefore more responsible – appliances, geared to minimising the impact of everyday domestic activities on the environment and helping to improve our lifestyles and our health. This will be highlighted by the 9th edition of FTK, Technology For the Kitchen, EuroCucina’s collateral event, conceived as a prime opportunity to reflect on built-in technology and cooker hoods, presenting innovative products, prototypes and concepts of what will be the art of preserving and cooking.
This year, technology will help us carry out these tasks to the best of our ability, thanks to domestic appliances that will collaborate and interact with each other and with humans, anticipating or revealing needs that wedid not know we had. The product collections – from those for refrigeration and freezing to those for cooking and extracting – will offer latest generation performance in order to achieve the best possible results, minimising consumption and increasing the longevity of the appliances. A fundamental element will be the effective energy saving of these domestic appliances and their ability to render tasks more efficient and make for more sustainable use by the consumer.
That’s not all. By connecting all the appliances in the kitchen and in the home, artificial intelligence will play a leading role, making for a total user-centric experience. We will see appliances that connect fluidly and intuitively to each other, providing information that can be processed and incorporated into different software updates, putting users at the centre of a development process that enables the appliance’s solutions to adapt to the demands of every single owner. The Smart Home is now a reality, guaranteeing the interoperability of household appliances: fridges, ovens, dishwashers, hobs, even of different brands, become an ecosystem that can be accessed from platforms and applications on one’s smartphone or television.
We will see fridges that automatically set the temperature, capable of recognising the foodstuffs inside them and suggesting recipes, warning us when products are about to expire or when they are missing, thanks to visual tracking and, in some cases, will do the online shopping autonomously; they will also be capable of monitoring electricity consumption and, equipped with large screens, will become family entertainment hubs by connecting to all the social networks and the internet. Home wine cellars, supported by specific applications, will analyse the labels on bottles and suggest optimum storage conditions and recommend food pairings. Ovens will automatically choose the most appropriate and nutritionally balanced cooking programmes; the smartest ones will use intelligent algorithms to allow for the perfect and simultaneous cooking of proteins and vegetables at the touch of a button, or calculate the optimum oxygen level for breadmaking; fridges and ovens will “talk to” each other: the former will identify the available ingredients and the latter will select a list of recipes to cook. Induction hobs willdetect the temperature of liquids in the cookware in order to automatically regulate the temperature and prevent spills, and will switch off once cooking is complete, alerting you on your phone or television. Should you receive a phone call just as you’re stirring the ingredients in the pot, you can answer it from the cooktop screen connected to your smartphone. Dishwashers will automatically gauge how much detergent to use and will make for even more contained consumption, halved operating times, remote control and ergonomic comfort.
Professional skills and multitasking will be improved when preserving and cooking food using the same techniques and technologies as Michelin-starred chefs. We will see household appliances that respect and retain the nutritional properties, consistencies, flavours, colours and aromas of the food, balancing temperatures, humidity and power.
No less important will be the aesthetic content of the products on show: ergonomics, materials, colours and good looks will be essential features of the solutions on offer, increasingly geared towards personalised and customisable design so as to offer consumers domestic appliances that respond to every possible demand in terms of taste and style.
2024 International Bathroom Exhibition. The latest bathrooms: tailormade, water footprint-friendly wellness areas.
The benchmark exhibition at international level, the biennial devoted to bathrooms boasts new presences and a great many innovations that successfully marry product functionality and attention to water footprint and energy costs with a hedonistic and aesthetic component. From 16th to 21st April at Rho Fiero Milano, Pavilions 6-10.
Now in its 10th edition, the International Bathroom Exhibition is a growing and dynamic fair that is recognised as the leading international event for those involved with bathroom furnishing, thanks to its ability to attract all the major professionals – from architects to large purchasing groups to individual retailers, right down to the end users.180 exhibitors will beturning out for the event, ranged over 18,000 m2, showcasing the best of international production – from furniture and accessories to shower enclosures, to sanitaryware and radiators, taps and fittings and bathtubs.
The novelties on show reflect the continuous evolution of this particular room, which is becoming a more and more important part of the domestic space, to such an extent that it is now the third most designed and requested room from architects and designers. A place of self-care, still small, more often than not (but not too small) and a (more or less) democratic home spa, the bathroom is the place in which water and its associated rituals allow us to reconnect with our deepest selves. However, a high emotional and aesthetic coefficient is no longer enough to convince buyers, be they professional or private; these days the discriminatory factor is the brand’s adherence to eco-design and sustainable principles, from the sourcing of raw materials to the production, the finished product, and its care right up to the disposal process. Everything also needs to be achieved without compromising on functionality, quality and durability.
Bathroom furniture companies have been investing in research and innovation for years, in a bid to come up with low environmental impact products. This has caused them to reflect far more deeply on water footprints (their own and that of their products), on production cycles and on materials, which need to be recyclable and circular. The sector has now learned how to respect the world in which we live, with products that cut water and energy waste, quality certification, ecological and super-healthy materials that are easy to care for, water-based wood finishes, recycled production waste, non-toxicity and endurance becoming concrete realities.
So, there are smart taps that allow for perfect regulation of the percentage of hot and cold water or that come equipped with dynamic flow regulators that allow for a 50%reduction in consumption. Other systems make it easier to manage water consumption through continuous monitoring and an acoustic signal that warns of waste, raising user awareness of this natural resource. Then there are contactless taps and taps that offer (responsible) customisation of the flow rate, temperature and duration. Then there are projects almost on the market geared to re-use: systems are being studied that allow the heat produced by the water to be stored and used to heat the water for the next shower, with no further waste of energy. Even in the latest generation sanitaryware, looks and design are married with innovative technological systems for careful water saving. Lavatories, strictly rimless, have been designed to work with a minimal amount of water, boasting 4.5 litre flushes and, in some cases, a mere 3 litres.
Smart bathrooms are increasingly topical: there are voice activation and recognition systems that can heat lavatory seats, that can connect to devices inserted into the sanitaryware for medical analyses, the results of which appear directly on your smartphone screen, or that automatically regulate water flow and the amount of light or music in the room; bathtubs that fill themselves in response to smartphone input, bringing the water to the ideal temperature for waste avoidance, and mirrors that can be connected to mobile phones.
If personalisation is a winning strategy for all the bathroom companies, showers, washbasins and furnishing accessories confirm the general trend towards customisation. Integrated systems with concealed drawers or live edge shelves, mirrors and accessories, boasting bespoke and hi-tech solutions, and a wide range of finishes, are increasingly in demand for industrial production too. Showers are becoming more and more walk-in, with frameless panels, invisible supports and retractable shower trays, flush with the floor. They can also be turned into actual wet rooms, like the bathrooms found at spas and in luxury hotels. Bathtubs are freestanding, with smart temperature control and mood lighting that turn bathrooms into actual home spas. Radiators will establish themselves as real sculptures within the space given over to wellness.
As to design, the latest trend is for bathrooms as extensions and integrations to the living area, with storage and furnishing systems in shapes and materials that would be perfectly at home in sitting rooms and bedrooms. There is plenty of scope for geometries and, in particular, for curved and plastic lines and forms, teamed with clean, essential designs that enhance colours, materials and textures.
When it comes to materials, the stars of the show will be polychrome marble and wood, which confers warmth and conjures up a sense of genius loci, organicity and nature, also conferred by stoneware and porcelain with material and natural effects.
Even the colour palette will be strongly influenced by nature. Earthy tones such as sage green, beige and light brown will create relaxing, Zen atmospheres. These shades will harmonise with organic materials, enhancing the eco-friendly approach of the furniture. Liquid colours, saturated greens and blues, that evoke the intensity of deep ocean floors, will prove innovative and set off the gold, copper and brass accents of the taps and fittings, brushed or otherwise. There will be no shortage of dark grey and charcoal black, increasingly sought-after not just for wall coverings and flooring, but also for sanitaryware and taps.
Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room: a visionary tribute from the famous filmmaker to the Salone del Mobile.Milano and to interiors, be they domestic or of the soul.
Through David Lynch’s imagined and imaginative “rooms,” symbolic gates which have to be entered in order to immerse oneself in the exhibition, the Salone de/ Mobile.Milano reaffirms the fact that interiors never have just a decorative or symbolic value, but can interact and breathe with those who live in them.
For its 62nd edition, the Salone del Mobile.Milano has chosen David Lynch, the director of films that channel the subconscious, to provide an original and metaphysical narration and reflection on the production of interiors and on how this is in a deep, sometimes symbiotic relationship with the interiority of those who buy these furnishings, not just for decorative reasons but because they are experienced as an external projection of the self. The upshot is a striking, visionary installation, and a sensory and narrative experience packed with emotion. Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room (pavilions 5-7) reawakens our sense of wonder, punctuates memorable moments and, through the scenographic language of cinema and theatre, celebrates the design of a space in which to think not just as a physical room but, especially, as an inner region.
Antonio Monda, a friend of the filmmaker and curator of the project, tells us that Lynch loves to create furniture himself and that this is not so much the fruit of inspiration but of hard, precise manual work. On the other hand, the interiors in his films – and probably the furniture with which his studio is filled – are not simply settings, but a reflection of the state of mind of the protagonists, who live in a perennial and precarious state, hovering between anguish and tenderness, violence and pity, dream and nightmare. Just think of the total darkness of the house Bill Pullman enters in Lost Highway, the kitsch surroundings in which the diabolical Diane Ladd lives in Wild at Heart and Kyle MacLachlan’s home in Blue Velvet, in which, below the idyllic surface, corruption and the mystery of evil are unveiled. Not to mention the places in which the protagonists of Twin Peaks work and seek out entertainment, in which anxiety and alienation do nothing to satisfy a yearning for peace and serenity. In his work, each interior is a character with a life of its own, which is up to the viewer to work out.
The Thinking Room is therefore far more than just a room, as unfathomable as every soul and as mysterious as the relationship between reason and fantasy. It’s a place in which every impulse, every spasm, every hope finds a moment of reflection, possibly of stillness, even, because with Lynch nothing is certain or definitive, and nothing is as one might imagine, starting with the sculptural geometry of the large wooden chair – which dominates the centre of the design space – the seven gilded cylinders, the vaulted ceiling with metal tubes and apertures onto the outside, be they windows or simple screens. It’s certainly no coincidence that this room devoted to thinking is encased in blue velvet.
Antonio Monda continued: “Unmistakable and inimitable, David Lynch’s cinematic language follows the progress of dreams and nightmares and, in both cases, a rational interpretation turns out to be incomplete and fallacious. The language he uses in private conversations, however, has the rigour of a scientific approach and the intelligence of detachment and irony. The reason for this diversity lies in transcendental meditation, which he practices every day, and the Thinking Room represents the perfect synthesis: a place immersed in blue velvet, in which one can become lost and then find oneself again, and decide whether it was the artist or the man who provided that opportunity, assuming that there is a difference.”
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano added: “We have chosen to work with a Master of film such as David Lynch because of his ability to transport us into a mysterious and disturbing different world. Entering his Thinking Room will be like crossing the threshold of a room that is, in fact, another world, an inner space. After all, what are design, and furnishing in particular, if not a quest for and creation – through design, function and materials – of objects that furnish a home, or even just a room, that subconsciously make us feel safe?”
Lombardini22, a leading group on the Italian architecture and engineering scene, designed the masterplan for the positioning and the architectural footprint of the curved perimeter leading to David Lynch’s work. What Lombardini22 has designed is a “treasure box for a diamond” – a technical and layout project – devised in such a way that the great American filmmaker’s installation is clear, impactful and consistent with the other areas and with the event. The curved perimeter consists of a burgundy-coloured curtain that leads to the 50m2 area given over to David Lynch’s piece. The project was carried out in collaboration with scenographers from the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, who translated David Lynch’s fascinating imagery and artistic thinking into a material reality, creating his Thinking Room. By harnessing a work process that unfolded dynamically in different directions and in different phases, bringing the technical/operational and creative plans together, the Piccolo Teatro has given shape to the instructions and vision of the brilliant film director who conceived the immersive “thinking room” experience.
All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design
EuroCucina celebrates food as a cultural symbol and phenomenon, an example of resilience and adaptability, a source of emotion and wonder, material for projects exploring past, present and future.
A large immersive space and a fluid, welcoming stage right in the middle of EuroCucina will host six authoritative food magazines that, together with performers, artists, designers and chefs from all over the world, will present a new and original vision of the present and future of the ingredients that nature has to offer.
All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances is the overarching title for this project involving presentations, reflections, performances, shows and taste experiences that will unfold day by day in the centre of the EuroCucina/ FTK, Technology For the Kitchen pavilions, tor a reflection on what “food” is today and where the heart of future design lies.
Starting from the awareness that food is mythology, philosophy, culture, spirituality and folklore and as such should be preserved, handed down and reimagined, this series is designed to throw opendebate on the challenges food poses to design and on the opportunities that the food sector has to offer the design world. Through the combination of food and design, multiple investigative opportunities open up: the state of food resources, the sustainability of processes, the innovations in progress, the social implications of an activity that is both natural and cultural. Education and the food industry, the entire production and consumption cycle, and waste management can provide spaces for intervention and creativity. Through food design, concrete and radical, poetry and experimental research can be expressed. When it comes down to it, food isa product and a project like any other, which is why the six experiences are designed to be an exhortation to break down barriers and throw open new avenues for the advancement of experiments in the fieldof food that willmakea difference to the future of human beings on thisplanet.
The six independent food magazines from a number of different countries will present their particular points of view on the emergencies of our times and on possible future scenarios, through shows created together with artists, designers, chefs and creatives. The installations can be visited during opening hours, while the food tasting experiences and presentations of projects and publishing visions that accompany them, will be held live at 2.30pm.
The Italian magazine L’INTEGRALE helmed by Diletta Sereni will stage Mangiare ii Mare/Eating the Sea with the visual artist Luca Trevisani, who willcurate the installation, and the chef and writer Tommaso Melilli, who will organise the tasting experience. The sea of the future will be devoid of fish – leaving humans to explore beyond the confines of what they are in the habit of fishing. We will be presented with a kitchen/larder on the stage that is capable of extracting the flavour of the sea with broths, juices and sauces derived from invasive species that have taken the place of known ones. In the sea of the future, even stones will become resources of taste and nourishment and algae, currently confined to the margins of our culture, are a fundamental ecological resource – food and medicine.
The American magazine FAMILY STYLE will discuss how food canbe Objects of Affection with the chef, food editor and winner of the James Beard Award Sophia Roe, and Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, founders of the Amsterdam-based design studio DRIFT. The project stems from a menu created ad hoc for the magazine by the renowned Argentinian chef Francis Mallmann (with nine successful restaurants around the world, the author of successful books, more than one million two hundred thousand lnstagram followers, and the world’s leading open flame cooking expert), which Sophie Roe will bring to life through her very personal vision and aesthetically surreal food design, also exploring the ancestral ties that bind us to food and its preparation. Family Style has entrusted the Drift studio with the project for an original artwork for the cover of a limited edition of the issue. The Dutch designers will create it in the wake of their latest research project on materialism, which analyses the way in which people interact with everyday man-made objects. Products in daily use such as cars, pencils and watches are stripped down to the raw materials from which they are made and then presented in the form of rectangular blocks.
THE PRESERVE JOURNAL, an Austrian magazine, is collaborating with the Belgian artist Grace Gloria Denis on Digesting Degrowth – Care, Commons, Frugal Abundance, and Conviviality discussing how the concept of “degrowth” (contemporary political, economic and social thinking in favour of the controlled, selective and voluntary reduction of economic production and consumption, geared to establishing ecologically balanced relations between man and nature for sustainable development) can and should be applied to the production and consumption of food. Through a performance and food experience, some of the fundamental principles of this movement, such as “care,” “nourishment,” “frugal abundance” and “conviviality” will be creatively explored.
Louise Long, founder and creative and editorial lead of the British magazine LINSEED JOURNAL, will join forces with Francesca Sarti, founder of the design studio Arabeschi di Latte, on the visionary and impactful project A Humble Gathering, which questions the abundance of nature’s bounty, which is deserving of appreciation and preservation. The journey starts from the word “humilis” which literally means “from the earth.” In the face of aggression, exploitation, waste and greed, a call to behumble is a call forrespectful coexistence and fruitful cooperation with nature. Moreover, the humilis, the humus, the humble is imbued with symbolic power, mythology, philosophy, spirituality and folklore. A collection of natural “humble” ingredients, recipes and stories, cultural curiosities and fascinating sensory experiences will be staged here.
Food Documentary Magazine. Origin – Transformation – Consumption is a project by the South Korean publication MAGAZINE F, which has brought in the visionary and eclectic American food artist Bobby Cortez (former private chef to Paul Allen, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith and Lady Gaga, who creates spectacular pop-up installations for lunches and dinners, in which he blends design, architecture, art, photography and cuisine) to come up with engaging and interactive creations and tastings of the world’s most-loved ingredients. They will also discuss the main themes of the magazine: “Origins” (how and where a particular food is grown, tended and harvested), “Transformations” (how history, economics and culture influence the way in which human beings behave around ingredients to satisfy needs and express desires), and “Consumption” (how the preparation and tasting of ingredients reflects our identity, creativity, curiosity and joie de vivre).
As for the last magazine, All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances, will reveal it very soon.
Under the Surface. The Salone del Mobile.Milano reflects on the footprint and importance of water as a resource in the bathroom furniture sector with a great installation.
Ethics, sustainability and technology, but also the power, fascination and fragility of water. Under the Surface was born of many different considerations, a highly emotional design project that slots into the debate on the value of responsible furniture production.
How far has design, bathroom design in particular, actually come in terms of water sustainability? Can producers and consumers be supported when it comes to recognising the urgency of developing strategies to promote water conservation, efficiency and the correct use of such a resource? What concrete, up-to-date tools and technologies can the industry rely on and which products have already taken up the challenge? These are just some of the questions forming the basis for the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano’s bid to take stock of bathroom manufacturing by means of the installation Under the Surface, designed and created by Accurat, Design Group Italia, and Emiliano Ponzi (Salotto NY) in Pavilion 10 at the International Bathroom Exhibition.
Conscious that, in the face of the water challenge, we badly need a radical change of paradigm and vision, new education in the use of resources and awareness that change is now possible, the Salone has brought in three different professionals to discuss the topic of a positive and respectful relationship with the most precious resource on earth and on the role the bathroom furniture sector can play in steering us towards a more conscious and responsible use of water. In a synthesis of visions, skills and inspirations, the collaboration between Accurat, Design Group Italia, and Emiliano Ponzi focuses on the vital importance of globalwater resources, giving shape to a powerful and meaningful expression of the central role water plays in our lives.
The installation takes the form of a submerged island, a symbol of water as a source of life and the challenges bound up with our relationship with it. Immersed in a sea of constantly moving reflections of light, the island is not just an evocative visual story, but also a medium for narrating important stories that will help visitors become aware of the impact our everyday habits related to the use of water can generate. The reflections of light, which move over valleys and hillocks, changing incessantly, have been designed to represent data on global water consumption, turning statistics and numbers into an emotional and engaging experience.
Inside the installation, poised between abstraction and reality, there are niches offering a more intimate and reflective space. Through the innovative use of dynamic data visualisation, technological and manufacturing progress related to safeguarding water in the field of bathroom furnishings is told. These visual narratives show how the new products presented at the International Bathroom Exhibition have been designed to cut water consumption, both during production and in daily use. The decision to use the intuitive language of data visualisation allows visitors to immediately understand the positive impact of these innovations, turning complex data into readily accessible and visually appealing information in order to make people understand the importance of their adoption for a more sustainable future.
The design team commented: “Under the Surface illustrates the complexity of the world in which we live, where it is no longer enough to simply analyse the surface of things, but vital to get to the bottom of them. Taking a deep look at it and at oneself is the only way to understand, learn and become better people and consumers.” Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano said:“We chose to address the themes of sustainability and water saving, which are central to the evolution of bathrooms. A room in the house that has been profoundly transformed – from service space to wet living room. Here, small everyday gestures involving objects designed and produced intelligently can make all the difference. With the installation Under the Surface, we will immerse ourselves beneath the surface of this delicate balance with water. By poetically visualising data relating to the sector, and describing the problems, we will show that knowing how to connect knowledge, skills and technologies is vital for generating projects and products that improve lives because they are respectful of the environment. Today, more than ever, we must be conscious of the influence of our daily choices on the future.”
Under the Surface shows that we can imagine a different way of creating products in complicity with nature, without continuing to consume water resources but implementing virtuous ecological paths.
SaloneSatellite
Connecting Design since 1998. SaloneSatellite celebrates 25 years of relationships between talents, cultures and projects.
The 25th edition of SaloneSatellite, the most authoritative event in “young” design, will be taking place in Pavilions 5-7 at Rho Fiero Milano from 16th to 21st April, providing an opportunity for interface and discussion between budding talents and leading Italian and foreign companies who see the event as a unique opportunity for a glimpse of the developments of future design.
Back in 1988, the Salone del Mobile, having expanded into the newPortello pavilions, took up the entire Fiero Milano fairground area, adding on Pavilion 9, with a direct opening to the public. Devised to house the collateral trade fair events, but most especially a new departure: SaloneSatellite. A new space designed to host 65 young exhibitors from all over the world and a group of international design schools. As the catalogue for the first edition says: “We launched SaloneSatellite because we believe in young people and in the future that they represent. Design, which is in itself avant-garde, is crying out for reference and meeting places. Where could be more suitable for communicating young design than the Salone lnternazionale de/ Mobile?”
A visionary statement of intent, which still remains valid today, on the 25th anniversary of SaloneSatellite, with an edition featuring around 600 participants from 37 different countries and 22 international design schools and universities from 13 different countries. These include, for the first time, Prince Sultan University in Saudi Arabia, Belgrade Business and Arts Academy of Applied Studies in Serbia, Michael Graves College in the United States and Xi’An Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China. There will also be an unprecedented collaboration between Cometa in Como and CMQ – the French Campus des Metiers et Qualification – on a project to be launched at SaloneSatellite 2024 itself, hosted for this edition in Pavilions 5 – 7 at Rho Fiera Milano.
“Incredible, 25 years!” exclaimed Marva Griffin Wilshire, Founder and Curator of SaloneSatellite. “It seems only yesterday that following our conversations about young designers, Manlio Armellini – then CEO of Cosmit, (Comitato Organizzatore de/ Salone de/ Mobile Italiano), the organising committee of the Milan Furniture Fair – gave me the job of organising an event devoted to them, at the fairgrounds.” Since then, this closeness with entrepreneurs from the leading companies gathered at Salone del Mobile.Milano, has set the seal on fruitful collaborations, setting dozens of emerging designers onto their professional paths and towards international recognition.
An exhibition, at Triennale Milano, will trace the story of this outpost of connections and discoveries. It is being curated by two professionals who have already celebrated both the 10th anniversary (with the exhibition Avverati – A Dream Come True, Rho Fiero Milano, 2007) and the 20th (SaloneSatellite 20 Years of New Creativity, Fabbrica del Vapore, 2017) with Marva Griffin Wilshire. Beppe Finessi, curator, and Ricardo Bello Dias, with his studio, have designed the exhibition installations ever since the now mythical first edition. This edition will open on16th Apriland rununtil 28th, a week longer thanthe Salone del Mobile.Milano itself.
Back to a taste of this year’s keenly awaited edition. As always, the SaloneSatellite Award will be back, now into its 13th edition, to reward and incentivise the most deserving designers. The jury of industry experts, chaired as always by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA (New York), will assess the competing projects from the 2024 exhibitors, showcased in an exhibition inside Pavilions 5-7. Their names will be announced during the Ceremony due to take place during the early afternoon of Wednesday 17th April.
As part of a totally reworked set-up, thanks to the collaboration with Teckell, a play area will also be created for a ping-pong match between former SaloneSatellite designers and the latest participants. Who will win?
Universo Satellite
Universo Satellite: Triennale Milano sets out a cross-section of design history, with dialogues and relationships, young people, schools and communication, sketches, prototypes and products.
The exhibition project, curated by Beppe Finessi and set up by Ricardo Bello Dias, rethinks the entire history of the event without falling into the trap of simply trotting out the objects: rather, it showcases the wonderful and complex relationship between the world of production and these young talents, who have brought new ideas into design and the domestic universe, from all parts of the world.
Since its launch in 1998, SaloneSatellite has been the home of creativity par excellence. Having become a “Universe” in its own right, over time, whilst firmly remaining an integral part of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, the event still conserves its full autonomy and boasts a strong, original identity. As it celebrates its 25th edition in the RhoFiero Milano pavilions, the exhibition Universo Satellite, curated by Beppe Finessi will be showing at Triennale.
The gallery spaces will host all the ingredients for the still unbeaten recipe devised by Marva Griffin Wilshire, who conceived it and turned into a genuine Universe, totally “centred” around a powerful concept, both unitary and multi-faceted, made up of people, dialogues and relationships, young ones in particular (and therefore also schools) and, obviously, the projects they presented (and showcased to a large audience) in the hope of meeting entrepreneurs and companies interested in those early attempts.
While the young designers mainly bring an extremely disparate range of prototypes to SaloneSatellite, showing a clear awareness of what is going on in the furnishing world, the exhibition at Triennale Milano is not simply a display of objects, because the results of the event extend way beyond the success of the projects themselves – be they lamps, chairs or vases. SaloneSatellite has actually generated meetings, partnerships, relationships, dialogues; it has sparked new linguistic directions and helped forge the new languages of international design; some have been recommended to set up their own companies or workshops; it has welcomed creatives who, over time, have also established themselves in areas complementary to furniture and product design; it has hosted several hundred schools that have presented their own understanding of what teaching means in the training of designers.
Universo Satellite is, therefore, like a great Wunderkammer where not only the objects shine!
Communication Project
Publicis Groupe, with the scientific curation of Paolo Ciuccarelli, has devised the innovative Salone del Mobile.Milano communication campaign with Al shaping both content and container.
The Sa/one’s new communication campaign is innovative and a mirror of the dynamism of the conversations that the design community feeds on, a map that moves and alters so as to remain perpetually current, whilst also preserving the memory of the past, allowing trends and patterns to emerge from the temporal stratification of content.
Innovative and extremely contemporary, the new Salone del Mobile.Milano communication campaign has been devised and realised by Publicis Groupe – tasked with condensing the identities, themes and protagonists of the event and its evolution into a visual, distinctive and original narrative – with the scientific collaboration of Paolo Ciuccarelli, Founder of the DensityDesign Lab at Politecnico di Milano University and Director of the Center for Design at Northeastern University, Boston.
The claim, Where Design Evolves, encapsulates the essence of the event, transcending the idea that it is simply a destination, evidencing on the contrary that it is the stage upon which design happens, evolves and defines the futures. The company decided to turn to generative Artificial Intelligence to explain, analyse and visualise the stories, relationships and emotions that the Salone del Mobile brings out all year round. The new multichannel communication platform puts an entirely new and multidimensional perspective on the Salone, a mix of art, design and technology.
Al-driven processes were harnessed early on to intercept discussions and analyse conversations that have animated the design community from the last edition onwards. The voices of the brands, designers, design-lovers and visitors to the trade fair were visualised according to three parameters: the emotional-rational duality (is design reason or emotion?); the taxonomic articulation of the two poles (categories); the sentiment balance of the attributes within the categories. The most significant reflections have been channelled into a fluid platform that has fashioned an artwork in constant evolution.
At a later stage, however, the listening field wasnarrowed down and refined: the first, public, ‘bottom up’ listening phase was followed by a second ‘top down’ one, in which the participants were selected beforehand – using the main awards as a filter (designers who had received one or more prizes were identified)- andtheir conversations (or conversations about them) were gathered and then processed and visualised, adopting the same approach as in the first stage.
Lastly, the third phase involved listening to public conversations and those mediated by the “experts” ‘from afar’ (and from below), to which closer observation was added, in a spatial and temporal sense, i.e. listening in the field, directly interfacing with the public and the community of the Salone del Mobile.Milano during the trade fair, online and offline: realtime ‘here and now’ listening, in order to gauge the impact of the event and integrate it with the findings from the previous conversations.
This will make it possible to identify and catalyse the most valuable insights in order to generate creativity, creating artistic systems capable of expressing, interpreting and enhancing the event and the culture of design. By integrating human creativity with the innovative power of Artificial Intelligence, therefore, the campaign visuals will become real, constantly changing containers of experiences, memories and conversations in order to transmit “live” the perceptions aroused by the trade fair.
Salone del Mobile Observatory
Salone del Mobile, an ecosystem analysed in terms of social, economic and cultural impact by Politecnico di Milano University.
Salone de/ Mobile Week is a unique global phenomenon that is fully deserving of the scientifically based study promoted by the trade fair and carried out by the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano University, in collaboration with its Design School and the Municipality of Milan, geared to understanding its organisational, economic, cultural, social, business and professional perspectives and impacts on the city.
The Salone del Mobile.Milano is an event of global reach, a system of connections, creativity and innovation that, for a week in April each year, attracts more than three hundred thousand people – entrepreneurs, journalists, collectors and lovers of beautiful things. They find themselves in a place that welcomes them with a network of opportunities, a stimulating arena that transmits positivity, enthusiasm, resourcefulness and emotion. Despite all this, the interaction between the Salone and everything that hasgrown up around the event, and their impact on Milan, have never been the subject of rational and exhaustive, scientifically based study.
With this fact asits starting point, the Salone del Mobile.Milano commissioned the Design School at Politecnico di Milano University to carry out research exploring this relationship more deeply and promote greater sustainability, inclusion and circularity during this particular week. Both the Salone and Politecnico di Milano University intend this to be a full and multidisciplinary investigation into a phenomenon that involves public institutions and leading stakeholders in the design industry, each with its own internal and external system of governance. The round tables involving a large number of different actors have just begun to be held.
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “We felt a deep need to investigate the cultural-socio-economic impact of Salone de/ Mobile Week, as well as its influence, in terms of growth, legacy and skills transmission. This complex and multifaceted ecosystem has never been measured in its entirety. We have chosen an authoritative and ‘super partes’ partner with the scientific rigour to analyse and re-tell this unique global phenomenon with the right data, underscoring its influence on the city context in the short, medium and long term. Thanks to the collaboration with Pofitecnico di Milano University and under the aegis of the Municipality of Milan, the aim is to set up a permanent observatory that will devise a system for detecting, observing and interpreting what happens in the city during this particular period and promote actions that will guarantee greater sustainability, inclusion and circularity of the event in its entirety.”
The research project aims to investigate the Salone-as-ecosystem through an original interpretative key, delving into the phenomenon in terms of its socio-economic effect on the region, by means of the collection and analysis of new indicators, as well as through collective and plural comments from stakeholders active on the scene. This initial process, which will be carried out over the course of 2024, will lay the ground for a future Salone del Mobile Observatory, a permanent platform dedicated to identifying opportunities and challenges affecting the Salone del Mobile.Milano and the city.
Donatello Sciuto, Rector of Politecnico di Milano University, said: “As a centre of knowledge and training, being in a dynamic and creative city such as Milan means taking on the responsibility of understanding the most important phenomena, which undoubtedly include Salone de/ Mobile.Milano Week. In this project, the Politecnico University will act as a connector and facilitator for the actors within the design system (and beyond), in order to build common visions and goals, together. It is an example of a good practice that triggers dialogue between institutions, academia, society and culture for sustainable and responsible growth.”
The Observatory will have the power to influence future decisions regarding the week devoted to furnishing, design and project culture in order to make it more sustainable, inclusive and in tune with Milan and its current policies. The investigation will adopt a mixed research methodology, based on analyses of heterogenous databases provided by private and public entities, a stakeholder engagement process, and monitoring and observation activities carried out by the Design School. The results will be collected into a final report in an informative format, due to be published by the end of the year.
Professors Stefano Maffei and Francesco Zurlo commented: “The Sa/one-as-ecosystem is unique in the world, despite the many attempts to imitate it. It is a collective phenomenon that involves actors and resources in order to create new knowledge on technologies, sty/es, behaviours and expressions of beauty year after year. By adopting a methodological approach and a design-driven attitude, the Politecnico di Milano aims to systematise data and information and spark and orient conversations between stakeholders in order to learn more about the phenomenon with a view to helping the operators and institutions, the Salone first and foremost, to increase its sustainability and beauty.”
Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024: the Partnerships
Adding new partnerships and consolidating those already established, the Salone de/ Mobile.Milano promotes and supports ideas and projects of shared value that blend creativity, sustainability and savoir-faire.
While the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano presents itself as an ecosystem, this approach is also reflected in the selection, or confirmation, of the partnerships that become part of the event to offer a unique and original all-round visitor experience.
Entering its first partnership with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, Aesop, the Melbourne based Australian company set up in 1987, which offers face, hair and body care formulations, shares the event’s interest in sustainable and intelligent design. Its cutting edge, sensitive approach to spaces and objects has always been an integral part of the brand, in the firm belief that few things are more conducive to a life well lived than well thought-out design.
Launched in 2017, the institutional partnership between Intesa Sanpaolo and the Salone continues to flourish in the name of furnishing and design. Italy’s largest banking group valorises the country’s entrepreneurialfabric, accompanying businesses all along the supply chain in their path towards sustainable growth. It is again showing its support for the Italian furniture, furnishing and design sector, jewels in the crown of Made in Italy, geared to supporting a supply chain that is fundamental to the country’s economy, with incentives for companies on the path to digitalisation, curbing environment impact and developing activities abroad with ad hoc tools.
The Official Salone del Mobile.Milano Timekeeper, the historic luxury watch brand Panerai, which combines Italian design with Swiss technology, is bolstering its synergy with the trade fair and the city of Milan, as the international capital of design, with two touchpoints that highlight its meticulous technical skills, aesthetic value and innovative spirit. An innovative pop-up in Corso Italia at the fairgrounds will trace the history of the Florentine brand with a timeline and series of historical images and an installation that reflects the concepts of dynamism and competition, central to the Maison’s storytelling for 2024. In the city, Casa Panerai, which recently opened in Via Montenapoleone, will be the venue for a series of events, offering visitors a unique experience.
Our collaboration with Piquadro goes back more than a decade, reaffirming our shared values with regard to the world of design and sustainability. Founded in 1998 and with a presence in 50 different countries, the Italian brand of tech-design products for work, travel and leisure has achieved a well-defined positioning, inspired by the values of design and performance. For its commitment to safeguarding the environment and the territory, the brand was recently awarded Corporate Standard Ethics Rating (SER) “EE-“, an important recognition that indicates compliance with sustainability standards, as does as its use of leathers from a responsible Leather Working Group (LWG) certified supply chain, and totally recycled state-of-the- art technological fabrics.
This marks the 11th year of our partnership with Ca’ del Bosco, the internationally acclaimed Italian winery, which will be setting up an all-new 190 m2 stand, again located on the axis of Corso Italia, its materials, colours and modernity inspired by the style of some of the winery’s recently inaugurated spaces. Confirmation of the reciprocal respect and the values that bind Ca’ del Bosco to the Salone: passion, style, inventiveness, ingenuity and innovation, which go hand-in-hand with craftsmanship and tradition. For a full experience, fans will have an opportunity to taste Ca’ del Bosco wines paired with equally high quality gastronomic offerings.
As well as their support and passion for design, S.Bernardo and the Salone del Mobile.Milano, which have been in partnership since 2019, also share the awareness of the urgent need for ecological transition. Committed to becoming CO2 neutral by 2026, the company has already put concrete strategies in place to curb its impact, using clean energy from a wind farm to power over half of the activities at its Garessio plant. What’s more, its sustainable approach includes the promotion and use of ecological packaging, such as returnable glass bottles and bottles made of 100% recycled and recyclable RPET – like Ely, the helical bottle inspired by the twisted column at the Salone and the iconic Gocce bottle designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro – as well as aluminium cans.
Another well-established partnership is with illycaffe, a global leader in the field of high quality sustainable coffee, which will be present at various points at the trade fair, from the Press Cafe to the Red and International Business Lounges, encouraging designers, buyers and journalists to discover and taste the unique illy 100% Arabica blend during down times.
The collaboration with Radio Deejay, Radio Capital and m2o has been renewed for the third year running. Their truck will be back in Corso Italia at the fairgrounds, broadcasting live some of the programmes in the palimpsest: music, entertainment and information will alternate with the many voices of exhibitors, designers, architects and visitors brought in by the DJs and hosts on a daily basis.
Highsnobiety also returns to the Salone del Mobile.Milano with the multi-channel project “Not In”, a series that celebrates the cultural capitals of the whole world. Not In Milan presents six ready-to-wear pieces that highlight the rich heritage of the Event. After the success of the Icons T-Shirt last year, the new collection will offer a printed shirt, a graphic sweatshirt and various accessories. Highsnobiety is a brand dedicated to a new generation of cultural pioneers, whose mission is to discover and promote the best that culture has to offer, connect people through style and expand the community of emerging creators. Always at the forefront, Highsnobiety is dedicated to discovering what’s to come.
Last but not least, the collaboration with Fuorisalone is confirmed again this year, which will enhance the visibility of exhibitors through a strategic presence on the Fuorisalone.it map. The map will not only highlight the exhibitors’ events in the city, but will also offer information on the pavilion, thus making it easier for visitors to locate and reach the exhibitors’ stands directly at the fair, creating an effective bridge between the city events and the experience in fair.
Press Preview Notes
From Darwin to the Giants of the world of design.
This year, the Press Preview of the Salone de! Mobile.Milano opened and ended with two special moments. A performative prologue as a moment of reflection on the concept of “evolution” and the words of one of the most radical interpreters in the world of design, Andrea Branzi. Two opportunities to “read” a present always in progress with the future.
Sotterraneo. I Think
The Press Conference of the Salone del Mobile.Milano opened this year with “I think”, a performance commissioned from Sotterraneo, a production by Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa for Salone del Mobile.Milano. Keyword: evolution. Founded in 2005 in Florence, Sotteraneo, with transversal and stratified works in the research on forms and contents, moves through formats – from the frontal show to the site-specific passing through the performance – focusing on the contradictions and shadow cones of the present, according an avant-pop approach that tries to sing our time while remaining in balance between the collective imagination and the most unconventional thought, considering the scene a place of citizenship and daily cultural gestures that train the critical conscience of the public, recipient and center of meaning of each of our projects.
Actors: Sara Bonaventura, Claudio Cirri, Radu Murarasu and Daniele Villa
Andrea Branzi. Design and Life.
The Salone del Mobile is paying homage this year to Andrea Branzi, one of the leading players on the international design scene. An original video by Luca Cepparo Design e la Vita/Design and Life is being presented, in which Andrea Branzi himself tells the story of the way he designs, always connected to life, over and above his profession or fields of discipline. Sequences of his workplace and images of his projects, accompanied by excerpts from Catherine Rossi’s interview for Design in Dialogue, convey his ability to synthesise and get to the centre of the questions with depth and lightness.
The Branzi family would like to thank: Abet Laminati, Alessi, Cassino, Fondation Cartier pour /’Art Contemporaine, Friedman Benda Gallery, Galleria Antonia Jannone, Galleria Clio Calvi e Rudi Volpi, Galleria Luisa Delle Piane, Manifacture de Sevres, Metea, Nemo Lighting, Nilufar Design Gallery, Rotaliana and Superego
