The appointment with the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano is scheduled from 16 to 21 April on the premises of Fiera Milano Rho. Evolution and innovation are the key words that best describe the most important moment as well offering a frame of reference for the international design industry. From a trade fair event, the Salone is increasingly becoming an inclusive, value-based, responsible context and network to generate relationships, narratives and significant projects all through the year.
The edition presented today at the press conference hosted at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler faces the challenges of contemporary life, with an eye to the ecological transition. Other innovations include a relaunch of the optimization of the layouts and routes of EuroCucina with FTK, Technology For the Kitchen and of the International Bathroom Exhibition with the contribution of the neurosciences, in keeping with our human-at-the-center philosophy, thanks to the collaboration with Lombardini22, leading group on the Italian architecture and engineering scene.
The result is a layout involving a complete reorganization of the pavilions with the aim of grouping exhibitors by content and visitor target so as to amplify the value and meaning of the visitor experience. The ring-shaped layout chosen for both biennial events is more intuitive, being simple to walk and easy to remember, and the exhibition offering is full of significance along the whole route. A symmetrical path has been created by setting the stands against the external perimeter walls, the main aisles have been made wider to improve orientation and cultural installations and breakout areas have been installed to cope with the typical museum fatigue also experienced at the Salone despite the wonders on display. In particular, to visit all the stands, visitors will have to walk just 640 meters instead of the previous 1.2 kilometers.
Among the digital services, in addition to the introduction of packages with diversified digital and communication products, there will be matchmaking and appointment booking services at the stands that will optimize your time at the fair and ensure you obtain quality contacts in real time. On the visitor side, online ticketing services, wayfinding for exhibitors and the possibility of preparing the visit using widely available dedicated services will be very practical.
This was devised and created by Publicis Groupe with scientific input from Paolo Ciuccarelli, professor of design and founder of the DensityDesign Lab at the Politecnico di Milano and the Center for Design at Northeastern University, Boston. The concept is “Where Design Evolves”. It captures the evolutionary essence of the Salone del Mobile.Milano by interpreting a single great story in three different key visuals in which the exponents are the design communities, the professionals in the sector and the experience of the event itself. Much more than just an effective artwork, the goal is to involve, relate and explore the deep connections between design and those who live by it, between those who create it and those who talk about it and give a visual account of it, enabling us to perceive its evolution through Artificial Intelligence.
“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 del Mobile today,” comments Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. “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 Kéré 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.”
Some numbers: the 2024 Events will bring together a total of almost 1,900 exhibitors, including 600 young talents under 35 and 22 design schools. The events returning are the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the Salone Internazionale del Complemento d’Arredo, Workplace3.0, S.Project, EuroCucina, the Salone Internazionale del Bagno and the SaloneSatellite. They have all been renewed, laid out on a single level with aesthetic routes, experiential spaces and rest and breakout areas. They will include talks and round tables with international guests, vertical workshops on hot topics in design, and training meetings for young people. And then again, immersive and interactive site-specific installations to learn about the state of the art of the industry or reflect on the physical and emotional value of interiors. An exciting, subjective, memorable exploration capable of creating long-term connections (including business contacts).
“The appointment with the Salone del 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 del 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,” comments Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo.
EuroCucina 2024: from a multifunctional space to an open and holistic sharing project
The development and evolution of the format and the experience of visiting the Biennial exhibitions devoted to the Bathroom and Kitchen is being renewed through collaboration with Lombardini22. It has rethought the layout with the aim of creating an increasingly contemporary business platform. EuroCucina 2024 will be presented in Pavilions 2 and 4, with 100 exhibitors, where the kitchen design reflects the narratives and values of a complex age: the longing for conviviality, well-being, serenity, nature and sustainability. The 9th edition of FTK, Technology For the Kitchen, EuroCucina’s collateral event, this year will stress opportunities for reflecting on built-in technology and furnishing extractor hoods through the presentation of innovative products, prototypes and concepts of the future of the art of preserving and cooking.
International Bathroom Exhibition 2024: tailor-made wellness zones that are friendly to the water footprint
Now in its 10th edition, the International Bathroom Exhibition is confirmed as the most important international event for those involved in bathroom furnishings, combining functional products, a concern for the water footprint and energy expenditure with a hedonistic and aesthetic component. Pavilions 6 and 10 will host 180 exhibitors, covering an area of 18,000 square meters, showcasing the finest international products: from furnishings and accessories to shower enclosures, sanitary porcelain, radiators, taps andtubs. The bathroom is a veritable extension and integration of the living room, offering storage and furnishing systems with forms and materials that could well be at ease in living rooms and bedrooms.
The rich cultural program at the Salone del Mobile 2024
For this year’s edition, the Salone has prepared a cultural program made up of new forms of experimentation, comparison and in-depth analysis. It will be a widespread proposal accompanying the whole itinerary of the visit, with three large installations as protagonists.
“Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room” (Pavilions 5-7) is the installation that David Lynch, the famous filmmaker of the unconscious, has given the Salone del Mobile. Two identical and mirrored “thought rooms” are imagined as symbolic doors to pass through and become immersed in the Manifestation. An original and imaginative reflection on the production of interiors and on how this exists in a profound relationship with the inwardness of those who furnish these spaces, not for a mere decorative purpose but because they are experienced as an external projection of the self.
“Under the Surface” is the title of the second installation, designed and created by Emiliano Ponzi, Accurat and Design Group Italia for the International Bathroom Exhibition, in Pavilion 10. A project that invites and at the same time involves the visitors in immersive ways and impels them to think about the theme of the positive and respectful relationship with the most precious natural resource on earth and the role of the bathroom furniture supply chain in guiding us towards a more aware use of water. A submerged island helps gain awareness of the environmental impact of our daily water-related practices. The reflections of light, moving and changing incessantly, represent the data for global water consumption while, through the innovative use of dynamic data-visualization, it will recount the technological and manufacturing advances related to the conservation of water in the field of bathroom furnishings.
The centerpiece of EuroCucina will be the large stage hosting six independent, international food magazines. Together with artists, designers and chefs from around the world, they will present a new and original vision of the present and future of the ingredients that nature offers us. “All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances” is the title of these projects that, between reflections, exhibitions, talks and tasting experiences, will follow one another day after day. The magazines F Family Style (United States), L’Integrale (Italy), Linseed Journal (United Kingdom), Magazine F (South Korea) The Preserve Journal (Austria), Farta (Portugal) will enliven the debate on the challenges and opportunities that the food sector offers to the world of design. The installations will be open to visitors all through the fair’s opening hours, while the food tasting experiences and the presentations of the projects and editorial visions, which accompany them, will take place live at 2.30 pm at pavilions 2 and 4.
The program of Talks and Round Tables, entitled “Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives”, curated by Annalisa Rosso, will bring together some of the most interesting personalities of our time. The morning talks will be held at 11.00 a.m. in the “Drafting Futures” Arena (pavilion 14) designed by Formafantasma, which retrieved the seating from the previous edition, upholstered in carpeting printed with abstract patterns. Speaking on the platform will be the architects Francis Kéré, winner of the Pritzker Prize, in an interview with Giulia Ricci, John Pawson in conversation with Deyan Sudjic, author, critic and curator, Jeanne Gang in dialogue with Johanna Agerman Ross, curator of contemporary design at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery, who will interview Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The Round Tables, for their part, will address some of the crucial topics in current design and architecture, such as the use of artificial intelligence, the relationship between boating and design in collaboration with the Genoa International Boat Show, and all the news in the hospitality sector. In this edition, a new project will also be inaugurated in the Arena: the Salone del Mobile Library, also designed by Formafantasma. Installed next to the Arena will be the Corraini Mobile Bookshop, curated by Corraini Edizioni, with a broad selection of international titles and over 110 publishers.
Source: www.salonemilano.it
