Salone del Mobile or Milan Design Week (Italian: Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, but more commonly Salone del Mobile) is a furniture fair held annually in Milan. It is the largest trade fair of its kind in the world.[2] The exhibition showcases the latest in furniture and design from countries around the world. It is considered a leading venue for the display of new products by designers of furniture, lighting and other home furnishings. The show, also known as "Salone", "Milano Salone" and "Milan Design Week", is held every year, usually in April, in the FieraMilano complex in the Milan metropolitan area town of Rho.[3] Besides the Salone, in April every odd year Euroluce exhibition takes place and every even year EuroCucina and the International Bathroom Exhibition are held along the Milan Furniture Fair.[4]
The Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano (or simply Salone del Mobile) was launched in 1961, with the original focus being Italian furniture.[5] The original sponsors were furniture manufacturers from the Federelegno-Arredo trade association.[3] The trade show grew in size over the years, allowing many of the 13,000 companies which comprised the global furniture industry to showcase their wares in a single event.[3]
The current show occupies an area of nearly 230,000 square metres (2,500,000sqft), and includes 2,500 companies, along with 700 young designers at the SaloneSatellite,[3][6] a secondary exhibit which was founded in 1998 by Marva Griffin at the request of Cosmit[it] managing director Manlio Armellini.[7][8] This parallel exhibition features young and emerging designers, collaborations with universities and design schools, and aims "to enhance links between research, design and industry, focusing on designers under the age of 35."[9][10][11]
The show's annual visitation numbers 270,000, with attendees from over 150 countries worldwide.[3] The show is now organized and operated by Cosmit S.p.A., a trade show corporation and a member of the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) and ADI (Association for Industrial Design). Interior design around the world gathers at Milan in April every year at Milan Design Week commonly known as Salone Internazionale del Mobile covered online at designers such as designerzcentral.[3]
In 2011, there were 2,720 exhibitors at the official fair, compared to 2,499 in 2010. New lighting technologies at the show included the Flos 2620 LED chandelier with 2,620 LEDs in what appeared to be random rings of light arranged to create the illusion of movement. The standpoint piece for Arco, a 106-year-old Dutch company, was the wooden furniture produced by the Israeli designer Shay Alkalay. Of the student shows, the Dutch design school Design Academy Eindhoven took first place, followed by Israel's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.[5] Also, some early examples of the combination of sustainability and design were showcased, which eventually resulted in a British entrepreneurial initiative a few years later, pioneer of the upcoming sustainable design revolution.
The 57th edition of the Salone del Mobile was held in 2018, with 434,509 visitors in 6 days from 188 different countries. In comparison to the years 2016 and 2017, the number of attendees increased by 17% and 26% respectively.[12]
The 2020 Salone del Mobile was initially postponed to June, and in March was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was affecting northern Italy particularly severely at the time. [13]
The 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile was postponed due to the Covid-19 health crisis but was held from June 7 to 12, 2022.[14] During the fair, various galleries, showrooms, and palazzos in surrounding areas of the city also exhibited art & design. That year, 20 pavilions were occupied with 2,173 exhibitors present (−10% compared to the 2019 edition), of which 27% were foreigners, mainly from Europe, the United States and Canada. According to data from the organization of the fair, 262,608 visitors from 173 countries registered to visit, representing a 32% decrease compared to the last in-person fair, which took place in 2019.
The 61st edition was held from April 18 to 23, 2023.
The 2024 Salone del Mobile was held from April 16 to 21. It attracted more visitors than ever before, including increasingly many from outside of the professional design world. There were over 1100 registered Fuorisalone events situated outside the fairgrounds,[15] including the increasingly popular Alcova exhibition open in two historic Milanese mansions in Brianza, one of which being the former home of architect Osvaldo Borsani.[16][17] Many high fashion brands & designers such as Gucci, Hermes, Loro Piana, Saint Laurent, & Thom Browne participated with furniture & design exhibitions.[18]
Mario Bellini is an Italian architect and designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1959, Bellini pursued a career as an architect, exhibition designer, product designer, and furniture designer during the Italian economic boom of the late 20th century. Bellini has received several accolades in a variety of design fields, including eight Compasso d'Oro awards and the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Triennale di Milano. In 2019, the Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico, awarded Bellini a career medal in recognition of his contributions to Italian architecture and design.
Giacomo Benevelli was an Italian and French sculptor. He was brought up in France. He lived and studied in Nice, Paris, Rome, Aix-en-Provence, Munich. He mainly lived and worked for over forty years in Milan.
Brad Ascalon, is an American industrial designer who grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree at Rutgers University, and received a master's degree in industrial design from New York's Pratt Institute. His early artistic and design influences included his grandfather, the Hungarian-born Art Deco sculptor and industrial designer Maurice Ascalon, as well as his father, the American sculptor and stained glass artist David Ascalon, founder of Ascalon Studios.
Angelo Mangiarotti was an Italian architect and industrial designer. His designs were mostly for industrial buildings and railway stations. In 1994 he received the Compasso d'Oro award of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale for his lifetime of achievement.
The Italian city of Milan is one of the international tourism destinations, appearing among the forty most visited cities in the world, ranking second in Italy after Rome, fifth in Europe and sixteenth in the world. One source has 56% of international visitors to Milan are from Europe, 44% of the city's tourists are Italian, and 56% are from abroad. The most important European Union markets are the United Kingdom (16%), Germany (9%) and France (6%). Most of the visitors who come from the United States to the city go on business matters, while Chinese and Japanese tourists mainly take up the leisure segment.
The imm Cologne is an international, publicly open furniture trade show held at Koelnmesse exhibition centre in Cologne, Germany, every year in January.
Fernando Mastrangelo is a New York-based artist best known for his collectible design, as well as his large scale sculptures and experiential installations. Mastrangelo is the founder of Fernando Mastrangelo Studio (FM/S).
Roberto Pezzetta is an Italian artist and industrial designer.
Rosario Messina was an Italian entrepreneur, who in 1978 founded the Italian company Flou, an avant-garde furniture manufacturer.
Maria Cristina Finucci is an artist, architect and designer based in Rome. She is the founder of the Garbage Patch State.
Moooi is a Dutch furniture, interior, and lighting modern design company. It was founded by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers in the Netherlands in 2001.
Christophe de la Fontaine is a Luxembourgish product designer, university professor and co-founder of Dante – Goods and Bads GmbH, German-based furniture and home accessory brand. His work includes furniture and lighting in collaboration with Moroso, Rosenthal, FormAgenda and many others.
Mauro Modin is an Italian painter. His work is tightly bound with and contaminated by music, in particular Jazz.
Max Lamb is a British furniture designer who combines traditional, often primitive, design methods with digital design. He is known for employing unusual approaches to using natural materials, including pouring pewter onto sand, and volcanic rock.
Osvaldo Borsani (1911-1985) was an Italian architect and furniture designer.
Khodi Feiz is an industrial designer specialized in the fields of product design, furniture design, branding and strategic design.
Marva Griffin is an arts administrator, curator, and founder of the SaloneSatellite exhibition at the annual Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. She has been described as, "the mastermind behind the world’s largest design fair [and] an outspoken friend to undiscovered designers."
Maria Cristina Didero is an Italian curator, historian, author, and design scholar. She is curatorial director for Design Miami. Didero is quoted as saying that, "design is all about people, not about chairs." Architectural Digest called her, "Milan’s Coolest Curator".
Nika Zupanc is a Slovenian industrial designer. She is active in the fields of furniture, product, and interior design.
The Good Plastic Company is a manufacturer of sustainable surface materials, specialising in fully recycled and recyclable plastic panels for furniture and interior design. It was founded by William Chizhovsky in 2018. The company's main product line is Polygood.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
