Euronews Culture takes you on a tour of the 62nd Milan Design Week which runs from 16-21 April. Here’s our ultimate guide to the hottest exhibits, emerging trends and new designers making their mark on the world stage.
ADVERTISEMENTThe world’s largest design festival, Milan Design Week, opens its doors to the public from Tuesday 16 until Sunday 21 April.
Hailed as one of the world’s premier showcases of cutting-edge design and creative thinking, Milan Design Week, or Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, has become a byword for style and substance - a riot of creativity and culture spread across the historic Italian city.
More than 1,900 exhibitors, including 600 young talents under 35 and 22 design schools will take part in the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The world famous furniture fair, which is the creative heart of Milan Design Week, first strutted onto the world stage over a half-a-century ago. Then as now it is a global source of inspiration and delight for design fans.
Three standout events that promise to envelop visitors in a heady mix of new ideas, fresh thinking and innovative products, form the core of Milan Design Week 2024.
The International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Workplace 3.0 reimagines the workspace of today in the aftermath of the seismic changes that have revolutionised the way we work - from home offices to shared spaces.
EuroCucina with FTK, the International Kitchen and Bathroom Exhibition asks important questions about the use of finite resources in the most environmentally expensive spaces in homes.
SaloneSatellite, the energetic and inspiring showcase for young designers that aim to get ahead of the curve by meeting unknown needs and employing design principles to confront challenges before they become emergencies.
Themes including sustainability, inclusivity and ethical design run through the week, with designers embracing holistic approaches that focus on recycling, reusing and reimagining – elevating the mundane and everyday, from plastic bottles and paperclips, to high design.
Combining AI and digital innovation with high-quality raw materials and manufacturing processes, designers fuse traditional craft with the most modern techniques to make the 62nd Milan Design Week among the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly ever.
Room to Think
This year a series of high profile commissions combine the meditative with the creative to deliver many of the fair’s must see moments. Perhaps the most anticipated and surprising is the installation created by legendary Hollywood film director David Lynch.
Famed for his unique mind-bending visual style in films including Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Dune, Lynch has created two ‘Thinking Rooms’ at pavilion 5 and 7.
The identical mirrored ‘rooms’ were designed as symbolic doors that visitors pass through to enter Salone del mobile. A pathway leading to the rooms, made up of a dozen 56 inch screens, project sequences from Lynch’s films - reminding visitors of his jaw-dropping ability to create immersive visual worlds through the visionary use of scenery, furniture, light and colour.
Lynch collaborator and curator Antonio Monda described the doors as ‘another dimension that takes you to another place’. Salone del Mobile, Fiera Milano Rho, SS del Sempione 28, Rho.
World leading fashion brands will be making a big noise at this year’s edition, with Hermes, Loewe and Issey Miyake all presenting installations and unveiling new products.
Issey Miyake – Fold and Crease
Japanese fashion powerhouse Issey Miyake have partnered with the Dutch collective We Make Carpets to showcase a series of installations made with everyday objects, including plastic bottles and paperclips, reflecting the brand values that have made Issey Miyake one of the world’s most innovative fashion brands. Their focus on sustainability, quality, and craft is evident in the Fold and Crease installation. Issey Miyake – Fold and Crease takes place from 16 to 29 April 2024 at Via Bagutta 12, 20121 Milan, Italy.
EuroCucina
EuroCucina with FTK (Technology for the Kitchen), the biennial International kitchen and bathroom exhibition returns to Milan Design Week. Under the banner of welcome, care and fellowship, the exhibition pays homage to the most important and hardest working spaces in the home.
Bringing together more than 50 exhibitors from across the world, the exhibition provides a tantalising glimpse into the future materials, finishes, innovative products and colours that will be in our homes in the coming years.
Designers rise to the challenge of creating beautiful spaces that have sustainability at their core by showcasing the products and practices that combine 22nd century form with future-proofed function.
ADVERTISEMENTUnder The Surface
How to use water more sustainably is the question underpinning the spectacular installation ‘Under the Surface’ - designed and created by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi for the International Bathroom Exhibition 2024.
Taking the form of a submerged island, the installation asks important questions about the environmental impact of our everyday water use and the consequences of treating water as an infinite resource that does not need to be persevered.
SaloneSatellite is the jewel in the crown of the Salone del Mobile.Milano that provides visitors with a VIP peek into the future of design. Taking on the biggest environmental, economic and social challenges facing the world today, young designers employ creative thinking and an iconoclastic approach to develop innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
Employing experimentation and the disruptive design courage that comes with youth, SalonSatellite designers use design to respond to the big challenges facing the planet today and crucially tomorrow.
SaloneSatellite is celebrating its 25th anniversary with its exhibition at the Triennale di Milano.
ADVERTISEMENTThe 62nd Milan Design Week (Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano) opens to the public from 16 –21 April 2024.
