From 16 to 21 April, at Fiera Milano Rho, the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will take place, which will not only bring ‘beautiful’ and ‘well-made’ back to a unique stage in terms of international importance, but will do so with a new and challenging approach, literally ‘out of the box’, a necessary condition for innovation and evolution. A challenge that required vision, listening, analytical skills, enthusiasm, curiosity and a dose of resilience and elasticity to bring benefits to the entire design system with a view to constantly improving the trade fair experience. All in the context and to the benefit of the ecological transition.
The result was the re-launch of the optimisation of the layouts and paths of EuroCucina and the International Bathroom Exhibition thanks to the contribution of neuroscience and under the aegis of a human-at-the-center philosophy; a total redistribution of the pavilions with the aim of grouping exhibitors by content and target visitors in order to amplify the value and sense of the visiting experience; an exceptional cultural proposal, rich and multidisciplinary, spread throughout the Exhibition; a constantly evolving communication campaign that, thanks to artificial intelligence, gathers the conversations of the international design community; the collaboration with the Department and School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic, aimed at investigating the Exhibition-as-ecosystem, deepening the phenomenon in its socio-economic scope on the territory. Added to this is the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the SaloneSatellite with an exhibition at the Triennale which, going beyond the traditional exhibition canons, will be a veritable Wunderkammer of objects, prototypes, sketches, images and testimonials.
“Capturing the new trends, the evolution of an entire sector by involving and listening to communities near and far, identifying new approaches, methodologies and technologies, experimenting, in an expression stand on the frontier: this is still the ambition of the Salone del Mobile,” says Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. “Neuroscience, artificial intelligence, new formats and paths, a unified but diffuse cultural project, between coherence and multidisciplinarity, David Lynch’s rooms for thinking, the Salotto NY installation that takes us underwater and between poetry and numbers takes stock of the state of the art of the bathroom industry, but also the talks with many guests including the Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré and the visionary performances of artists and food designers: everything is designed to offer the visitor and exhibitor an exceptional experience in terms of content and container, impossible to replicate except here, at the Salone di Milano, unthinkable to miss, even if it is not limited to just one week, but covers the whole year thanks to the propulsive 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 Internazionale del Mobile, the Salone Internazionale del Complemento d’Arredo, Workplace3.0, S. Project, EuroCucina with FTK, the Salone Internazionale del Bagno, the SaloneSatellite will renew their single-planar distribution, aesthetic paths, experiential spaces and rest and relaxation areas; it will propose conferences and round tables with international guests, vertical workshops on hot topics in design and educational meetings for young people; it will set up 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; it will stage artistic performances to generate visions of tomorrow; it will build a circular bookshop and arena as well as a new design library. All this to give visitors the possibility of an exciting, subjective, memorable exploration, the only one capable of creating long-term connections (including business ones). “Theappointment with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, will be, as always, the most important business moment in the sector and an opportunity for the entire wood-furniture supply chain to show 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 euro, of which about 20 billion were exports and 32.7 in the domestic market, closing the year at -8, 1% on 2022, albeit at higher levels than in 2019. In the face of a physiological drop in domestic demand, after two years with exceptional growth also due to major stimuli to consumption, our furniture macro-system invoiced 28 billion euro, exporting 53% worldwide, despite an uncertain economic context, with the main reference markets such as Germany and the United States in trouble. Given such a complex and evolving situation, being able to count on an international showcase such as the Salone del Mobile.Milano is an indispensable certainty for us, an appointment from which we not only set the trends for sector operators, the press and visitors, but which also allows exhibitors to have a broad view of markets all over the world. FederlegnoArredo, which represents the chain of beautiful, well-made and sustainable products, strong in the added value of our design, from the Rho Fiera pavilions confirms its commitment to its member companies, with the conviction that competitiveness goes hand in hand with a concrete commitment to environmental, economic and social sustainability issues,” comments Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo.