Review of Salone del Mobile.Milano 2012, Milan Design Week, Italy

Salone del Mobile Milano, the most expected international event for the furnishing and design sectors, last from 17 to 22 of April, 2012, at Rho Milan Fairgrounds pavilions. An invaluable tool for the industry as well as an ongoing, quite extraordinary promotional vehicle. The 51st edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, with the biennial Eurocucina and SaloneUfficio and SaloneSatellite, unveil panoply of previously unseen home furnishing, lighting and office solutions.

The Salone del Mobile is the global benchmark for the Home Furnishing Sector. Once more Milan is a window on the world of design, as city of creativity, quality and change. With key sectoral players include over 2,500 exhibitors showcasing their ranges and more than 350.000 visitors, designers, architects, critics, intellectuals and trendhunters for a week full of emotions, innovation, design, technology and attractions to make from this event, one of the best global experiences for professionals.

Milan Design Week, one of the most important events related to the world of design and architecture at international level. More than a design event, Salone del Mobile is a cultural statement, where the state of the art of design is presented every year, and where professionals can get new information about the novelties. The salone del mobile is the place where new products are launched annually, and is the must-see sectoral appointment every year, continuously reaffirming milan’s role as the capital of design.

The trends of Milan Design Week 2012, the 80’s vibe that permeated the stalls of the show. It seemed that almost every vendor had chosen to include at least one dash of bright color, primarily in jewel tones and more than occasionally neon.Featured were bold stripes in black and white, sexy, curvy forms, outré golds, and an intensity which could almost have veered into the tacky. In addition to new materials, outdoor seating became multifunctional, created with all of the durability and functionality needed for outdoor spaces. The worldwide push towards environmentalism obviously influenced.

As the world’s largest and most important furniture fair, Salone del Mobile is the key event of Milan design week 2012. The week-long program brings forth special events, exhibitions and product presentations, where everyone who’s anyone on the international furniture and manufacturing scene comes together to observe and get-in-tune with the latest industry developments.

The Salone Salone del Mobile.Milano, made its first appearance in 1961, designed to promote Italian furniture and furnishing accessories on the export market, and it has continued to do so impeccably, ensuring that the quality of Italian furniture is known to all four corners of the earth, and continues so to do, with half of all its visitors coming from around the world. The Salone Salone del Mobile.Milano as the leading furnishing sector companies were brought together in one single commercial exhibition space for the very first time.

Salone del Mobile Milano showcasing design excellence, quality and innovation, celebratiing the latest design trends and innovations, Salone del Mobile Milano offer the platform explore cutting-edge innovations and intricate Italian craftsmanship exhibited, exchange ideas and indulge in the most recent furniture, product, and interior design technologies. Quality and innovation, along with major collateral events and a comprehensive, wide range of goods are the ingredients that make the Salone such an unmissable event.

Salone del Mobile animated the Milan Design Week, enhancing, once again, the central role of the city on topics such as the culture of design and the importance of the Made in Italy worldwide. The Salone del Mobile is proud to be seen as the capital of design and keen to retain its pre-eminence, demonstrating again this year that it is the ideal context for an event of such importance. Because Milan, together with the Salone, has the power to highlight and throw into great relief the entire sector, from the talented young designers to the great international names, to the innovative startups to the historic companies.

The strength of the Salone del Mobile.Milano is strictly connected to the uniqueness of the furniture supply chain, a widespread ecosystem of industrial and cultural values. ​​It is an extraordinary plot that links creativity, ingenuity and industry, and that makes Italian design a strength of strategic importance for the whole Italian system. It is one of the best business cards that the city of Milan, which has always been able to interpret its time with an international spirit, can show the world.

This year the Salone once again turns the spotlight, on the centrality of Milan, which continues to gather international acclaim and recognition, and the creative ability and generosity of spirit of the industrial network at its base that works to offer the world excellence. The Salone del Mobile.Milano proposes an emotional and intellectual involvement of all its actors in order to go beyond what has been achieved so far, to consolidate that leadership role that the Exhibition and the city have conquered over the years, and attract, more and more, new projects and talents.

Highlights
Milan Design Week with innovative products and solutions for contemporary living come together, presenting outstanding products and solutions for contemporary living with an informed eye to the future and which combine design, technology, flexibility and sustainability. The vast array of exhibits give glimpses into the future of home design and outdoor space. Underneath the larger Fair are also various smaller events, including the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, EuroCucina, the International Bathroom Exhibition.

The biennial Eurocucina exhibition, present innovative high quality kitchen products, responding to the steady rise in demand for functionality from increasingly savvy consumers. Stainless steel and natural stone seem to have the edge. Technological innovation, energy efficiency, ease of use and aesthetic considerations characterise the goods on show.

Workplace3.0 is an exhibition with an innovative concept, devoted to design and technology for planning the workspace in the round. The exhibition underpinned by an innovative concept, devoted to design and technology in workplace planning, bring together the different components of the workplace in a single space, showcasing proposals and design solutions for living the workplace in its many different contemporary interpretations. Workplace3.0 bring togetherthe top proposals from the furnishing world for office, top proposals from the furnishing world banks, insurance offices, post offices and other public spaces, seating for offices and public spaces, acoustics, flooring and coverings, lighting and office accessories as well as audio-video technologies and communication.

SaloneSatellite, the unrivalled opportunity for interaction between young designers, businessmen, architects, interior designers and the press, was back in Pavilions 22 and 24, alongside Workplace3.0. This year, it was geared to the theme: ‘Craftsmanship & Design: Together for Industry’, and provide them many networking opportunities.The event allows emerging young designers to showcase their products and also gives them a chance of being selected to take part in the next edition of the SaloneSatellite Award competition, for the 3 best prototypes on exhibit, relating to the goods categories on show.

Design Districts of Milan Design Week 2012
The events of Milan Design Week are spread all over Milan, but are concentrated in some main areas. A series of main districts, namely Porta Venezia, San Babila, Tortona, The 5 Vie, Sant’Ambrogio or San Gregorio. During the Fuorisalone, these districts take center stage with an abundance of events including DJ sets, exhibitions and performances hosted at various locations across the city, comprising former industrial spaces, ateliers, artisanal workshops, ‘botteghe’ and the showrooms of big-name brands.

Milan Design Week drawn on the illustrious past of Milan, with it rich history in architecture, art, and design, old palazzi and churches as backdrops for the most interesting exhibits, and reissues of classic designs stealing the spotlight from new product introductions. For one week, Milan was transformed into an open gallery, with historical palazzos and museums, public places and little hidden gems welcoming design aficionados from the world over. It has established a necessary bridge between artists and attendees, creating a vibe of memorable networking.

Brera Design District
Brera is a place full of charm and culture, a world accustomed to anticipating trends, where art, fashion and design intertwine. The design district par excellence on the occasion of the days of the Fuorisalone, opens the doors of its shops, the most prestigious showrooms and temporary spaces in private places of suggestive beauty, to citizens and tourists curious to discover this hidden corner of a Milan outside from time.

Discover the new Brera Experience. The best way to discover and get to know the district’s places and secrets. Brera Design District also features a selection of the best commercial activities, i.e. those that best represent the identity of this historic district of Milan between design, lifestyle, food, art and culture. The Brera Design District offers, as always, a large number of events that animate the neighborhood and which alternate with the many design showrooms hosted here.

Brera Design District attracts the largest number of events and is the most visited and most representative district of the Fuorisalone. Born with the 2010 edition, the Brera Design Week has been able to increase over the years the number and quality of the events it hosts, for many, Fuorisalone means Brera and Brera Design Week is the reference platform, open to collaboration with companies and designers thanks to dedicated project formats.

Brera has the charm of the Milan art district and has a somewhat Parisian, bohemian personality. When you stroll through its streets, especially in April during the Fuorisalone, you can breathe an extravagant, young and international atmosphere. Brera is an iconic place. It has always been the bohemian place in Milan par excellence, where you can breathe that artsy atmosphere, thanks also to the Academy and the studios of photographers and painters. Now Brera is increasingly linked to design and this passage has respected the creative and special soul of the neighborhood, indeed it has brought new life.

Brera Design District was born in the historic Milanese district of Brera, a place that for centuries has provided a fundamental contribution to the cultural, artistic and commercial life of the city. The boundaries of BDD range from the Bastioni di Porta Nuova to via Broletto, from via Legnano to via Montenapoleone, including historic buildings of great cultural importance such as the Academy of Fine Arts, the Piccolo Teatro and the Basilica San Simpliciano.

Brera Design District aims to communicate Brera as a reference point for Milanese design, a territorial marketing operation which, through a communication system dedicated to the promotion of excellence and strengths active in the area, intends to enrich the proposal. cultural appeal and the district’s appeal capable of combining tradition and innovation in the widespread field of design.

On the occasion of the Fuori Salone 2012, the projects of the Brera Design District are back. Also this year interesting events developed in the district throughout the period was proposed, involving historical brands, new showrooms and all the activities related to the prestigious district of Milan.

90 and more events belonging to the district for the Fuorisalone event, an enormous success, above all expectations that brings Brera to the center of the events of the Milanese Design Week for the quality and number of exhibitors who color the streets of the district red thanks to the signage system designed for the event which consist of flags on rows, signage flags for each point of sale and vertical totems designed by Alulife.

Brera Design District aims to communicate Brera as a reference point for Milanese design, a territorial marketing operation which, through a communication system dedicated to the promotion of excellence and strengths active in the area, intends to enrich the proposal. cultural appeal and the district’s appeal capable of combining tradition and innovation in the widespread field of design.

For the April appointment of the Brera Design District there are many events and commercial and cultural activities planned, with thematic itineraries linked to sustainable design, greenery and art up to the Brera Design Night on April 20, an evening that include a extraordinary opening of selected showrooms and temporary spaces.

Porta Romana Design District
Studiolabo and Fuorisalone, in collaboration with IED and ELITA, offer a communication project designed specifically for the Porta Romana area, bringing together the excellences that stand out in the area with events and initiatives related to the world of design, but not only that, during the Fuorisalone week.

Tortona Design Week
Tortona Around Design is the new fuorisalone in the Tortona-Savona area, a project that aims to qualify the territory and the dense network of fuorisalone events and initiatives taking place in Milan, in the area around via Savona and via Tortona, highlighting its strengths and the most interesting exhibits. Tortona Around Design is aimed at an international audience of professionals and design enthusiasts, attentive to quality and the constant search for new stimuli.

Tortona Around Design is an itinerary rich in contents, a wide and multifaceted exhibition offer, a privileged point of view on the world of design that ranges from furniture design to technologies, from interactive installations to artistic performances, from large collective exhibitions for the promotion of young talents to the most established international brands of industrial design.

Tortona Design Week gathered the most important Italian and international design brands, together with renowned designers around the fascinating former industrial spaces that populate the area., young talents, incubators that have always made it a destination awaited and visited by thousands of people.

Tortona Around Design was born from the collaboration between Tortona Locations and Studiolabo. Tortona Design Week is an extraordinary window on the world: in fact, also for this edition of the Fuorisalone, international collectives are present in the spaces of the creative circuit launched over ten years ago in the Tortona district.

Now in its third edition, Tortona Design Week 2012 is increasingly an urban laboratory dedicated to the representation, development and remodeling of what we could simply define: contemporaneity. The theme of this edition is the relationship between present and future. The very idea of ​​contemporaneity: a present in the making that continually remodels itself.

A non-neutral container, rather an agent of change and economic growth: an incubator for young talents, a development engine for brands and professionals, a showcase and stage for big names. The variety and breadth of the technical offer is the reason for the success of this area, the ability to renew itself every time is its stylistic signature.

Design – today more than ever – is a global language. It is the alphabet and metrics of our age. Design contaminates the most heterogeneous sectors: fashion, automotive, food, entertainment, services… All involved in a continuous transition that finds reasons for expression and redefinition precisely through design.

Ventura Lambrate District
Ventura Lambrate, an industrial district in the northeast of Milan transforms into a temporary curated design hub. Within this area Organisation in Design – the initiator and producer of Ventura Lambrate – provides a stage for the most promising designers, studios, labels, galleries, institutions, academies and students from over the world. Visitors can move through the big industrial factory halls and intimate galleries to encounter the newest developments in design, though-provoking installations and the growing capacity of designers to expand their boundaries to design research. If overwhelmed with all these expressions of design, one can cool off and relax at one of the multiple pop-up creative restaurants and cafes.

Ventura Lambrate, a new and completely curated exhibition district. The project started in 2010 and quickly grew to become a cutting-edge design district with internationally acclaimed creatives, never-before-seen niche projects and extraordinary pop-up restaurants. A selection of international debuting and established designers, academies, institutions, companies and labels have the opportunity to present their creations here, in a coherent design circuit to the large, influential and professional audience of the Milan Design Week.

With every edition Ventura Lambrate is shaped by its continuous focus on the essence of design and on designers’ growing capacity to expand their boundaries to research, self-production, performances and other fields such as health-care and science. Exhibitions coming from all around the globe run through each other at the individual spaces and the clustered theme-furnished locations in and around the streets of ‘Lambrate’, a vibrant transitional area between urban and industrial in the northeast of Milan.

The Ventura Projects are curated exhibition areas dedicated to present international designers, design studios, design labels and brands, design institutions and galleries. Each Ventura Project presents a coherency of carefully selected exhibitions, temporary initiatives, as well as special projects, creative restaurants, etc. The Ventura Projects attract a large professional and influential audience consisting of journalist, photographers, bloggers, cultural institutions, curators and representatives from the corporate world.

The first Ventura Project originated in 2009, when – after 10 years of experience in scouting design talents and organising exhibitions in Milan – Organisation in Design met the architect and cultural entrepreneur Mariano Pichler, who was working on a major requalification project to regenerate the post-industrial borough “Lambrate” in Milan. Starting from the charming atmosphere of the Lambrate district and the desire to create a never-before-seen area during Milan’s prestigious Design Week, Organisation in Design launched the Ventura Lambrate show.

After Ventura Lambrate’s successful first and second edition, the Ventura Projects have expanded into established exhibitory circuits: the annual editions of Ventura Lambrate, the biennial Ventura Interieur and the special edition of Ventura Berlin. Every edition is committed to present the most interesting expressions of contemporary design.

Now in its third edition, The exhibitor selection process was based on principles that had already characterized the 2010 edition: creativity, quality, experimentation and content. Ventura Lambrate 2011 placed further and greater attention on the concepts of diversity and internationality, and also in 2012 this district is proposed as one of the most interesting of the Milanese design week.

Porta Venezia in Design | Liberty
Porta Venezia In Design, the fuorisalone circuit that combines design and art with the architectural and decorative heritage of the Liberty style. The idea of this circuit, is to highlight points include design and furnishing, hospitality and leisure, with good food and wine, architectural firms, workshops that highlight the artisan aspect, sometimes ‘hidden’ in courtyards, others on the road. Also the cultural aspect, which highlights the architectural angle, revealing the attraction has not been accessible for years. Visitors could enter to admire this secret location, magnificent and rich of art deco.

Interesting news in the area, which is undergoing a major transformation in recent years, with entrances to realities linked to the world of architecture and 3D design. “Creativity” applied to all sectors. The collaboration between various realities – commercial, cultural – that live in the area and have favorably welcomed the project. Porta Venezia Design District, in a historic district, dense due to the strong architectural trace left by the liberty style (the belle époque), a central area, which boasts important points related to design, art, architecture and culture.

An area that has been offering, for some years now, individual exhibition projects that attract the attention of the public and sector employees. It hosts important companies in the design / furniture sector, locations, professional studios, period buildings and historical monuments, art galleries and cultural centers. The design / art events come communicated together with the Liberty route, which includes the main buildings of this period.

“Porta Venezia in Design | Liberty” is the off-show circuit that combines design and art innovations from showrooms, shops and companies with the architectural and decorative heritage of the Liberty style of which this area of ​​the city is particularly rich. To which is added the food & wine route thanks to the collaboration of Slow Food Milan and Feeding Milan.

In its first edition, it presents itself to the audience of the fuorisalone as a double circuit: a design / art path and a cultural focus centered on Liberty. ‘Porta Venezia in Design | Liberty ‘combines 24 points, including showrooms, shops and companies, which exhibit the latest in design and art, with the architectural and decorative heritage of the Art Nouveau style of 16 wonderful buildings that characterize this area of the city. Made also thanks to the collaboration of technical partners – DuPont Tyvek, Essential, Jannelli & Volpi and Operad’Arte – and some media partners, it is a project conceived by Nicoletta Murialdo.

Special Events
Itineraries that include the events of Design Week related to the most important themes of this edition.

Mecenate Area Design
Milan, a city open to the future and Mediterranean gateway to Europe, is the place where Design, Fashion, Culture and Music meet in a closing event dedicated to the Design Week. After the success of the previous editions, Design Diffusion Network celebrates the closing of the 2012 design week with a single big night event in collaboration with MAD (Mecenate Area Design) and with some of the most important realities active in Milan including I AM A RICH BITCH, MEET2BIZ, UNIVERSITY.COM, WOMADE, PWP and POPSTARZ.

International line up, futuristic installations curated by the European Institute of Design in Milan and a fascinating location inserted in a complex where the architectural recovery of industrial spaces originally used for the production of airplanes creates an unmissable atmosphere for design lovers. A party with a strongly international flavor for young designers, creatives and endlessly curious.

MAD / Mecenate Area Design is a project by Officine del Volo and East End Studios, in collaboration with Studiolabo, Fuorisalone and the Milano Design Network circuit. In its first edition it presents itself to the audience of the fuorisalone with two important night events.

Most
Tom Dixon aims to transform the Museum of Science and Technology into the new epicenter of the Milanese Design Week. The Most project by Tom Dixon, with the help of the curator Martina Mondadori, intends to give a new pole of reference to professionals and enthusiasts. The most important meeting point of world design, a space for quiet contemplation or chaotic energy, a platform for exchange for great ideas. All visitors to the Most have the opportunity to take advantage of the Soda Bar, the eco-friendly bar offered by SodaStream.

The 40,000 square meters made available to the museum, including halls and cloisters, are thus preparing to welcome the more than 30 exhibitors who have joined the Most project. Luxury brands such as Cartier and popular brands such as Nivea, which on this occasion joins the British team of Studio Toogood for the ‘La Cura’ project, join up with leading names in the world design scene. The task of transforming the ambitions of the Most project into a concrete reality made up of set-ups, stands, installations, reception facilities for exhibitors, visitors and the press has been entrusted to Piano B, which takes care of the entire production of the Most and the coordination of all the exhibitors.

Temporary Museum For New Design
The idea of ​​a “museum” format, in a contemporary and emotional sense, which would enhance content and culture, avant-garde and roots, thanks also to the commitment of major international brands, was a great success, imitated by many and also requested by the abroad. Today, faced with the fragmentation of production and self-production, the imposition of bio-architecture, the multiplication of producing countries, the increasingly young age of designers, of increasingly varied origins, the new unstoppable market created by e-commerce, strong is the demand for renewal, which moves without a priori snobberies on the path of the search for good design all over the world and in every area.

The new edition of the Temporary Museum for New Design organized for the Fuori Salone by Superstudio Group, based on a project by Gisella Borioli and with the art direction of Giulio Cappellini, unfolds as always in the two iconic locations in the Tortona area: the great Superstudio Più, exhibition and creativity center, in via Tortona 27 (10,000 m2) and the historic Superstudio 13, the famous pioneering photographic studios of the area opened in 1983, in via Forcella 13 / Bugatti 9 (2,000 m2).

The attention to change has renewed the formula and brought new projects: it is Global Design, noting that in the new millennium the influence of design, understood as a tension towards increasingly emotional, playful, functional, technological, individual, seductive “things” is overflowing from the simple “invention” of new furnishings to solutions for every sector of life, from the devices we use every moment, to cars, to fashion, to the use of “green”, to more traditional or innovative materials, to art, to objects and moments of everyday life, to the extreme expressions of food-design or nail-design that express this trend once more.

Fuorisalone Design Party by Hyundai
Fuorisalone Design Party by Hyundai is the most exclusive event of the design week, Friday 20 April at Officine del Volo, in Mecenate 76. The exhibition is dedicated to the preview launch of the HYUNDAI CREATIVE LAB, a platform and creative laboratory aimed at the widespread world of design. The exclusive partner of the evening was ARCHITONIC with a dedicated bar area. Colorful presences of outdoor furniture by Plust Collection.

Hyundai Motor Company Italy renews its support for the main event that sees Milan as the undisputed protagonist of international design. On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile week, in fact, Hyundai was the Main Sponsor of Brera Design District, the beating heart of the initiatives aimed at the public during Design Week for the second consecutive year. the Hyundai Creative Lab.

Hyundai Creative Lab is a creative laboratory, aimed at the community of Italian and foreign designers and creatives, with the aim of promoting the culture of design by supporting the ideas of young designers in the world of creativity and widespread design with particular attention to the themes of automotive and sustainable mobility.

Elita Design Week
The 2012 edition of the usual Sundaypark Special Design Week Closing Party by Elita and Fuorisalone.it is part of the sixth edition of Elita milano, design week music & arts festival. Elita Design Awards overturns the point of view of the many awards that are awarded in the field of design, enhancing the creativity and capacity for innovation of companies that, through talented designers and architects, propose creative interventions capable of involving visitors, transform Milan into a stage full of happenings that attracts a more varied and international audience than any other Lombard initiative.

A team made up of representatives of elita festival, IED Milano, Fuorisalone.it, FUTURE CONCEPT LAB explore Zona Tortona, Porta romana design, Brera Design District, the Triennale, the historic downtown area with the presence of Interni and Ventura Lambrate in search of the best 15 productions. This second edition of ELITA DESIGN AWARDS, in line with the experimental and research character of elita festival, is enriched by the IED Sound award assigned by IED Milano to the best sound design of the installations.

The 15 video reportages on the candidates, shot and edited by IED students, was presented at the Franco Parenti Theater in Milan before the award ceremony, headequorter, elita festival headquarters. A final jury composed of Rossella Bertolazzi (IED Visual Communication), Dino Lupelli (elita festival), Cristian Confalonieri (Fuorisalone.it), Valentina Ventrelli (Future Concept lab), with the president of the jury Lorenzo Palmeri, decide the winner of this second edition.

Franco Bolelli (Philosopher and writer), Stefano Boeri (Councilor for Culture, Fashion, Design), moderated by Paolo Ferrarini (Future Concept Lab), Claudio Nelli (Urban File), Marco Zamperini (Chief Innovation Officer from Value Team), do a 360-degree panoramic view of the city, or rather the places in the city that in recent years have been able to become a stable reference point for the events of the Fuori Salone, catalyzing visitors and experiences, suggesting a mapping as well as physical, mental in the experience of urban exploration during the week of the show.