Review of Salone del Mobile.Milano 2010, Milan Design Week, Italy
Salone del Mobile Milano, the most expected international event for the furnishing and design sectors, last from 14 to 19 of April, 2010, at Rho Milan Fairgrounds pavilions, along with the biennial exhibitions devoted to kitchen and bathroom. About 2,500 exhibitors joined the 49th edition of Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The event take place along with Eurocucina and its collateral event Technology for the Kitchen (FTK), the International Bathroom Furniture Exhibition, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and SaloneSatellite.
Milan has long been regarded as one of the international capitals of industrial and modern design, as well as one of the world’s most influential cities in fashion. The Salone del Mobile is an invaluable tool for the industry as well as an ongoing, quite extraordinary promotional vehicle. There also be a number of collateral events dedicated to Milan running alongside the trade shows. No fewer than four exhibitions focusing on the manufacture of furnishings and furnishing accessories, on kitchens, on bathrooms, plus the project being hosted by eight key Milanese institutions take place concurrently.
As the world’s largest and most important furniture fair, Salone del Mobile is the key event of Milan design week 2010. 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 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 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 300.000 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’s steeped history in design makes it one of the most important hubs of creativity in the world. Salone del Mobile Milano become a key event in the luxury calendar where furniture manufacturers and luxury brands look to showcase their creativity and innovation, and where the world’s most influential designers, journalists and professionals converge to discuss and analyse the latest technologies, materials and trends.
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 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.
Each year, for Milan Design Week, the city undergoes a much more dramatic transformation than it does during Milan Fashion Week: art galleries and furniture shops stay open until late, installations and temporary shows provide entertainment for curious passers-by and designers or buyers visiting from around the world. In Milan’s centre, the coolest neighbourhoods come to life with events, happenings and parties.
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 fair consists of 24 large halls, all of which housed Italian and other international brands. The sheer volume of the size of the fair and the overwhelming enormous stuffs on show is beyond comprehension. This year the biennial Kitchen Furniture Exhibition along with FTK – the event dedicated to technological innovation in built-in electrical appliances and cooker hoods – occupy four Pavilions, Nos. 9, 11, 13 and 15, while two other Pavilions, Nos. 22 and 24, was given over entirely to the Bathroom Furniture 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 2010
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.
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
The Tortona Design Week circuit, conceived by the Tortona Area Lab cultural association, aims to promote and coordinate the exhibition and cultural initiatives that take place during the Milanese design week in the area between via Tortona, via Savona and Via Stendhal. The exhibition circuit was characterized by important presences, big events and new interesting proposals, in a mix of sure interest for the international public of professionals and professionals who constitute the privileged target of the event.
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.
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.
The Ventura Lambrate 2010 circuit is one of the districts that in recent years has attracted attention during the Milan Design Week. The overwhelming success of the first Ventura Lambrate edition led to hundreds of requests from exhibitors to participate in the second edition. The exhibitor selection process was based on principles that had already characterized the 2010 edition: creativity, quality, experimentation and content. Ventura Lambrate 2010 placed further and greater attention on the concepts of diversity and internationality.
Porta Venezia in Design
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.
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.
Posto di vista since its first edition is characterized by being a Fuorisalone appointment capable of proposing an unconventional reading of design. A project that has been rewarded over the years by a constantly growing influx of public, thanks to a proposal of creative paths that, edition after edition, deepen the link between design and social, economic, political and ecological issues. To characterize the present projects, the laboratory and research component, the attention to the cultural, artistic, communicative, multimedia, experimental dimension, the choice of themes and targets that are not strictly commercial.