Salone del Mobile 2024 is widespread, timeless and multidimensional

12 April 2024

Without limits of time and space, design enters unexpected places where brands experiment with new exhibition formats.

It’s time to put aside the idea of the Salone del Mobile intended only as a trade fair, for some time companies have been experimenting with alternative and complementary formats to the classic stand and in 2024 this trend will consolidate further.

The fair itself has changed its face with the pavilions managed with the aim of grouping companies by content and visitor target in mind. The route is symmetrical and the stands are distributed in a ring along the external perimeter walls, with wider internal corridors to facilitate and make the visit more pleasant. A new layout that reflects a new way of presenting new products to the public by brands which, in order to stand out, offer increasingly engaging and diversified experiences without ever limiting themselves to the presentation of the collection.

In the increasingly dense mapping of the Milanese showrooms of all the major design companies, previews, convivial events and performances take place. The design week expands in space, involving not only shops but also anomalous spaces, usually used for other activities. But it also extends over time, since the calendar of previews began on April 4th and some exhibitions will continue beyond the show.

The subtheme is not just to tell the project but to offer an experience, involving the visitor to convey the suggestion underlying each collection, projecting him into the world and lifestyle imagined for him by the company. It is no coincidence that expressive forms intertwine and even the boundary between industrial design and independent design disappears as companies also enter galleries to propose authorial projects not to be missed.

The key word is “crossover”, of format but also of brand: Tacchini and CC-Tapis will be together in the Rude Arts Club exhibition installation in which designer Faye Toogood presents Cosmic – a capsule collection of furnishings for Tacchini – and Rude, a collection of carpets for CC-Tapis.

Lago has chosen the talk formula and on 16 April, in the Casa Lago Milan space, the managing director Daniele Lago will converse with the designer Monica Armani about design in its relationship between reality and dream, introducing the new Venezia collection by the designer herself.

Showrooms in via della Moscova, Rinascente, Brera Site by Diesel Living and Archiproducts Milano: four locations will host Lodes’ novelties and in particular the new Oblò collection by Paola Navone Otto Studio, a series of lamps inspired by the world of the sea in which a invisible LED transmits the impression of a sphere of pure light.

There is also great anticipation for The small hours, the first bathroom collection designed by Patricia Urquiola for Salvatori which will be presented both at the fair and in the showroom in the city.

Outdoor furniture confirms itself as one of the absolute protagonists of this edition, among the most interesting collections Carl Hansen & Son presents the outdoor version of Embrace by the Eoos studio and relies on the showroom spaces in the city while Ethimo, in addition to the classic stand in the fair will present its new collections – by Zanellato Bertotto, Luca Nichetto, Studiopepe – both in the Milanese flagship store and as part of the Fuorisalone Milano 5Vie, the theme is Pàtios, a secret patio for an engaging outdoor experience.

A birthday party and a photographic exhibition complete Gervasoni’s exhibition experience which, in addition to the fair, offers a birthday party to celebrate 20 years of the iconic Ghost collection by Paola Navone in the Milanese showroom but also the photographic exhibition “Frame” curated by Federica Biasi in which the company’s furnishings are inserted into art photographs.

Giorgetti, after the preview on 11 April, will present the new collections in the showroom which feature the collaboration of, among others, Carlo Colombo, Dainelli Studio and Draga&Aurel.

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