Salone Contract begins: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten (OMA) sign the Masterplan

Rem Koolhaas, ph. Charlie Koolhaas, courtesy of OMA

An initiative dedicated to the most strategic segment for the development of the supply chain, which will take shape in 2026 with a thematic journey among exhibitors already operating in the contract segment and a first day of the Forum

Salone Contract makes its debut, a long-term strategic project by Salone del Mobile: a new initiative designed to understand and interpret the complexity of contract furnishing, a market undergoing rapid and significant transformation, where value is shifting from individual products to the ability to integrate systems, skills, data and services.

The project, entrusted to the architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA, an architecture and urbanism studio, is conceived as a longterm strategic investment, structured over the time necessary to read and understand the complexity of the contract ecosystem. The global contract market is currently estimated at around €68 billion and is expected to exceed €110 billion over the next decade (Source: Global Market Insight Inc). This growth is not merely quantitative, but structural, driven by the increasing integration of products, technologies and operational models, with direct effects on industrial organisation and business models across the supply chain

Salone Contract 2026: an edition focused on culture, business and networking

During the 64th edition of the Salone del Mobile, Rem Koolhaas will invite public reflection on the themes framing the project with a dedicated lecture, while the international forum curated by the Salone del Mobile in collaboration with OMA will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the opportunities and risks that are currently redefining Contract across design practice, the design industry and global market transformations.

Within the pavilions of Fiera Milano Rho, a thematic pathway among exhibitors will offer a crosscutting reading of the existing offering and its evolutionary trajectories, connecting production models, design expertise and operational approaches already active in the sector. In parallel, the Salone will activate a structured incoming programme aimed at a selected group of international professionals, with the goal of intercepting qualified demand and testing new models of interaction between supply, demand and market.

As of September 2026, Salone Contract will embark on an international road tour across key geographies for large-scale and giga-projects, with events dedicated to in-depth analysis of global scenarios, emerging dynamics and current and future investments. The objective is to progressively build an informed and profiled international audience ahead of the first edition of the exhibition in 2027.

Lastly, a digital matchmaking platform designed to connect and create business opportunities will be available to a select group of key figures in the sector.

Since the 19th century, world fairs have functioned as experimental grounds where industries project their ambitions, where cultural dialogues are reinvented, and where opportunities for collaboration materialise. Today, Salone Contract presents a contemporary iteration of that typology – an arena for examining its relevance and observe how it adapts within an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape

— Rem Koolhaas

Salone Contract 2027: the project’s roadmap

In 2027 the project will explore the latent opportunities in the contract sector. The outcome will be a structured exhibition featuring selected companies representing contract excellence in terms of design quality, industrial capacity and operational reliability. It will not only be a generalist, all-round showcase, but will also aim to deliver a coherent and credible vision of contemporary contract. For companies, Salone Contract 2027 will represent an opportunity for qualified positioning, based on the relevance of relationships and the quality of international demand. For professionals, the exhibition is conceived as a tool for selection, comparison and orientation, capable of cutting decision-making time and risk in a market characterised by high complexity.

The first edition of Salone Contract Forum

Following the success of Euroluce International Lighting Forum, Salone del Mobile and OMA are organising three days of presentations, involving leading industry players and a B2B agenda of meetings with international professionals. For the realisation of Salone Contract 2027, the Salone del Mobile will collaborate with Federico Pompignoli – PMP Architecture as its local partner.

Maria Porro, President of Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “Contract is today one of the segments where the most significant transformations are taking place, from an industrial, operational and market perspective. The Salone has chosen to address this challenge through a project that is visionary, yet at the same time strongly structured, capable of offering tools for analysis and orientation within an economic scenario marked by profound complexity. The collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA, among the most perceptive observers of the present, represents an opportunity to engage with a strong vision combined with a solid methodological approach. We selected OMA not to apply an exhibition model, but to read ongoing phenomena, intercept emerging signals and connect domains that rarely interact with one another, in a contract context in which value increasingly depends on the ability to integrate systems, data and expertise. The objective is to ask the right questions at the moment they matter, and to support the supply chain in building a solid and credible international positioning. In today’s contract market, success no longer depends on showing more, but on understanding earlier a demand that is increasingly sophisticated and integrated with services”.

Contract: an evolving market

Contract furnishing in Europe represents a market with production exceeding €13.5 billion and consumption of approximately €11 billion. Over the past two years, the segment has outperformed the wider furnishing sector, confirming its structural resilience even within a complex macroeconomic scenario.

Contract production remains largely concentrated in Europe, while less than 20 per cent of output is destined for extra-European projects, primarily in North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Poland and Sweden together account for more than 60 per cent of total European production, confirming Europe’s role as a global manufacturing and design hub (Source: The Contract Furniture and Furnishings Market in Europe Report, CSIL).

Among the main drivers of the post-pandemic contract market, several sectors stand out – particularly those with a high level of design content and strong demand for customization. Alongside the office segment, which remains the largest by volume, solid performance is also seen in high-end accommodation and in the education, healthcare, and marine sectors. These latter three segments have shown steady growth between 2018 and 2024, driven by a continuously rising demand for bespoke solutions. The marine sector, in particular, demonstrated remarkable resilience as early as 2020, supported by the recovery of cruise traffic and the intense activity of shipyards. This is further reinforced by the strong contribution of the yacht and superyacht segment, increasingly focused on high-end, custom-made furnishings and kitchens. (Source: Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2026, PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).