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Introducing “Salone Raritas”: the new Salone del Mobile.Milano exhibition space dedicated to limited edition design and high-end creative manufacturing
Salone Raritas. Curated icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces Project visuals Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 ©Formafantasma
Salone Raritas will make its debut at the 64th edition of the trade fair. Curated icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces: the first direct interface between the world of special edition design, antiques and high-end craftsmanship and the professional design market professional design market (architects, interior designers, contractors, developers, dealers, etc). Leading galleries and an international audience will come together on a platform driven by a strong curatorial vision, designed to foster long-term relationships and generate business opportunities.
The Salone del Mobile.Milano is holding a presentation in London of Salone Raritas. Curated icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces, a new exhibition and curatorial endeavour dedicated to special and limited editions of design, unique pieces, antiques and fine craftsmanship, set to make its debut from 21st to 26th April 2026 at Pavilions 9-11 Fiera Milano, Rho. A place for galleries of excellence and the international design supply chain – architects, interior designers, developers, hospitality and contract professionals – to meet, where the cultural value of the pieces will dialogue with the scale of major contemporary commissions.
Curated by Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director and Cultural Events Advisor of the Salone del Mobile, and set up by Formafantasma, Salone Raritas was created to bridge the gap between highly-skilled creative production and the B2B contemporary design market. The aim is to build a select environment fostering networking opportunities and perspectives, generating new ways of presenting and purchasing unique pieces, limited editions and 'outsider' objects which, when included in high-profile projects, can define the identity of public and private interiors.
The exhibition design is by Formafantasma, who conceived the Salone Raritas area in the manner of a large architectural lantern: a porous landscape, bold in its materiality, designed to enrich the stories it contains without overwhelming them. Designed to ensure recognisability and rhythm, the space is divided into modular islands with a predefined colour and material palette that allows for calibrated customisation.
On the major contemporary design scene, Salone Raritas identifies a change of pace: international hospitality, residential and hospitality real estate development and experiential retail increasingly incorporate limited edition works and furnishings as levers of identity and positioning. Including collectible design in the Salone means taking the lead in an evolving field, bringing it to the attention of investors, developers and clients in search of quality, rarity and a coherent narrative as new value indicators for hotels, residences and public spaces.
Salone Raritas. Curated icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces Project visuals Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 ©Formafantasma
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “Salone Raritas was born of an awareness that is also a responsibility, which is to read the evolution of the international market and provide a response consistent with the identity of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. Our role has always been to stay ahead of the curve: today we are doing so by throwing open a new chapter devoted to authorial design, research and antiques – an extraordinarily fertile territory – which interacts directly with the professional design system. Salone Raritas will be a curatorial platform with a strong market awareness, capable of picking up on the growing demand for rare and iconic pieces from architects, developers, brands and investors, who now recognise this type of design as a strategic asset in terms of affirming identity and vision. At a time when the professional world is focusing on uniqueness, content and quality, Salone Raritas fully interprets the Salone’s role as an activator of international connections, visions and languages. This project dovetails with our history, but it also lays bare a significant openness towards new scenarios, unique and research pieces, limited editions and high-end creative manufacturing are entering fully into the heart of the Salone for the first time. Welcoming and valorising these pieces means recognising the value of design conceived to last over time, which the Salone has always promoted and supported as an authentic expression of design culture. We are also throwing open a new channel of direct dialogue with the B2B and contract worlds, creating a platform designed to meet the needs of a professional audience that sets huge store by the quality, identity and cultural value of projects".
"We have worked to build a new design, cultural and commercial ecosystem that constitutes a concrete and valuable opportunity for both exhibitors and visitors, generating new connections and market opportunities. Salone Raritas heralds a new chapter for the collectible design segment, which is evolving and expanding its characteristics and range of possibilities. Salone Raritas builds open channels of communication between realities that until very recently seemed far apart, allowing many of them a chance to meet for the first time. The Salone is thus confirming its status as an institution capable of generating relationships, perspectives and new forms of shared growth", said Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director and Cultural Events Advisor for the Salone del Mobile and curator of Salone Raritas.
The project will be further underpinned by the Salone ecosystem: a global platform that attracts over 300,000 visitors from more than 160 different countries and over 5,200 international journalists every year, multiplying the visibility of a sector that traditionally operates on a small scale. In the Salone Raritas space, this scale translates to a curated and immediately readable narrative, in which the character of each gallery remains intact within a unified exhibition layout.
Formafantasma - Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin - see exhibition design as both a critical and a functional device: “We imagined Salone Raritas as a legible and permeable architectural landscape, a lantern that puts light and rhythm at the service of the pieces. The modular, respectful design allows each gallery to express its own identity while maintaining a choral narrative, designed for both visitor memorability and for market effectiveness”.
Configured in this way, Salone Raritas offers an immersive and distinctive experience, in which unique pieces and limited series become accessible to interlocutors who seldom cross paths in other circuits, consolidating the Salone del Mobile.Milano's mission not just as a commercial platform but also as a cultural infrastructure: a place where rarity ceases to be an exception and becomes a shared design language.
