Practical guide to the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022
Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022 map by Federica Fragapane
Only a week left for the opening of the most important international event for the furniture design sector. Here’s a guide to point out everything there will be to see from 7 to 12 June
Exhibitions
Salone del Mobile.Milano returns to Rho Fiera with the numbers and dimensions we are used to: in June, all 20 pavilions of the exhibition center will be occupied, for a total of 200,000 square meters and 2,000 exhibitors (find them all here), 25% of them from abroad, in an edition that promises to be historic. It is in fact number 60.
At the fair it will be possible to again see all the events: from the International Furniture Fair and the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and Workplace3.0, all the way to the biennial events, EuroCucina with the side event FTK: Technology For the Kitchen and the International Bathroom Exhibition. Also S.Project, the crosscutting space devoted to different fields of design, which made its highly successful debut in 2019, is back. Last but not least, SaloneSatellite, with its 600 talented designers under 35, will this year be held in Pavilions 1/3.
The exhibitions will also be accompanied by two ADI exhibitions (Pavilions 9/11, 22/24) related to the biennials, DESIGNin the Kitchen and DESIGNin the Bathroom, entrusted to the curatorship of architect Alessandro Colombo with Paola Garbuglio, and the installation “Design with Nature”, curated by Mario Cucinella in pavilion 15.
Talks
There will also be a programme of Talks that the Salone del Mobile.Milano and SaloneSatellite will be holding from 7th to 12th June in their respective arenas – “Design with Nature”, in S.Project’s Pavilion 15 and the show dedicated to talented young designers under 35 in Pavilion 3. Amplifying these thoughts, the Salone del Mobile.Milano digital platform will be streaming the Talks so they can be followed virtually, building an archive of stories and experiences that will remain online for consultation.
In Pavilion 15, for “Sustainability: Three Different Episodes” Maria Cristina Didero, Curatorial Director of Design Miami/ 2022, and a consultant and writer, will moderate contributions by Victoria Siddall, non-executive Director of Frieze, Chair of the Trustees of Studio Voltaire, and a founding member and trustee of the Gallery Climate Coalition, Daan Roosegaarde, a creative thinker, artist, innovator and designer, and Eva Feldkamp, founder and Director of All in Awe, a social enterprise that puts architects and designers in touch with non-profit organisations.
Beatrice Leanza, who has helmed international institutions such as the Lisbon Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology and Beijing Design Week will be speaking on “Radical Nature: The Design and Science of Worldbuilding” with designers and thinkers Marjan van Aubel, solar designer, Anab Jain, critical designer and co-founder of the Superflux studio, and Liam Young, exponent of speculative architecture and filmmaker.
Essayist and curator Chiara Alessi, will feature Marco Dambrosio, known as Makkox, an illustrator and television writer, as they discuss and re-imagine the sixty years of the trade fair in “The Real Imaginary Story of the Salone del Mobile”
The programme held in the Arena of Pavilion 3, will feature a lecture by Yves Béhar, the Swiss designer and entrepreneur, entitled Designing for our future selves/Progettare per i nostri domani.
Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design and Director of Research and Development at MoMA, and the journalist, critic and design expert Alice Rawsthorn, will discuss the story behind the project Design Emergency (@design.emergency) with the lecture “There Will Always Be A Design Emergency”. The talk will include a selection of past interviews as concrete examples of how designers are tackling complex challenges in every field.
They will be followed by Franco Lisi, Scientific Director of the Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano and the architect Alberto Apostoli, architect of the project of the Citadel of Wellness, who will discuss the theme of inclusivity and how it is the task of designers to generate wellbeing through their work for people of all ages and abilities and for the environment.
Lastly, the architect Mario Cucinella will chair the meeting promoted by the SOS School of Sustainability|Masters in Sustainable Architecture and Design, with a variety of speakers and #SOS9 students - Academic Year 2021-2022 taking part.
Another contribution to the various reflections comes from “GREEN GRADS. A special British initiative to promote new talent and care for the Planet”. Created by the editor of Design Exchange magazine, David Morris, for the exclusive preview at SaloneSatellite, the 25’ documentary narrates the results of the project of the same name conceived and directed by the design promoter and critic Barbara Chandler (who will present the work to the public) and co-directed by Michael Czerwinski to explore the “green ideas” that have sprung up at universities in the United Kingdom over the last two years. After the presentation on June 7th, a daily repeat is on the schedule.
