The Salone del Mobile.Milano events programme

With its launch in 2027, the first edition of Salone Contract marks a new phase for the sector. Why has Contract become an urgent topic in today's global landscape? As economic pressures intensify, sustainability requirements evolve, and vulnerabilities in supply chains persist, Contract is emerging as a catalyst for change. This panel will examine the sector's systemic risks — economic, environmental, and operational — and explore why these pressures call for transformation today. Viewed through the lens of Contract, how can these challenges reveal latent possibilities for innovation, resilience, and new forms of value creation?

Since his early exhibition at Triennale Milano in 1985–86, Rem Koolhaas has operated across multiple roles — architect, curator, writer, designer — going beyond the boundaries that traditionally separate these disciplines. With the founding of the dedicated research arm AMO in the late 1990s alongside the architectural practice OMA, Koolhaas expanded the scope of an architecture office: engaging clients at vastly different speeds and scales, moving between the tangible and the ephemeral, the conceptual and the commercial. Over the decades, this dual practice has developed a sustained engagement with design in different forms — from catwalk scenography and homeware collections to furniture systems and exhibition pavilions. In this lecture, Koolhaas shares his current preoccupations — tracing the threads that connect his most recent work to the creations that have shaped his career.  

Introduction and Presentation by David Gianotten: OMA's ongoing observations on the Contract sector, Salone Contract Masterplan.

The Contract sector operates within an ecosystem that brings together the ambitions of designers, manufacturers, and operators. When these players collaborate, they can combine expertise and resources to create furnishings, interiors, and architectures capable of sustaining high-quality built environments over the long term. What are the fundamental pillars that define the current and future landscape of Contract? What visions and competencies shape this ever-evolving field? This discussion focuses on the client, the manufacturer, the operator, and the emerging protagonist of the marine sector. It explores how the sector's founding pillars align across the entire project lifecycle — from initial strategic thinking through to realisation — and how these intersections can translate into concrete operational frameworks. The panel ultimately asks: How do these pillars integrate to form a resilient, future-oriented Contract ecosystem?

This talk introduces Ark Journal’s editorial approach, where architecture, design, and visual arts are interwoven through a humanistic lens. Mette Barfod discusses how the magazine builds narratives from lived spaces, highlighting the relationship between materiality, light, and identity, and offering an intimate and contemporary perspective on living.