From April 16-21, Milan takes center stage as the host of Salone del Mobile and its myriad of satellite events. Established in 1961 to showcase Italian furniture, this event, now in its sixty-second iteration, transcends mere exposition; it’s a sacred journey for the aesthetically attuned.
DESIGN
Milan Design Week offers a window into the city’s vibrant culture, spanning from the chic boulevards of Brera to the expansive exhibitions at Fiera Milano. Whether you’re a novice eager to immerse yourself or a seasoned enthusiast seeking the latest trends, our curated guide will lead you through the maze, unveiling the must-see destinations and hidden gems that define Milan’s most dynamic week.
Salone del Mobile
Returning as a luminary event on the design calendar, the 2024 Salone del Mobile positions itself at the forefront of the international design landscape, running from April 16th to 21st at Milan’s expansive Rho Fiera fairgrounds. Established in 1961, this distinguished trade fair showcases a broad spectrum of furnishing products that are notable for their innovative design, technological advancements, and the impactful way they enhance living environments. Exhibitors at the Salone del Mobile.Milano are renowned for their commitment to ingenuity, sustainable excellence, and the evocation of emotion, reflecting a global, inclusive approach and fostering dialogue within the wider creative and productive ecosystem of furnishing. The fair serves as a pivotal hub for experimentation and cross-pollination, facilitating encounters, exchanges, and the genesis of new business ventures, while presenting pioneering prototypes and ideas in home furnishings and lifestyle, from living and dining areas to outdoor settings, underscoring an evolving narrative on domestic living.
The 62nd edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano in 2024 is particularly notable for its enriched program of installations, discussions, and interactive experiences. It boasts groundbreaking contributions such as “Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room”, an innovative exploration into the world of introspection and design; “Under the Surface”, a reflective journey into the ethics and aesthetics of water sustainability in bathroom furnishings; and a comprehensive exploration of food design in “All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances”, melding culinary art with design in an unprecedented manner. The dialogue series “Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives”, curated by Annalisa Rosso, promises engaging conversations with leading thinkers like Francis Kéré, Jeanne Gang, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Date: April 16th to 21st
Location: Fiera Milano, Corso Italia, 20017 Rho MI, Italy
Alcova
The seventh installment of Alcova will welcome visitors from April 15th to 21st, between 11 am and 7 pm (last admission at 6 pm), at two remarkable new venues: Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi. These architectural gems, nestled within the Milan metropolitan area, exemplify Modernist and 19th-century Lombard villa architecture, respectively, designed by luminaries such as Osvaldo Borsani. Conveniently located a brief walk apart, they are well-connected to central Milan by the S2 and S4 train lines, operating at 15-minute intervals. Admission to Alcova is complimentary until full capacity is reached, without the necessity for prior registration.
As with its predecessors, this edition aims to animate these historical sites with a curated ensemble of cutting-edge designers, educational bodies, and corporations, exploring the future of habitation and innovation. A rich agenda of dialogues and artistic performances will further enrich the event, maintaining Alcova’s commitment to pioneering exploration.
Date: April 15th to 21st
Location: Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi
Gucci: Design Ancora
Gucci is set to reveal Design Ancora, a distinguished initiative, during the Milan Design Week 2024, hosted at their flagship store on Via Montenapoleone from April 15th to 21st. This venture serves as a platform for Gucci’s Creative Director, Sabato De Sarno, to explore and articulate the nuanced concept of iconicity, positioned at the crossroads of the enduring legacies of design pioneers and distinguished brands. The project celebrates the golden era of Italian design, a period renowned for its global dissemination of Italian expertise in both artisanal craftsmanship and mass production.
Design Ancora will be unveiled during the 2024 Milan Design Week, featuring a curated collection of five objects from a past age, emblematic of Italian culture, and more specifically, the essence of Milanese identity. These items aim to capture and convey a sense of contemporaneity through a reinterpretation of their timeless iconicity. The exhibition space, designed by architect Guillermo Santomà with his international perspective, will enhance the presentation of these special edition products. Following their debut, these items will be made available for purchase on Gucci’s official website, offering a bridge between historical reverence and modern accessibility.
Date: April 15th to 21st
Location: Via Monte Napoleone, 7A, 20121 Milano
Samuel Ross x Kohler
Kohler announced the global debut of a grand immersive installation created in collaboration with the acclaimed artist-designer Dr. Samuel Ross MBE and his industrial design studio, SR_A. This collaboration underscores Kohler’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of design and functionality in home products. In tandem with this installation, Kohler will also unveil Formation 02, the latest smart toilet, which is the second creation borne from the enduring partnership between Kohler and SR_A. Available for purchase starting April 16 on sra.kohler.com, Formation 02 is a limited-edition smart toilet that breaks new ground in design aesthetics.
Date: April 15th
Location: Via Senato, 10, Milan
Diesel Living
At Milan Design Week 2024, Diesel Living hosts Red Takeover and Silver Dome exhibit, inviting visitors into a boldly reimagined world where iconic shades of red and silver set the stage. This immersive showcase presents a vibrant fusion of Diesel Living’s avant-garde lifestyle concept and design philosophy, articulated through collaborations with esteemed partners Moroso, Lodes, Iris Ceramica, and Scavolini. Each product on display encapsulates the essence of Diesel’s innovative approach to living spaces, where the interplay of color, material, and form ignites the imagination and inspires a new way of interacting with our environments.
Date: April 16th to 21st
Location: Via delle Erbe, 2A – Milano
Nendo: Whispers of Nature
At Milan Design Week 2024, nendo celebrates its 20th year of participation with the solo exhibition “nendo: whispers of nature,” hosted in a venue transformed by Paola Lenti into a bioecological architectural marvel featuring offices, showrooms, galleries, and a restaurant, all centered around a spacious courtyard. Set within an abandoned building destined to become a boutique hotel by 2026, this exhibition delves into the nuanced beauty of nature—exploring the essence of clouds, the dance of light and shadow, the passage of time in seclusion, and the serene presence of plants in water. Showcasing five collections inspired by nature’s subtle dialogues, nendo returns to Milan to reaffirm its commitment to a design ethos deeply rooted in natural elements and the Japanese aesthetic. The exhibition also introduces “hana-arashi,” a collaboration with Paola Lenti, celebrating two decades of innovative design that whispers the intricate tales of nature.
Date: April 16th to 21st
Location: Paola Lenti Milano
vetsak x ASPESI
vetsak has collaborated with ASPESI on ‘TRANSFORMATION’, blending their iconic designs in an unexpected way. This initiative sees the transformation of ASPESI’s surplus nylon garments into a collection of durable sofas, making a profound statement on sustainability and the enduring nature of design in the fast-paced world of consumption. The collaboration bridges the gap between fashion and interior design, introducing a capsule collection featuring three sofas, each accompanied by a blanket, toys of varying sizes, and pillow sets, all embodying distinct color themes derived from vetsak’s modular sofas and ASPESI’s renowned nylon parachute puffers.
Date: April 15th to 19th
Location: ASPESI showroom on Corso Venezia 14
ETEL: Reset Modernity. Reinstituting Nature
ETEL’s latest exhibition, “Reset Modernity. Reinstituting Nature – From Industrial back to Natural, Artisanal, Ancestral,” showcases projects by Patricia Urquiola, Marcio Kogan, and Percival Lafer, drawing on the ethos of Percival Lafer, the last of Brazil’s modernist designers. This exhibition aims to forge a connection with nature through the use of raw materials and the revival of traditional artisanal techniques, addressing the urgent environmental challenges posed by industrial excess. The pieces by Urquiola and Kogan embody a deep exploration into sustainable and innovative design solutions.
Date: April 15th to 21st
Location: Etel Showroom on Via Maroncelli 13 e 12
IKEA “1st”
IKEA returns to Milan Design Week with its innovative exhibition titled “1st”, running from April 15th to 21st, 2024, at the expansive Padiglione Visconti, located on via Tortona 58. This venue, sprawling across 1244 square meters and having welcomed over seventy-seven thousand visitors in 2023, will morph into a vast IKEA-themed playground. This transformation is the vision of seasoned IKEA collaborators; architect Midori Hasuike and spatial designer Emerzon. Together, they aim to explore and highlight the complex yet often shared experiences encountered when moving out on one’s own for the first time, creating a space that mirrors the challenges and triumphs of this significant life milestone.
Date: 15th to 21st April
Location: Padiglione Visconti
MCM Wearable Casa
At the historic 17th century Palazzo Cusani, MCM presents the Wearable Casa Collection, a daring foray into design conceived by Atelier Biagetti and curated by Maria Cristina Didero. This collection merges irony with originality, challenging traditional object roles and inviting the audience into an alternate universe. It features seven portable and multifunctional pieces that echo the rebellious Bauhaus ethos of functionality, tailored for the modern nomad and reflective of MCM’s origins in 1976 Munich, a time and place of cultural shift. The exhibition spans both physical and digital worlds, offering a dual-entry point into reality and the metaverse, thus catering to a generation that values digital itinerancy. This hybrid space at Palazzo Cusani transforms into a boundless world where magic reigns, and avatars don the collection, proposing an immersive multiverse experience that explores the dynamic interplay between people, their objects, and environments, envisioning a future filled with infinite possibilities.
Date: 15th
Location: Palazzo Cusani
LOEWE’s Lamp Collection
At Salone del Mobile 2024, LOEWE unveils its most ambitious collection yet, featuring a stunning array of lamps crafted by 24 internationally renowned artists. Showcasing floor, table, and suspended lamps in Palazzo Citterio from April 15 to 21, 2024, each piece explores light as the central medium, marking LOEWE’s eighth appearance at the fair. With materials ranging from bamboo to leather, and designs inspired by natural and man-made objects, the collection offers a diverse array of creativity. Standout pieces include Genta Ishizuka‘s suspended lamp with glossy lacquer layers and Dame Magdalene Odundo‘s leather hanging lamp. The presentation reflects LOEWE’s dedication to collaboration, with a range of homewares and accessories also on display.
Date: 15th
Location: Palazzo Citterio
