Record attendance for Milan Design Week 2024: over 360,000 visitors at Salone del Mobile and 1,125 events at Fuorisalone
by Francesco Michienzi
The Salone del Mobile is the most important international event for the design industry. Since its first edition in 1961, the evolution of this sector has been so significant that it has marked a quantum leap in its ability to respond to the needs of modern living at every latitude.
Maria Porro.
The Milan event featured a wide range of furniture products characterised by their expressive power and functional, technological and material innovation, all designed to enhance the value of the home environment. Talent, vision, innovation, sustainable excellence and emotion are the everyday vocabulary of the companies and brands that exhibited at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, which this year reaffirmed itself as an increasingly global and inclusive event in dialogue with the entire creative and manufacturing system of the furniture industry.
ARTIST GIANLUCA VASSALLO HAS CREATED A SPECIAL PROJECT FOR THE SALONE DEL MOBILE.MILANO: COMUNITÀ CONTINUA (CONTINUOUS COMMUNITY).
Year after year, the event confirms its vocation as a hotbed of experimentation and cross-fertilisation, a place for meetings, relationships and new business opportunities. Every year, this event gives shape to its vocation as a laboratory of experimentation and contamination, a place for meetings, relationships and new business opportunities. It is here that prototypes and novelties in terms of furniture, domestic spaces and lifestyles are presented: bedrooms, dining and living areas, entrance corridors and service areas, outdoor spaces with their furniture and wardrobes, upholstered furniture, tables and chairs become the scene of a narrative that starts from the room to explore how the way of living and, consequently, living and furnishing is changing.
EuroCucina tells stories of new visions and habits, of the hybridisation of contexts, of outdoor desire, of sustainability and artificial intelligence. Each edition brings together around a hundred exhibitors, united by the wide range and high quality of the products on display. From one edition to the next, the exhibition testifies to the importance and centrality of this space in contemporary life. Proposals and narratives that reflect new visions and habits tell the trends between shapes and materials, colours and technologies.
De Padova, the Antibes walk-in wardrobe designed by Piero Lissoni, structure and interior in elm melamine, frame in bronze aluminium finish, doors in pebble grey polyester.
Giorgetti’s pieces decorate the most prestigious interiors: the Move rocking chair designed by Rossella Pugliatti, Collection Liz by Silvia Musetti, the Swiss Institute in Milan, the Teatro Manzoni in Milan
Bontempi, Kimono table, Agatha chair, Atena bookcase.
Sanlorenzo presented the installation SUB – Sustainable Underwater Balance. This immersive experience, located in the Cortile del Settecento of the Università Statale di Milano, is a creation by Piero Lissoni that invites the public to explore the underwater world as a symbol of uncontaminated purity and commitment to the protection of our oceans, offering a new perspective: the sea seen from the sea.
Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 registered a record attendance of 361,417 visitors, an increase of 17.1% compared to 2023. 54.3 percent of visitors came from abroad, an increase of 100,000 compared to 2022. Operator participation also increased by 26.8 per cent compared to the previous edition, with 65.8 per cent of exhibitors coming from abroad.
1. Cantori Twist design by Castello Lagravinese Studio. 2. Giorgetti, Scirocco details, design by Draga & Aurel. 3. Cloud Chaise Longue by Gallotti & Radice. 4. Eternel Bar cabinet by Milla&Milli. 5. Liu Jo Living, Toro, design by Simone Cagnazzo. 6. Caimi Biosphere, design by Hsiang Han Hsu. 7. Paola Lenti, Armchair, design by Hana Arashi. 8. Flou, AtelierM, design by Gino Moschetti. 9. Piper and Peak by Bontempi. 10. Gucci Design Ancora. 11. Molteni, Due Foglie, by Gio Ponti. 12. MisuraEmme, Ala, design by Ferruccio Laviani. 13. Boffi De Padova, Cut Back, design by David Lopez Quincoces. 14. Minotti, Emmi, design by Hannes Peer.
ORGANIC AND INVITING SHAPES, NATURAL COLOURS, INNOVATIVE MATERIALS AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE THE COMMON THREAD RUNNING THROUGH THE PROPOSALS OF OUTDOOR FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS.
More than 1,950 exhibitors from 35 countries attended the event. The top 15 market geographies show a strong return of China, followed by Germany, Spain, Brazil, France, United States, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, India, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Austria. An atlas that really opened up new business opportunities, also thanks to the many delegations from the United States, India, United Arab Emirates, France, Saudi Arabia.
1. Radar Interior, Spectre Lamp, design by Pierre Charrié. 2. Neutra, La Grande Muraglia, design by Mario Bellini. 3. Nabatei by Antonio Lupi. 4. Royal Botania Cuprum, design by Jan Buelens. 5. Minotti, Kendall, design by GamFratesi. 6. Signature Kitchen Suite, design by Patricia Urquiola. 7. Tacchini, Additional System, design by Joe Colombo. 8. Lithea, Anemone, design by Elena Salmistraro. 9. Elie Saab Maison, Ara Vanity, design by Carlo Colombo. 10. Molteni&C, Eone, designer Nicola Gallizia. 11. Falmec, Brera. 12. Sahrai Milano, Materia Collection, design by Pininfarina. 13. Tubes, design by Palomba Serafini. 14. Boffi, Minikitchen Outdoor, design by Joe Colombo.
The Minotti collection is a combination of references to different cultures and eras, all brought together in a single stylistic language, and the visions of designers such as Marcio Kogan / Studio MK27, Nendo, GamFratesi, Inoda+Sveje, Hannes Peer and Giampiero Tagliaferri.
The section dedicated to bathrooms – Salone Internazionale del Bagno – showed the evolution of a space that is now at the centre of the most sustainable interior design trends, offering a potentially infinite galaxy of compositions, furniture and finishes. 200 exhibitors presented the best of international production. The new products on display reflected the evolution of this space, which is becoming increasingly technological and green, without ever forgetting the emotional component.
Maria Porro, President of the event, said: “The 62nd Salone del Mobile.Milano exceeded all expectations: it was a record edition. We have achieved exceptional results thanks to the confidence of an ecosystem that has once again confirmed the international leadership of this event. With 361,417 visitors, the Salone is confirmed as a unique event in the world, an indispensable bridge for dialogue with the new market geographies: an intercontinental city open to innovation, where competition boosts the competitiveness of a key industry for our country’s economy, and not only. A great factory of lasting meaning and value, of product and profession, of material and immaterial culture”.
AMDL Circle and Michele De Lucchi have created “Mooring by the Moon” for Azimut Yachts, an installation inspired by the Seadeck series of yachts that could be visited at the Bagni Misteriosi del Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan.
According to Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo: “It has been a truly exceptional edition, rewarding the extraordinary work done by the exhibitors over the past year. Once again, the entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge and, after 62 years, we can say with certainty that we are still the undisputed leaders, able to attract design from all over the world to the pavilions of Fiera Milano Rho. The Salone di Milano has once again confirmed its position as the most important international event in the sector. The secret? Genius, vision, determination and the inimitable industrial craftsmanship that only our products can express. The companies in the wood furniture supply chain are the economic engine behind this repeated success, which makes us so proud and which it is our duty to continue to develop as an expression of the great system of Italian design. We have done so in the past and we will continue to work in this direction, aware that the Salone del Mobile.Milano is first and foremost a business event that allows even the smallest players to present themselves to such a large and specialised public to which they would otherwise have little access”.
FOGLIO IS A BENT METAL STRUCTURE DESIGNED BY PINUCCIO BORGONOVO FOR FLOU. IT IS A MODULAR SYSTEM OF FURNITURE ELEMENTS THAT, THANKS TO THE SIMPLICITY OF ITS DESIGN AND ITS CLEAN LINES, ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE SOLUTIONS THAT CAN BE INTEGRATED IN ANY ENVIRONMENT: FROM THE LIVING ROOM TO THE DINING ROOM, FROM THE BEDROOM TO THE HALLWAY, OR EVEN TO CREATE A HOME OFFICE.
The wood furniture supply chain presented itself at the April meeting with a turnover of 52.7 billion euros, a trade balance of over 8 billion euros (+16.7%), representing around 300 thousand employees and just over 66 thousand companies. The final figures for 2023, produced by the FederlegnoArredo study centre, show a 7.8% contraction in the supply chain compared to 2022. The Italian market is worth EUR 32.8 billion and exports almost EUR 20 billion.
The high quality design of the great masters is a precious heritage that has inspired and guided new generations who have assimilated its fundamental values.
THE NEW GENERATION OF ITALIAN DESIGN WAS VERY MUCH IN EVIDENCE AT THE EVENT, WITH PROJECTS THAT GAVE FULL EXPRESSION TO ITS VALUES.
Exports, which account for 53% of the total, reach EUR 15 billion, while the Italian market, at EUR 13 billion, registers a decline of -3.7%. The trade balance was positive at almost 10 billion euros. This is undoubtedly a strategic sector for our country’s economy, and Milan Design Week 2024, with its focus on sustainability, creativity and wonder, is its flagship. The synergy between the creative minds of national and international designers has given rise to new interpretations of living spaces, which have been particularly appreciated by the tens of thousands of people who have filled the streets of the Lombard metropolis to take part in the 1125 events of FuoriSalone.
(SMilano Design Week 2024 – The art of living – Barchemagazine.com – July 2024)
