From June 7—12, the 60th iteration of Salone del Mobile returns to the Fiera Milano Rho in Milan, where creators and brands from all over will gather to present the design world’s most thoughtful innovations. Highlighting work that centers quality, beauty, and sustainability, the 2022 edition welcomes over 2,000 exhibitors debuting their latest designs in a program encompassing the EuroCucina biennial, the 23rd SaloneSatellite (featuring the work of young designers), a roster of talks, a film installation, and other special presentations and projects.
With a set of responsibility criteria in place, the fair is promoting sustainability in both its presenters and communal spaces, paying particular attention to details like the use of reusable materials, environmentally safe options that have a low impact, and searching for materials that will be reused after their initial installation at the fair. In time with these guidelines, fairgoers will find presentations filling the entirety of the Rho, including presentations across various areas, including the likes of DSQUARED2, Lee Broom, LOEWE, Stella McCartney, Cassina, Tom Dixon, Aquazzura Casa, UniFor, and Swarovski, to name a few.
Spread across more than 600,000 square feet are exhibitions like the International Furniture Fair and the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, where furniture, textiles, and decorative objects are on display. Specialty designs for the kitchen and bathrooms respectively can be found within the EuroCucina biennial and the International Bathroom Exhibition. Meanwhile, S.Project ponders the future of home living through projects and designs from names like Atelier Vierkant, imNativ, Zanat, Rosenthal, Gibus spa, and Milla & Milli.
This year’s SaloneSatellite is focused on the theme “DESIGNING FOR OUR FUTURE SELVES,” welcoming contributions from 600 designers under the age of 35 that encourage viewers to consider topics like inclusive design, comfort, movement, usability, and fostering autonomy. Meanwhile, curated by the architect Mario Cucinella, the exhibition “Design with Nature” shines a spotlight on the need for balancing the spaces we inhabit and the resources available to us. Cucinella’s concept includes designs that focus on three pillars: the city as a mine, the home as a building block in the urban structure, and the need for a timely ecological transition.
Making up the roster of talks are discussions like “Sustainability: Three Different Episodes,” moderated by Design Miami/’s Curatorial Director Maria Cristina Didero, Beatrice Leanza for the “Radical Nature: The Design and Science of Worldbuilding” conversation with names like Marjan van Aubel and Anab Jain, and a lecture by the Swiss designer Yves Béhar, focused on the topic “Designing for our future selves.” And finally, fairgoers should pay a visit to Palazzo Reale’s Sala delle Cariatidi, where they’ll find an installation featuring 11 Italian-made films based on the Salone’s 11 key facets—emotion, enterprise, quality, design, networking, communication, culture, young people, ingenuity, know-how, and the city of Milan itself—by names like Francesca Archibugi, Luca Lucini, Bruno Bozzetto, and Wilma Labate.
