Milan Design Week Highlights

This week, the great, the good and the party animals of the design community descend upon Milan for the Salone Del Mobile from 4-9 April and the wealth of concurrent exhibitions and events that coincide.

It’s the 56th edition of the design fair, which each year is the key moment for international brands to launch their most innovative designs, from furniture to lighting, textiles to tableware. Each year there are some 2000 exhibitors overflowing from the Rho Fairgrounds on the city’s outskirts, and more than 300,000 visitors are likely to attend. It is split between three sections: Classic, Design and, launched last year, xLux, where timeless luxury designs are given a contemporary twist.

Alongside are two biennials: the returning Euroluce focused on lighting with 454 participants, and the 20th Salone Satellite, giving a platform to the work of 650 designers under 35 and a perfect hunting ground for talent scouts.

New Spring, an immersive installation by London-based Studio Swine in collaboration with COS, from 4-9 April at Cinema Arti, Via Pietro Mascagni, Milan. Courtesy of COS

The enormous Salone is really an event for the serious professionals and arguably more fun is the colourful shoal of pop-ups, exhibitions, installations and, let’s not forget, parties that take place during the week around the city, in all manner of locations from traditional galleries to abandoned stations. Many of these take place around all the design districts, each with their own character, such as Brera, Tortona, Zona Santambrogio, Ventura Lambrate and Ventura Centrale, a new location for Ventura Projects within a series of abandoned warehouses at Milan Central Station.

In all, it’s a heady riot of colour and ambitious creative endeavour from around the world. Too much to mention here but, scratching the (highly finished) surface, here is Bazaar Interiors pick of highlights.

The 56th Salone Del Mobile Milano runs from 4-9 April at the Fiera Milano Rho. For more information see salonemilano.it