Wonderous Milan Design Week
Discover one of Milan’s most expected events, Design Week, open for everyone to see. This year’s exhibitions displayed innovation and aesthetics beyond the imaginat ion.
Jimena Blanco Esquer, María Marcera, Olivia Coronado, Ana Patricia Gastélum
Every year in the month of April, the streets of the inner circle of Milan flood with home furniture designers and their loyal aesthete’s. This week allows designers to show the projects they have been working on all year in hopes of gaining recognition for their art. The 60th edition this year was no different, over 262,000 people from 173 countries attended the Salone del Mobile.
Year after year, the Fuiorisalone transforms showrooms on the streets of Brera, Navigli, Porta Nuova, Porta Venezia, and Chinatown, bringing new pieces and installations to life. While in the north west part of Milan, the Salone de Mobile is held at Rho Fiera Milano. Yes Milano provides detailed guides about what not to miss during this special week.
Milan Design Week’s ability to attract designers from all over the world did not happen overnight. The global benchmark for all home furnishing, the Salone de Mobile, started in 1961. Its original goal was to promote Italian furniture, which rings true to this day with the immense amount of foreign visitors making their way to Milan for Design Week each year.
The first design firm that opened their own showroom was Cassina. They were the first company to combine both artisan craftsmanship and mass production. This year at Design Week, they launched The Cassina Perspective 2023 which was the debut of their new lighting collection. This collection along with their previous furniture collections completes the brands goal home atmosphere. More information about the company and their latest designs can be found on their website.
These events give Italian designers the ability to showcase their efforts and talents for people all around the world. Because of the creation of this event, Milan is considered the design capital of the world and continuously proves its ability to produce new and innovative home furniture. It burns the path for international standards of design, causing Milan to be the world reference point for the design industry.
Currently Design Week does not have an official instagram account, however @milan.design.week keeps us up to date with news, artists and main exhibitions through their instagram account.
There are also quite a few web pages that are in charge of offering the best tools to enjoy Design Week to the fullest, giving basic recommendations. For example, things to do in Milan this week, exhibitions that you cannot miss, among many other things.
This year was a very different edition in several aspects. To give us an idea we can read about some highlights from the world’s biggest festival of design, or even watch the best moments of Salone di Milano.
This exhibition together with all others, made it clear the trends that are expected for this year 23/24: For example, color explosions, round shapes, illuminated furniture and with different materials (specially the rebirth of metals), etc. All My Home explains each of these trends in more depth in this article on its website.
We had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with Eliana Lorena about the wonders of Design Week in Milan. Eliana is a professor of design at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, as well as an artist. She had her own exhibit on carpets with innovative patterns this Design Week. She has been attending the exhibits at Salone del Mobile for almost 40 years, so she sure knows her way around the intricacies of Design Week. She talked to us about her approach to Design Week, which she goes in with an open mind and from the point of view of a designer, a producer, and a consumer. Because she is a professor and is teaching today’s young designers, we asked why she thinks Milan Design Week is important for her students to see. She says: “It is a great source of inspiration for the youth, so I prepare my students for Design Week, inviting them to research the context and to understand the trends of today and also the trends of the future to come. I think design and these events are like “nutrients” so the youth can evolve their ideas with the inspiration of the artisans who have exhibits at Salone del Mobile.” She also mentions: “It is great that most of the events are free for everyone to get access to, because everyone should be able to see the wonders of the trends of the world of design, photography, architecture and art. I always invite my students to go into Salone del Mobile with an open mind and ready to absorb the inspiration so they can think a little more outside the box when approaching their own personal projects”.
Eliana also talked to us about this year’s Design Week in particular: “I was especially interested in the material aspect, which the trend this year was all about metals coming back. My courses at NABA are from a technological perspective on design, so the topic was of great interest to me”, she told us. We also asked what she thought would be the trends for next years to come, “It will be all about sustainability, and I hope to see more innovation on this front in the years to come”. In her words, “Now, it is not so important to look at the iconical design on Italian style, it is more important to see the materials and the inspiration for the future of design on how to solve problems in the ecological spectrum”.
Lastly, Eliana talked us through her process of looking at exhibits. She explains: “Quality is the most important thing I look at, but not only the quality of the product or the aesthetics of the presentations. Quality is more about the full picture. The quality of the story behind each piece, the texts that come with, the atmosphere that is created”.
This Design Week was very busy, there were more than 450 events and exhibits, shows and pop-ups around Milan and seeing everything would be absolutely impossible, but passionate followers of design and architectural trends (like the professor Eliana Lorena) try to see as much as possible.
The next edition is expected to take place from April 16 to 21 of next year, and it is expected to be disruptive in different aspects.
Over some of our visits during Design Week we had the opportunity to meet Tati Uzlava and Marco Tabasso, who together they created “Anotherview”.
Their project is all about recording 24h views in 4K from different places around the world building portable digital windows that can be controlled by a smartphone app. You can dig deeper into their project over at their website: https://www.anotherview.watch/about where they explain the contrast between our fast moving reality, giving the opportunity to viewers to have a close enjoyment of little details happening over the recording. Each place has been researched and carefully selected with a specific topic telling a story. 24h stories enables the viewer to feel part of the story and get immersed in the recording.
Attending Milan’s Design Week was an immersive experience that can expand on people’s creativity. Innovation and aesthetics come together once again and will continue to do so as next year’s Design Week is anticipated.
