Evolution and innovation are the keywords of the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano to be held from 16 to 21 April at Fiera Milano Rho. 

"Capturing new trends, the evolution of an entire sector by involving and listening to the communities near and far, identifying new approaches, methodologies and technologies, experimenting, in an expression stand on the frontier: this is still the ambition of the Salone del Mobile," said Maria Porro, President of Salone del Mobile.Milano, at the presentation press conference held at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler in Milan.

Salone: an exceptional experience

This year, the Salone del Mobile.Milano will not only bring as usual the "beautiful" and the "well made" on a stage of international importance, but will do so with a new and challenging approach, a necessary condition precisely to innovate and evolve.

This challenge sees the re-launch of the optimisation of the layouts and paths of EuroCucina and the International Bathroom Exhibition thanks to the contribution of neuroscience and under the aegis of a human-at-the-center philosophy; a total redistribution of the pavilions with the aim of grouping exhibitors by content and target visitors so as to amplify the value and sense of the visiting experience; an exceptional cultural proposal, rich and multidisciplinary, spread throughout the Exhibition. Added to this is the collaboration with the Department and School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic, to investigate the Salone-as-ecosystem, delving into the phenomenon in its socio-economic scope on the territory, and the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the SaloneSatellite with an exhibition at the Triennale that will be a veritable Wunderkammer of objects, prototypes, sketches, images and testimonials.

Maria Porro summarised the many initiatives that the Salone will offer visitors this year as follows: "Neuroscience, artificial intelligence, new formats and paths, a unified yet widespread cultural project, between coherence and multidisciplinarity, David Lynch's rooms for thinking, the Salotto NY installation that takes us underwater and between poetry and numbers takes stock of the state of the art of the bathroom industry, but also talks with many guests including Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré and visionary performances by artists and food designers: everything has been designed to offer the visitor and exhibitor an exceptional experience in terms of content and container, impossible to replicate except here, at the Salone di Milano, unthinkable to miss, even if it is not limited to a single week, but covers the whole year thanks to the propulsive and inclusive force of our digital platform".

The industry's most important business moment

The Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 will be composed of seven events that will bring together more than 1,900 exhibitors, including 600 young talents under 35 and 22 design schools: the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the Salone Internazionale del Complemento d'Arredo, Workplace3.0, S.Project, EuroCucina with FTK, the Salone Internazionale del Bagno and SaloneSatellite.

Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo, stated that "the appointment with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, will, as always, be the most important business moment in the sector and an opportunity for the entire wood-furniture supply chain to showcase the quality of its production, in which research, innovation, craftsmanship and sustainability come together. We represent a sector that in 2023 had a turnover of 52.6 billion euro, of which about 20 billion were exports and 32.7 in the domestic market, closing the year at -8, 1% on 2022, albeit at higher levels than in 2019. In the face of a physiological drop in domestic demand, after two years with exceptional growth also due to major stimuli to consumption, our furniture macro-system invoiced 28 billion euro, exporting 53% worldwide, despite an uncertain economic context, with the main reference markets such as Germany and the United States in trouble. Given such a complex and evolving situation, being able to count on an international showcase such as the Salone del Mobile.Milano is an indispensable certainty for us, an appointment from which we will not only set trends for sector operators, the press and visitors, but which will also allow exhibitors to have a broad view of markets all over the world".

EuroCucina and Salone Internazionale del Bagno

This April will be the edition of the biennial EuroCucina, with its side event FTK, Technology For the Kitchen (halls 2-4) and the Salone Internazionale del Bagno (halls 6-10), renewed in their exhibition layout, redesigned by Lombardini22, a leading group in the Italian architecture and engineering scenario, with the aim of creating an increasingly contemporary, efficient and gratifying business platform.

At the request of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, the firm, for the first time in the trade fair sector, turned to neuroscience to improve the visitor experience by analysing the neurological, emotional and perceptive reactions of visitors to the different routes, locations and distribution of the exhibition and rest areas.

Three large surprising installations

There will be three large installations at this exhibition. The first, 'lnteriors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room' (Halls 5-7) is the one created by David Lynch, the famous director of the unconscious, for the Salone del Mobile.

"Under the Surface" is the second installation designed and realised by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi for the Salone Internazionale del Bagno (Hall 10), while, at the centre of EuroCucina, a large stage will host six international independent food magazines that, together with artists, designers and chefs from all over the world, will present a new and original vision of the present and future of the ingredients that nature offers us.

Photo by Andrea Mariani - Courtesy Salone del Mobile.Milano