The official theme of the 62nd Milan Design Week 2024 (from 15 to 21 April), might be Materia Natura (natural matter), with its A-list roster of designers looking towards a more sustainable future; but with hundreds of creative visions fit into a short space of time at venues across the city, interpretations of the subject run excitingly wild.
Like the ‘pepita’ houndstooth Porsche has taken as inspiration for its must-see installation, we’ve picked out patterns running through the most exciting events. Let us take some legwork out of seeing the highlights of the Salone del Mobile fair and Fuorisalone, by breaking down the big ideas and the hotels where you can live the look.
MEDITATION AND DREAM
The installations that verge on the fantastical, while made tantalisingly real.
Porsche and Numen/For Use’s Art of Dreams
Did you know that as well as moonlighting as a painter, cartoonist and weatherman, filmmaker David Lynch makes furniture? In typically obfuscating style, the giant chairs on display in his twin Thinking Rooms (at the Salone del Mobile), which act as an entrance to the show, weren’t made by him, but he was heavily involved in the design, which includes a corridor of screens showing his films, blue velvet drapery and mysterious brass piping. Move from the unsettling to the uplifting with Flower Up: a giant kaleidoscope designed by author and illustrator Emiliano Ponzi (at the Glo Hub throughout the week), before emerging into a garden with a large-scale installation, all intended to cheer. Next, We are Dreamers by Elena and Giulia Sella has yet more rainbow-bright optimism: a site-specific piece inviting you into a world filled with flowers and butterflies.
Good vibes keep rolling through a Pop labyrinth by Romero Britto (founder of the Happy Art Movement) in collaboration with Chiquita bananas. While Porsche and Numen/For Use continue their Art of Dreams series with a ‘social hammock’ – essentially a big climbing frame for adults (see header image). Vissionaire celebrates its 20th anniversary with the immersive Wunderkammer, showcasing iconic pieces through a dream-like lens. Menswear brand Zegna pays homage to its founder, who spurred a 500,000-trees-and-counting reforestation programme in the Biella Alps, with Oasi Zegna, an industrial space near Linate filled with lush greenery, alongside curating the Pizza Duomo’s flowerbeds.
Galleria Vik
Dream on at art-led Milanese hideaway Galleria Vik, where paint isn’t confined to the canvas, or Aethos Milan, whose styling leans towards the surreal, with flags, portraiture, sports gear and other vintage ephemera.
WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE
Whether conserving water or using it for wellness, aquatic awareness is in full flush here.
Transition by Stark
Bathrooms aren’t the sexiest of subjects, but at design week they become spa havens for psychological resets, and conversation pieces that talk loudly about sustainable water use. The Salone will redesign its data displays to show the positive impact of each installation at the International Bathroom Exhibition: Antonio Citterio’s more-for-less-material approach; Victoria + Albert’s low-water-consumption, volcanic limestone bathtubs; and Roca’s bathrooms with optimised water-flow – which certainly look sexier than they sound. Under the Surface (by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi) will dive deeper, with a submerged island visitors can walk across, and imaginary fish, ocean sounds and geysers as visual representations of the World Bank’s stats on global water resources.
In the Brera Design District, Stark will take over Sforza Castle’s Sala dei Pilastri for the multi-sensory Transition experience, which uses trompe-l’oeil light-shows and sound to stir the emotions. Hold on to those feels for Mooring by the Moon, where Michele De Lucchi and AMDL Circle will moor a yacht in the Bagni Misteriosi lido under the light of an artificial moon, where guests can float and reflect on man’s relationship with nature. Grohe Spa will – almost literally – flood Palazzo Reale with water features showing the effect they can have on wellbeing (enhanced by a series of Aqua Talks). Parallel to the theme, Aesop will have a trio of works, with videos hidden behind soaps and performance-art facials in its store and three ‘aromatorias’ throughout the city, to see which perfumes suit different times of day.
Hotel Viu Milan
Splash out for Hotel Viu Milan, which has the distinction of having Milan’s first ever hotel rooftop pool; or Magna Pars L’Hotel à Parfum, whose in-house perfume lab makes for a delightfully scented toilette.
GUIDED BY NEUROSCIENCE
Get out of your head and into the world with tech-led design that places experience front-and-centre.
Antonio Giuseppe Malafarina’s Oases of Inclusion
We live in a time of rapid change: technological development, demographic shifts, and increasing environmental uncertainty has led many designers to examine how good design can influence our behaviour for the better. Starting here, where Lombardini22 will use AI to analyse the emotional and unconscious behaviour of visitors, and redesign the Salone accordingly. The fair’s International Lighting Exhibition, Euroluce, will explore how lighting can act as an psychological force, while Google presents Making Sense of Color (at Garage 21), a sensorial installation which looks at how the brain reacts to different shades, and how colour can be used as a transformative tool. Elsewhere, Workplace3.0 will address how design can redefine our working lives as businesses shift away from the office in favour of hybrid and remote models.
The quest for the cerebral continues in satellite exhibitions, such as Genevieve Ang’s Reciproco, a collection of touch-activated ceramics which change colour when heated and seek to bridge emotional and physical gaps in our increasingly disembodied communications. Accessibility and sustainability are at the forefront of this human-centred design shift, highlighted by projects like Antonio Giuseppe Malafarina’s Oases of Inclusion (116 Corso Garibaldi), which revolves around seven aphorisms on space-making; and conversations with the likes of Francis Kéré, the first African designer to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize for his resolute commitment to sustainable and socially inclusive design. At Casa Brera, Japanese watchmakers Grand Seiko has nature on the brain, encouraging visitors to immerse themselves in an urban birch forest, an environment made to mimic and replicate the neurological benefits of forest bathing.
The Gray
Catch a brain wave at The Gray, a delightfully playful stay that is designed to make you think with its pink and pillow-y swings.
FOREVER FURNISHINGS: BUILT TO LAST PIECES
Durable materials, timeless shapes: these are the heirlooms of the future.
Artisan and RivaViva
The very first Salone took place back in 1961, organised by Italian furniture manufacturers to promote ‘Made in Italy’ design and production; and despite significantly broadening its scope, built-to-last furnishings remain at its heart. The Superstudio show, Materially Now (27 Via Tortona) will shine a light on revolutionary new materials that repurpose industrial waste, break down dust particles in the air and more. While in Isola, the focus is on long-lasting, low-fi materials – wood, for example, which you’ll find plenty of in RivaViva’s presentation of the furniture brand Artisan; or more unconventional materials (say, beeswax), which you can explore at Green Island’s The Secret Garden.
So Koizumi Design will go back to the future at Alcova, where his eerie fossil-inspired furnishings contemplate how current society will be perceived years from now; while textile designer Tiffany Loy’s collaboration with artisans Friul Mosaic is a material experiment presenting mosaic tiles in skin-like forms which double-up as furniture. This is echoed in MCM and Atelier Biagetti’s playful Wearable Casa Collection (at Palazzo Cusani), where everyday objects transcend traditional roles; and again at Fenix’s Design Duo Double Feature, where six pairs of designers have collaborated on a range of furnishing elements with multiple uses.
Crossing Manzoni
Stoke your eternal flame at Portrait Milano, a high-spec tribute to Salvatore Ferragamo, one of Italy’s great craftsmen; or stay a while at Crossing Manzoni, where swoonsome rooms combine heritage design pieces and upcycled market finds.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Tasteful in all ways – how dining and design converge.
Solferino 28’s Città Miniera
Design week isn’t just about fanciful furnishings; it looks at dynamic ways to live, and – you are in Italy – dining is a very important aspect. For the Salone, six global food magazines will come together as part of EuroCucina for All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances. These include L’Integrale’s imagining of future seafood meals from depleted seas; Family Style’s surrealist dinners; The Preserve Journal’s frugal yet convivial edible experiences; Linseed Journal’s cooking for plant and birdlife; Magazine F’s food as shared cultural creation with culinary artist Bobby Cortez; and Farta’s lesser-known Portuguese dishes.
In the Brera Botanical Garden, SunRice – The Recipe for Happiness, looks at food in an abstract light, in partnership with chef Niko Romito, taking you on an architectural journey through the seed to ingredient to waste cycle. Get more of a kick out of your coffee at Matteo Cibic’s Dermophonic at the Starbucks Roastery, where different beans are paired with soundscapes. In Monkey 47 gin’s olfactory urban jungle (at 21 Via Confalonieri), follow botanical scents to games, drinks and gigs; then from 5pm to 6pm, Pforzheim University’s jewellery students will invite you to get playful with Italy’s aperitivo tradition (16 to 20 April, 6 Via Lambertenghi). And, at the Corriere della Sera HQ, Solferino 28 will spark ideas about recycling in Città Miniera, a ‘city’ built of fruit crates, to be dismantled and reused.
Casa Cipriani
Mangia bene at Casa Cipriani, whose north Italian classics are as assured as its burnished style, or pop a cork for Vico Milano, run by a two-generation wine dynasty.
See our full collection of hotels in Milan, or delve further into innovative hotel design.