The Salone del Mobile.Milano is the worldwide-renowned furniture exhibition with 2,500 exhibitors, more than 300,000 visitors coming from +165 Countries, +5,000 accredited journalists.

The 56^th edition was officially presented on February 8^th during a press conference at the Metropol Milan.

The event, hosted by Italian Tv presenter Enrico Bertolino, was attended by Salone del Mobile executives, the president Roberto Snaidero, CEO Giovanni De Ponti and general manager Marco Sabetta, and the mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.

Special guests included Emanuele Orsini, Marva Griffin – Salone Satellite founder and curator, Ico Migliore founder of Migliore+Servetto Architects and curator of “Space&Interiors” and Cristina Cutrona, curator of “A Joyful Sense at Work”.

An international sectoral benchmark, the Salone del Mobile.Milano is currently finessing the upcoming edition, which boasts a new format for the classic section and two events providing unprecedented visualisations of contemporary design and the workspace.

The Salone’s close partnership with Milan is the key, making the city and the event the capital of design, as the ADV campaign states. The Italian communication campaign slogan Be the First to see the Latest is further affirmation of the Salone’s role.

5 exhibitions: the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Euroluce, Workplace3.0 and SaloneSatellite, will run concurrently at the Fiera Milano Rho from Tuesday 4th to Sunday 9th April, open to professionals every day from 9.30 to 6.30, and to the public on the Saturday and Sunday.

“The Salone del Mobile is on the home strait and both the companies involved and the organisers are looking forward to mid-April with great optimism. This positive mood is driven by the sector’s upbeat performance during the first ten months of 2016, and it will hopefully maintain this trend over the next few quarters. Italian furnishing continues to gain ground on almost all the international markets. The Salone del Mobile’s strong international vocation saw the return of 67% of the high profile foreign professionals with solid buying power at the last edition”, said FederLegno president Roberto Snaidero.

Roberto Snaidero, president FederLegno

“As always, Milan will be ready for and even more equal to this extraordinary international event, which brings in huge numbers of people from all over the world”, said Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.

Giuseppe Sala, Milan Mayor

“The Salone del Mobile has always been a test bench for our city, which is proud to be seen as the capital of design and keen to retain its pre-eminence, demonstrating again this year that it is the ideal context for an event of such importance. Because Milan, together with the Salone, has the power to highlight and throw into great relief the entire sector, from the talented young designers to the great international names, to the innovative startups to the historic companies.” – Mr Sala added.

The Salone del Mobile is reprising its role as a major resource for the Italian system, thanks to its ability to attract professionals, visitors, designers, buyers and journalists to Milan from all over the world, a strength that has helped Milan become the capital of furnishing and design, as has its with its powerful bond with the city and its institutions.

Following the successful launch of the last edition of xLux – the section devoted to timeless luxury reworked in a contemporary vein – the Salone Internazionale del Mobile has brought in an innovative format for classic furniture and furnishing accessories, in Pavilions 2 and 4, under a new name, Classic: Tradition in the future, and with a more homogeneous, balanced and fluid layout.

Now into its 29th edition, Euroluce showcases the very best the lighting market has to offer, from decorative products to illuminotechnical products – used in the industrial, street, theatrical and hospital lighting sectors – as well as lighting and home automation systems, light sources and lighting application software, all with a particular focus on energy saving, environmental sustainability and light pollution.

SaloneSatellite, in Pavilions 22 and 24, with free public entry from Cargo 5, is an unmissable event. It brings together a selection of young designers from 5 continents with entrepreneurs, architects, interior designers and the press. The theme of the 20th edition is “DESIGN is …?” an open, topical and crucial question.

Marva Griffin, Salone Satellite founder and curator

The 20 years of SaloneSatellite will be celebrated with the SaloneSatellite 20 Years Collection – a special edition of bespoke pieces designed by international designers whose careers took off at SaloneSatellite – and with “SALONESATELLITE. 20 Years of New Creativity”, a large exhibition curated by Beppe Finessi at the Fabbrica del Vapore: an anthology of pieces presented during the twenty editions of SaloneSatellite as prototypes, which then went into production, marketed by prestigious, large-scale companies and other key manufacturers. This year also marks the 8th edition of the SaloneSatellite Award.

Workplace3.0 – now into its 18th edition – is based on an innovative concept based on design and technology for designing workspaces and is an event that responds to the rapid change in the world of work and the latest market demands.

Alongside the purely commercial exhibitions, the fair will feature two events, at the fairgrounds, tying in with the two biennial themes, light and the workplace.

The first, DeLightFuL, a portmanteau for Design, Light, Future, Living, is curated by Ciarmoli Queda Studio and will feature a short fantasy film d’auteur by multi-award winning director Matteo Garrone.

“Contemporary living has changed how we live,” say Simone Ciarmoli and Miguel Queda. “Technology plays a key role as space moulds itself to respond to human beings’ needs, and yet our vital requirements have not changed: people continue to eat and sleep and sit down round tables. This realisation prompted us to come up with contemporary scenarios in an imaginative world suspended between the real, virtual and subject to rapid change, with the goal of achieving an overview of the multiple facets of everyday life”.

A visual and sensory exploration of everyday living and the contemporary space, reflecting on the new generations and investigating the new ways in which they live in and conceive the domestic space: fluid and cross-cutting, a balance between technology and archetypal living, between public and private, between basic needs and new desires in a bid to achieve creativity and overturn the traditional subdivisions into functional areas.

The second event, A Joyful Sense at Work, curated by Cristiana Cutrona, is a visualisation of the evolving workplace scenario of the future, using innovative content to recast the theory of office product and workplace design with four installations, each representative of the cultural characteristics of the international architects’ areas of provenance.

Press Conference @ 2017 Salone Milan – Cristina Cutrona, curator of “A Joyful Sense at Work”

America, Asia and Europe will be produced by Primo Orpilla and Verda Alexander/Studio O+A (United States), Arash Ahmadi/Ahmadi Studio (Iran), Ben van Berkel/UNStudio and Jeff Povlo/SCAPE (Holland) and Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo/Studio 5+1AA (Italy).

Back for a second edition, space&interiors, the only other event officially connected with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, puts the spotlight on architectural finishes.

Ico Migliore – Migliore+Servetto Architects – curator of “Space&Interiors”

Curated by Migliore+Servetto Architects, the exhibit will showcase interior surfaces, floors, doors and finishes at The Mall – Porta Nuova, in Milan’s Brera Design District from Tuesday 4th April to Saturday 8th April 2017.