Ultimate Guide to Salone del Mobile
The global benchmark fair for furniture and design returns to Milan next week. Here's what not to miss.
Milan’s Salone del Mobile will take place on April 18-23, 2023, returning to its traditional Spring dates for the first time in three years. This 61st edition of the festival is dedicated to the theme Nothing Happens if Nothing Happens, inviting designers and studios to start a chain reaction of change to rethink, regenerate and rehabilitate, to come together and go beyond sustainable design thinking.
BILLIONAIRE rounds up the must-see stands at this year’s fair.
Bocci
Canadian lighting and design studio Bocci will celebrate the launch of its permanent base in Milan in an early 20th-century building in Zona Vincenzo Monti. For Milan Design Week 2023, a collection of new product designs and bespoke lighting installations will be presented in the intimate residential setting of the space. This includes 118 glass spheres that exhibit traces of the steel cages used in their formation.
Norwegian Presence
Art gallery Norwegian Presence is back in Brera for Milan Design Week with a roster of inspiring new designs from Norway’s most exciting independent makers and creative studios. In a beautiful new venue at Via Pietro Maroncelli 2, styled by Kråkvik & D’Orazio and Bjorn van den Berg, this year’s exhibition gives visitors an opportunity to discover innovative new products and gain an insight into Norway’s material-minded and collaboration-driven creative culture.
Artemest
Luxury interiors company Artemest is creating an apartment for Fuorisalone 2023, Salone’s sister event. L’Appartamento, a 1930s Milanese apartment in the historic Cinq Vie will be transformed by six prestigious international interior design and architectural firms: Nina Magon Studio; Anne-Sophie Pailleret; Kingston Lafferty Design; Moniomi Design; Styled Habitat; and T.zed Architects.
Gubi
Danish design company Gubi will be taking over Milan’s most iconic venue, Bagni Misteriosi, to stage an immersive sensory spectacle. Gubi’s Salone showcase brings together furniture and lighting and will also mark the official return to production of two of the luminaries of 20th-century lighting design: Italian designer Gianfranco Frattini, and ‘the man who illuminated Finland’, Paavo Tynell.
The Beetle Chair/Ten
Originally designed by GamFratesi a decade ago, the Beetle chair continues to inspire design lovers around the world. Curator Marco Sammicheli has invited a team of 10 creatives from around the world to create special-edition pieces that celebrate the design for the Beetle’s 10th anniversary. The 10 creatives include fashion designers, product and lighting designers, architects, artists, illustrators and even tattooists, including Arthur Arbesser, Simon Wick, and Rachaporn Choochuey.
Gebrüder Thonet Vienna
Austrian brand Gebrüder Thonet Vienna returns to Salone del Mobile fairgrounds and renews its collaboration with Iranian-French architect, designer and scenographer India Mahdavi who has designed two new pieces for the brand’s booth. There will also be two other new creations in collaboration with Venetian-born designer Luca Nichetto and Hong Kong-based design and architecture practice AB Concept.
