MiND goes to MDW 2022

Salone del Mobile returns at its best for the 60th anniversary edition. Once again, the streets of Milan become the showcase for exhibitors, brands, and young designers and their projects for the Fuorisalone. 

Among other topics, the fil rouge of this edition was sustainability. Not only we are understanding the importance of a sustainable approach to the environment but also to ourselves, rediscovering our homes and giving them added value. Here is MiND’s selection of events and exhibitions which captured our attention.

TOILETPAPER STREET dreamed with ORGANICS by Red Bull

Furniture and lights aren’t the only objects to decorate a house with. Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, the minds behind Toilet Paper Magazine, knows it well and realized this open-air exhibition by dressing up the houses’ walls of Via Balzaretti with their most iconic graphics. The magazine’s headquarter opened its door to the visitors to immerse themselves into its colorful, cheeky, and dreamlike world to discover the new home products in collaboration with Seletti.

HYPERNOVA 

These visionary and creative vibes could also be found on the roof of Superstudio with the Radical Pop Terrace installation. A relaxing pop style roof garden which wanted to invite people to be open minded and think behind the scheme. Just like the exhibition to which it was linked. Hypernova, the installation by designer Sara Ricciardi for gloTM, aimed to lead the viewers in a path where nature and technology can coexist without excluding each other, just like other opposite things in life.

CASA FORNASETTI

Also focusing on the home dimension, Fornasetti‘ s new creations have been launched in the brand’s head quarter and shop located in the heart of Milan, in Corso Venezia. The building, which is a museum itself, was home of Piero Fornasetti, used it as its own creative and artistic space. Its legacy is carried on by his son Barnaba, the art director of the brand. The new products have been placed in different rooms around the house, each one of them different and unique in colors and design. In this way, visitors were able to have a 360° experience that  went beyond the mere product.

IKEA FESTIVAL

IKEA installations.

One of the most inspiring destinations of Milan Design Week was BASE Milano where the Swedish furniture’s brand IKEA landed for a 6-day festival of talks, gigs and immersive experiences linked to a main theme: the future of design. From a series of short documentaries to the creation of real rooms, they investigated how the relationship between people and their homes changed and how it could be better in the future, finding new solutions.

CHROMATIK HOUSE

Chromatik House by Hommes studio.

The metaverse was a popular topic in this edition of the fuorisalone. Hommes Studio debuted at Bagatti Valsecchi Museum presenting the metaversion of a traditional house with a futuristic shape and provocative design, inviting visitors to use all their senses to combine reality with imagination. Chromatik House was an experience based on four movements: Neoclassical, Neosurrealist, NeoPop and Neoprimitivo presented in an immersive journey where art, design and fashion intertwine.

WE WILL DESIGN

“A playful way to roast toast” by Studio Sophia Schullan.

BASE presented the second edition of “We Will Design”: the first floor hosted Exhibit, a large place of research and experimentation that collected the works of emerging designers, young talents, design studios, academies and universities from all over the world, with a focus on new perspectives of design. Studio Sophia Schullan caught our attention. She turned her perspective on boring everyday life into a source of inspiration during the first lockdown. The project brought together 15 playful installations to redesign everyday routine and ordinary household objects into new sources of creativity.

COMPOSITION IN CRYSTAL

Preciosa Lighting, the Czech company specializing in decorative lighting, brought rhythm and style to the Tortona area with light, crystal and music. The installation entitled “Composition in Crystal” – composed of concentric “rings” that reproduce the sound waves – offered a harmonious balance between art and design, animated by light and sound. During the event, the interactive installation invited visitors to enter, explore and interact to compose their own music.

ANDLIGHT

From Alcova to Isola, the FuoriSalone broadened the design map and pushes the public to enter the suburbs and discover a different Milan. Alcova returned to the urban park of the Centro Ospedaliero Militare in the outskirt of Milan. Among others, Andlight unveiled three new lamps at the Offcut Bar in the Lavanderia building where living environments, products, systems, materials and technological innovation came together symbiotically under the creative vision of Space Caviar and Studio Vedèt.

FLOATING FOREST

Last but not least, the Architect Stefano Boeri created a new green spot in town, the Floating Forest. Located in the Darsena area, the ancient harbor of Milan, it’s the reflection of Boeri and Timberland’s vision: the importance to create new park and green areas in the cities as places of aggregations and relax as well as to clean the air and absorb CO2 emissions. Surrounded by 610 plants and 30 different species, Timberland guides the audience in a 4 steps exhibition route showing the importance of reuse and eco-sustainability nowadays. The message of Stefano Boeri and Timberland will continue even after the exhibition as the plants will be planted in Vettabbia Park in Milan.

This year’s event was a success beyond expectation with a turnout of thousands of visitors. This could be interpretated as a deep desire to start over socializing and living homes and city’ spaces again but in different and more conscious, sustainable, and creative ways, considering new technologies and always looking at the future. 

MiND is already looking forward to the next edition of Salone del Mobile in April 2023.

By Lisa Zanon