The design week starts in Milan

Also this year, the design “event of all events” has opened its doors; relying on last year’s success, with 313,385 visitors including professionals, the public and the press, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (International Furniture Fair) is back in Milan.

From Wednesday 14th to Monday 19th April, around 2500 exhibitors will be present together on a surface of 200,000 square metres in the Rho exhibition centre, which is ready to welcome a crowd of professionals, coming from all over the world, and, on Sunday 18th, the public, as well.

It is going to be a fair of great numbers and a really ample offering: from the showrooms to the biennial exhibition Eurocucina (the kitchen furniture exhibition), which provides a complete view of the sector, from the Salone Internazionale del Bagno (the international bathroom furniture exhibition) to FTK (Technology For The Kitchen), dedicated to the technology of built-in household appliances and of kitchen design hoods, without forgetting the most lively and sparkling area of the fair, that is the SaloneSatellite, where more than seven hundred young designers seeking their fortune will exhibit.

Only the Fuori Salone is as legendary as the furniture fair; besides the institutional events there are also side events, which have been getting a foothold and an almost institutional character year by year. This is a part of the week’s events that are not strictly dedicated to buyers, even though there are also products exhibited.

The heart of the Fuori Salone is the various events, parties, cocktail parties and, in general, the nightlife that animates Milan during the design week. Among the events of the year in Milan, the Fuori Salone is now the international event that transforms the city more than anyother.

The cult place by far is the Tortona area, which has become even more institutional, thanks to the work of www.zonatortona.net/. In this area there are many of the giants that exhibit and that have just spread also to Porta Romana. Another attraction that cannot be missed is Triennale Cadorna, and we cannot forget all of the companies’ showrooms in the city centre, a lot of which are in the Brera area or on the so-called internal ring-road.

It is much less easy to organise the events of the Fuori Salone than the events of the official fair, which has a special site; in order to find out information about the former there is the historic guide by the magazine Interni, which, every year, brings together a lot of companies in an institutional place, which will be the University this year. The guide is one of the most important and influential events, and from this year onwards it will be available also online.

Another useful guide, which is unofficial but complete and full of ideas, can be found on this website.