Taking place 9-14 April at Milan’s fairgrounds, with offshoots expanding into different showrooms around the city itself, the show as usual will have the best and newest furniture designs on display, with product launches and networking parties taking place throughout the show week.
As part of its theme of looking into the future, Salone has commissioned the French architect Jean Nouvel to investigate the changes that over time have impacted on living and work spaces. Nouvel’s Project: Office for Living will explore contemporary buildings that have been freed of cloned, enclosed and repetitive places. In a dedicated 1,600 sq m area of the International Workspace Exhibition SaloneUfficio pavilions, the project will show new concepts that are aimed at exciting visitors and exhibitors alike. ‘In 30 or 40 years’ time we will be stunned to see just how unlivable most of today’s offices really were: grotesque clones, standardisation, totalitarianism, never even the merest hint of being pleasurable to inhabit,’ says Nouvel.
This notion of pleasure in office living is the driving force behind the project, aimed at finding new materials and technologies. As people spend as much time in the workplace as they do at home it is logical to aim for an environment that is comfortable and effective as well as user-friendly.
Nouvel’s project will show a classic apartment, an industrial warehouse, a private house, a skyscraper, an industrial platform and a theoretical space, all transformed into enjoyable working environments that are in terms of design far away from urban segregation and functional cloning.
This year’s shows – in addition to the main shows Salone Internazionale del Mobile and SaloneUfficio – are Euroluce, International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, and SaloneSatellite, the latter giving some 700 young designers and design students the opportunity to showcase their ideas and talents in front of an international audience.
