The greatest effort a visitor makes for Milan Design Week is to select the things to see and engage with. If you are not prepared enough, the risk is to get lost amid a lot of underwhelming exhibits. Until a few years ago, I preferred to look specifically at independent projects: the most daring, experimental and outside commercial logic. After recent editions, I prefer to make a more careful and transversal selection: it is not necessarily the case that a large multinational extra-sector company cannot present interesting content, just as it is not necessarily the case that the same young Dutch designers' collective necessarily has something to say. Beyond the individual initiatives, I also find it useful to take a slightly more distant look and see the trajectories that individual locations or projects have over time.

I would start with Alcova, which has been at the centre of the debate because of an unprecedented decision: that of moving the location out of the municipality of Milan, to a town in Brianza, 20 minutes away by train. In the salons of the city, some claim that this is an attack on the “Milanese design system” because it does not think about networking with other realities. The problem with Alcova for me is another: in recent years, the expressive power of the locations overshadowed the work of the individual participants. Everyone remembers the last edition as a beautiful walk through a former industrial site. The risk again this year is that the venue—Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, both in Varedo—are once again too strong for the content. The distance from the centre could instead obviate another problem of recent editions: the long queues at the entrance and the overcrowding of the site. I will go to Alcova, of course, because I am always interested in the mix of established and emerging young designers, companies, galleries, museum institutions and schools, but I am interested to see how they manage to balance these three factors: container, content and audience.

This year Triennale Milano celebrates the career of one of the great masters of Italian design, who recently passed away: Alessandro Mendini. The title of the exhibition, Io sono un drago (I am a Dragon), is inspired by one of his most emblematic self-portraits: an illustration in which he wrote “body of an architect, head of a designer, hands of a craftsman, chest of a manager, belly of a priest, feet of an artist, legs of a graphic designer and tail of a poet.”

In general, the exhibitions of the great masters at the Triennale are always beautiful and instructive. But they aim to musealise these figures and never to create stimuli or links with the contemporary. Instead, this view seems evident in the exhibition Nella pancia del Guerriero (In the Belly of the Warrior), dedicated to designer and intellectual Alessandro Guerriero, an inspirer of social design and co-founder with Mendini of the Alchimia Group. The show features a new collection of porcelain and furnishing accessories, designed in collaboration with Vito Nesta, and an exhibition curated by designer Sara Ricciardi. “The collection stems from the idea of realising something that we risk losing a little in design,” explains Nesta, “that is, the collaborative spirit, alchemical to put it in Alessandro's way, that brings together figures who are distant in age and approach, but close in their romantic inspiration.”

One issue that emerges in 2024 is that of housing or rather the precariousness of living in western metropolises. Milan Design Week is not only a globally relevant showcase but also an agent that alters the biorhythm of the entire city, disrupting the daily lives of its inhabitants. During the week, the prices of short rentals skyrocket and among Milan residents, there are even those who go to stay with friends or relatives to rent their house or a room. Many projects are inspired by this issue, and in general, by the real estate crisis the city is going through. These are not only concerned with bringing the issue to light but offer cheap or free accommodation to those who cannot afford it. The cultural centre DOPO? space will present Runaways, a living exhibition where each 'bedroom' is realised in collaboration with an institution, a designer, or a brand, and will host some “runaways” in exchange for an artistic contribution.

The IED University has conceived The Glitch Camp, an urban camp, at the Enrico Cappelli Savorelli sports centre, which will host Design students under 30 arriving in the city free of charge. Another organisation addressing the issue in a more comprehensive and structured way is BASE Milano, a cultural centre in Zona Tortona, which will present The Convivial Laboratory programme: a series of events, exhibitions and installations, will be an invitation to reflect on the most innovative international practices of cohabitation, sharing and their interrelation with the fields of migration, gender, ability, health and cultural background. Their low-cost campsite will be located on the terrace of the space and will be designed by Parasite 2.0.

Finally, the Salone del Mobile: at the fair, I will definitely pass by the stand of QuadroDesign, a company that manufactures and distributes taps with an essential design made of 100 per cent AISI316L stainless steel, known as surgical. QuadroDesign is a company but first and foremost a systemic design project. In 2022, many noticed it for its FFQT collection, designed by Formafantasma (my favourite piece is the outdoor shower). This year it is presenting other new products, born from the ever-curious and innovative looks of designers such as studio Calvi Brambilla, Giacomo Moor and Philippe Malouin.

I am also curious to see the second step in the new course of Desalto, which has been led for a couple of years by art director Francesco Rota. The first chapter in this evolutionary saga was entitled The Blue Chapter and had as its product manifesto the HEB Table, designed by Rota himself. This year the proposed theme will be Desalto Goes Soft. We do not know much more: the campaign images are evocative and there is very little information in advance. All we know for sure is the location of the stand at the fair: Hall 10 - Booth D9.

Stay tuned to STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2024 which showcases the best of exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands and events to look out for. Explore EuroCucina and all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5vie Design Week, Isola Design Week, Brera Design District and Porta Venezia Design District.