As disparate global issues today continue to inundate individuals and communities across the globe, various evolving strategies are being put to trial to inspire potential changemakers and set the ground for open, accessible discourse. In the creative cultural canon, it is definitively the push behind various events around the world deliberating on consonant subjects—sustainability, the climate crisis, cybersecurity, inflation and geopolitical conflicts, among others—albeit via differently phrased themes and programming but remarkably carrying a similar ethos or core. Along similar lines, the upcoming edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano builds its themes and programming on the premise of this overarching desire and endeavour for a better future.

The 63rd edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano, set to take place from April 8 - 13, 2025 at the Rho Fiera fairgrounds in Milan, Italy, launches a familiar ergo lucidly laid out challenge—building worlds fit for the future. With more than 2000 exhibitors from 37 countries anticipated to showcase their works at the event, the design fair will platform innovations in the realm of product design, furniture design, lighting design, industrial design and more, whilst also delivering both immersive and interactive sessions with large-scale installations and a curated talks programme.

Appending the vision for Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 is the communication campaign conceived by Dentsu Creative Italy. The tagline for the campaign reads Thought for Humans, while the visuals comprise five shots taken by American photographer Bill Durgin. Cohesively, the campaign seeks to remind us about the importance of responding to the needs of human beings via design. “Durgin shows how light, wood, metal, fabric and bioplastic blend with human skin, making the message of sustainability, harmony and connection tangible. The five shots show how human and material intelligence can be integrated in a synergic dialogue and project, reflecting the very essence of contemporary design,” reads an excerpt from an official release.

This year, Salone will feature four annual exhibitions—the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Workplace3.0 and S.Project—featuring over a thousand exhibiting and participating brands. The design festival, running parallel with the famed Milan Design Week, will be laid out in a “loop-shaped redesign of four pavilions”, with the entire exhibition being accessible via new themed routes. While Salone Internazionale del Mobile serves as a hub for experimentation and cross-pollination of design ideas and innovations, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, set up in 1989, platforms proposals to enrich the home furnishing sphere. On the other hand, Workplace3.0 offers innovative solutions for extant issues in workspace design, while S.Project is dedicated to showcasing decorative and technical interior decor solutions.

In addition, returning events for the upcoming Salone edition in Milan include the expansive Talks and Round Tables programme; the Euroluce Biennial comprising more than 300 brands from 25 countries anticipated during the six-day event; as well as SaloneSatellite, wherein 700 designers under the age of 35 will present their work. Renewing its ties with the Teatro alla Scala Foundation, Salone will host the official opening evening at La Scala with The Night Before. Object Chairs Opera, curated by American artist Robert Wilson. The anticipated events and programmes rounding out the Milanese design fair were presented during Salone’s press conference at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler on February 4, 2025.

Entitled Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives and curated by Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director & Cultural Events Advisor, Salone del Mobile.Milano, the Talks and Roundtables programme returns with a familiar outlook but newer perspectives. The event will be held at the Drafting Futures Arena created by Studio Formafantasma by recycling the seating from the previous edition, now a recurring practice for the Italian duo. The Talks and Round Tables programme will focus on the transmission of knowledge and experience, prompting reflection on the opportunities and responsibilities we have today towards a tomorrow that is already present. Hinged on showcasing the role that planning, design, art, direction, set design and writing play in decoding the present and predicting the future, several renowned speakers such as Lesley Lokko, Valeria Segovia and Paolo Sorrentino will herald the talks. The round table events, on the other hand, will platform discursive voices under the headings The Business of Design: Global Perspectives on Trade, E-Commerce, and Distribution on April 10 and The Business of Hospitality: Where Design Meets Functionality on April 11.

Euroluce 2025, dedicated to platforming innovations in lighting design, will ensure that light takes on an “increasingly central role in the integrated and sustainable design of public and private spaces, putting the quality of life and the future of our planet at the centre”. As part of the biennial event, the organisers will launch the first edition of The Euroluce International Lighting Forum at the fair. Directed by Annalisa Rosso, in collaboration with APIL, the forum will stimulate the exchange of ideas and promotion of innovation in the lighting industry, with six masterclasses, two round tables and two workshops taking place in The Forest of Space Arena designed by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Emulating its title, the pavilion design, curated by VIV Arts, will be built at Euroluce using vertically arranged natural pine beams to evoke the experience of a forest.

The aforementioned Euroluce talks, titled Light for Life, are scheduled to take place on April 10, 2025. Addressing the subject of artificial lighting influencing individuals biologically and psychologically, speakers will deliberate upon simple, scientific ways to design positive lighting for the well-being of humans. Some speakers for this event include solar designer Marjan van Aubel; Stefano Mancuso, a pioneer in plant neurobiology; Nicholas Belfield, a partner at dpa lighting consultants; lighting designer Rogier van der Heide; Shelley James, a lighting strategy consultant at Age of Light Innovations; Robert Wilson and researcher Manuel Spitschan.

SaloneSatellite, returning for its 26th edition this year, will be marked by showcases that respond to the theme NUOVO ARTIGIANATO: UN MONDO NUOVO//NEW CRAFTSMANSHIP: A NEW WORLD, an invitation to reimagine the universe of handmade products beyond the vernacular. The exhibition layout for SaloneSatellite 2025 has been designed by Ricardo Bello Dias in collaboration with Hariadna Pinate. Showcases under this banner will celebrate the melding of tradition and innovation and an exploration of the potential of craftsmanship and material innovation to mirror contemporary cultural, digital, ecological and social transformations. The SaloneSatellite Arena, apart from platforming showcases, will also host meetings, events and the ceremony for the SaloneSatellite Award.

“Salone also means SaloneSatellite: talents under 35. A creative reservoir, the only one of its kind in the world, that allows us to discuss the future every year, in an intergenerational dialogue. It is a huge opportunity: the Salone is industrial manufacturing, creative capital and working capital; it is Milan, it is a bridge that takes us into the world, it is young people,” shares Maria Porro, President of Salone del Mobile.Milano.

Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 will also see the launch of the book Universo Satellite. 25 anni/years of SaloneSatellite, published by Corraini and edited by Beppe Finessi. The book is a tribute to the ideas, encounters and innovations that have marked the contemporary design landscape over the past 25 years and offers a chronological narrative from 1998 to 2024, via images, unpublished documents and testimonies.

A host of Special Projects serve as additional highlights at the design event, including three site-specific installations helmed under Salone’s Cultural Programme A Luxury Way, dedicated to the all-Italian ability to create timeless objects. The installations comprise Pierre-Yves Rochon’s Villa Héritage, Paolo Sorrentino’s La dolce attesa and Robert Wilson’s Mother. While French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon’s Villa Héritage, designed in the shape of a square, encourages the audience to pause and reflect within the multi-sensorial rooms of the pavilion, Italian film director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino’s La dolce attesa manifests an intermediary spot between the past and the future as a sensorially designed bridge. American theatre director and playwright Robert Wilson’s Mother is a light, art and sound project dedicated to Michelangelo's unfinished last masterpiece, Pietà Rondanini, which depicts the agony of the Virgin Mary embracing the lifeless body of Jesus Christ. The installation will be accompanied by music composed by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

Additionally, the design week is set to garner international attention with its renewed interactive Digital Platform which guarantees an intuitive, accessible and personalised experience defined by interactive maps, exclusive content, appointment booking facilities and an overview of the event calendar.

Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 will take place from April 8 - 13, 2025, at the Rho Fiera fairgrounds in Milan, Italy.