Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023 to emerge with a reworked guise and fresh formula

Promising a different guise and reworked format, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023 has announced its next edition to take place from April 18 – 23, 2023, at the Rho Fiera Milano in Italy, with a fresh general exhibition layout, demonstrating the possible future evolution of the international trade fair with Euroluce, the acclaimed biennial dedicated to lighting since 1976. Post a four-year hiatus, Euroluce will bring the best brands in the industry to the pavilions, as it has before, presenting the most innovative solutions in the field of light for interiors and exteriors. More than 420 exhibitors attended its last edition, confronting and exploring each other on technological and lighting innovation—eco-sustainability of lighting appliances and sources, energy saving, and the most up-to-date software.

With a heightened focus on the quality of design proposals and allied curated content, an improved user-friendly nature of the visitor experience, as well as the cultural and professionally enriching value of the design event itself, the 61^st edition of the Salone del Mobile "will play a pivotal role in the trade fair transformation, continuing to generate value for exhibiting companies and visitors alike," the organisers share, who are planning a renewed celebration of all things design, brimming and gearing towards quality. The annual events comprising the fair, the International Furnishing Accessories exhibition, Workplace 3.0, the third edition of S.Project, and SaloneSatellite (which will celebrate its 24^th edition in 2023) will be held among the specially designed pavilions.

Euroluce, an international lighting exhibition recognised as a global benchmark, where technological innovation and design culture take centrestage, will witness a massive investment in resources and energy for its upcoming 23^rd edition. This will encompass a 'revolutionised' exhibition layout, customising and reworking the concept of proximity, ingrained in a plethora of Italy’s historic town centres. "An irregular, geometrically polygonal, fluid and free ring" will be conceived for the same, to optimise the exhibition’s user-friendliness by Lombardini22, an Italy-based group focusing on architecture and engineering.  

Maria Porro, reconfirmed as the president of Salone del Mobile.Milano says —“Thanks to teamwork, Euroluce will be transformed into a great visitor experience, with opportunities to find about and actually touch extremely high-quality products and to learn more about themes connected with the lighting world through a top-level cultural offering geared to buyers, professionals and the design community as a whole. We like to imagine it as a dialogue between architecture and design, a source of inspiration and enrichment for the visitor. From this perspective, it’s interesting that a number of companies specialising in technical products have accepted the challenge to take part in the Salone.”

Ranging from architecture to art, cross-pollinated, and presented across interactive exhibitions, engaging talks, intriguing workshops and visually pleasing installations, the new exhibition format commits to interdisciplinary, experiential, and cultural content. These shall be curated by Italian architect Beppe Finessi, alongside a selected group of young curators and special guests including leading contemporary artists.

The research-based design studio Formafantasma is gearing up to play a pivotal role in the proceedings, commissioned to turn Euroluce into an 'ideal city' inside the new layout. The design-duo will design public spaces, wayfinding, signages, and special cameos, "in a foretaste of the possible future evolution of the trade fair format itself,” relays the press statement from Salone.

The approach as stated by Porro will extend from Euroluce to the international furniture fair in a comprehensive manner. To some extent, it will also involve rethinking the format from perspectives of innovation and contemporariness, creating appropriate and effective solutions as well as proposals that combat the challenges facing the trade fair scene. Exhibiting companies, some debuting, and others making an enthusiastic return, will be provided with new support and tools of visibility from Salone del Mobile.Milano, through their digital platform and allied online services.

In an attempt to ascertain educated routes on how to improve the overall experience and accessibility of the design festival, in-depth research has been carried out, involving more than 2,300 field interviews with visitors from the world over. "This has triggered a new vision for the upcoming edition of the Salone, which will be held on a single level at the fairgrounds, a decision that will enable us to optimise the visitor experience," they inform.

"Despite being beset by difficulties, the wood-furnishing chain is preparing to close 2022 12 per cent up on 2021. FederlegnoArredo Study Centre Monitor surveys show that this is also reflected in the Furnishing Macro System results (with sales equivalent to 4.58 billion euros), which saw a 12.7 per cent rise in the first nine months of 2022, with Italy seeing a 14.7 per cent growth trend, while exports were up 11 per cent. Estimates are that the Furnishing Macro System could close 2022 8.1 per cent up. These results are highly satisfying for a sector that will also have an opportunity at the upcoming Salone del Mobile di Milano to present itself to emerging markets with a reworked formula shared with the participating companies, which will take shape with Euroluce. An experiment that testifies to the vitality of Made in Italy, as represented by our businesses, and which will be crucial for tackling what promises to be a very uncertain 2023," says Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo, the renowned wood-furniture supply chain that promotes and organises the Salone del Mobile Milano and the Salone del Mobile.

SaloneSatellite, dedicated to schools, universities, and under-35 designers, and one of the widely regarded recurring features of the annual trade fair in Milan is also planned to make a triumphant return, in a new but completely 'natural location' within the Euroluce pavilions. This adheres to its agenda of representing the future of design par excellence, and the 2023 edition will dedicate a special nucleus to the Design Schools and Universities with the theme Design School: Building the (im)possible. Process, Progress, Practice. “By putting the spotlight on them, SaloneSatellite wants to underscore the unforgettable contribution they have made and continue to make to the training of young designers and to the advancement of design,” shares Salone del Mobile.

"The Salone del Mobile 2023 will again be an unmissable occasion, an opportunity for the entire sector to come together, discuss their particular projects, swap and share ideas and, not least, it will be a chance to catch up again with our international community and take stock of the current state of the design industry, along with all of its key players,” they conclude.

STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2023 showcases the best exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands, and special projects to look out for. Explore Euroluce 2023 and all the design districts—5vie, Brera, Fuorisalone, Isola, Tortona Design Week, and Durini—with us.