Milano Design Week 2021: ‘Supersalone’

The Salone del Mobile.Milano, internationally known as Milan Furniture Fair makes its comeback in Milan with a brand-new format and a brand new name: Supersalone. This large-size exhibition is considered a reference point for professionals in the design and furniture fair with the aim of creating top-quality products.

Now on its 59th edition, the Supersalone is held for the first time ever under the creative direction of superstar architect Stefano Boeri (the creator of Milan’s Bosco Verticale skyscrapers). For the Supersalone 2021, Boeri brings together for the first time design brands, young makers, international schools, design icons, the greatest Italian chefs, and many protagonists of the art and architecture scene.

As for the previous editions, the event is held in the exhibition spaces of Rho fairground and is spread over three pavilions. However, for the first edition of Supersalone, the event also revolves around three key locations in the city: Milan’s Triennale, Teatro alla Scala and the brand-new ADI Design Museum.

The event is set to reconfirm the role of Milan as the capital of design, as well as to highlight Italian creativity and know-how. The new Salone del Mobile also serves as an inspiration for families and people wishing to rethink home and workspaces.

Particular attention is given to sustainability as, according to Stefano Boeri’s and Maria Porro’s (the new President of Salone del Mobile.Milano) vision, all fittings are designed to be reused or recycled.

The Supersalone 2021 in numbers

Supersalone 2021 features over 423 exhibiting brands, 16% of which are participants from foreign countries, spread over 4 pavilions. The event also involves 50 independent designers and 170 projects from students graduated between 2020 and 2021, from 48 design schools in 22 countries across five continents as part of “The Lost Graduation Show” project curated by Anniina Koivu. Supersalone 2021 also involves twenty of the most influential personalities on today’s creative scene.

Highlights include the “Take Your Seat / Prendi posizione – Solitude and Solitude and Conviviality of the Chair / Solitudine e convivialità della sedia”, event curated by Nina Bassoli, in collaboration with ADI / Premio del Compasso d’Oro gathering 30 chairs awarded the Compasso d’Oro Award and more than 80 honourable mentions, distributed in the four pavilions of “supersalone”.

Supersalone is also open to contamination between different areas and languages and involves for the first time Identità Golose Milano – International Hub of Gastronomy in the exhibition Gastronomy, and features the participation of Michelin-starred chefs and important personalities in the food sector such as Carlo Cracco, Marco Pedron, Massimo Bottura, Cristina Bowerman, Matias Perdomo, Eugenio
Boer, Renato Bosco, Paolo Brunelli and Andrea Besuschio.

What’s new in this edition?

The new-ins of this editions are not just related to its new name, but introduce big changes in the format itself. The new event, indeed, is sustainable and green, open to all (but with an entrance fee), and not only buyers and professionals in the sector. At the fairground, visitors can enjoy a close-up view of the new products and creations of the brands catalogued over the last 18 months.

The Supersalone also hosts events, concerts (also in the evenings), meetings, lectures and grants visitors the chance to purchase the companies’ creations at exclusive prices at Rho Fiera. Part of the proceeds will go to a charitable cause.

What about the events-within-the-event?

For the first time, the various events that were traditionally part of the fair – i.e Euroluce, Eurocucina, Salone del Bagno, Salone Internazionale del Complemento d’Arredo and Workplace 3.0 – are unified under one roof, with no space or physical division. In this new vision of design, companies have the chance to tell their stories on vertical walls, using, both horizontal and vertical surfaces.

Each pavilion has been furnished with components designed to be reused, and is set to host a relaxation area, a food area and a common area for events and meetings. Moreover, the East Gate of Rho Fairgroundwill see the creation fo a green area featuring 200 trees, part of the Forestami project,which are set to be planted at the end of the event.

The side events and the digital platforms

The spaces and thematic itineraries designed by the team of international designers are available on the new digital platform of Salone del Mobile.Milan, and offering a vast array of services.