A press conference was held last week in Milan to inform listeners about the Salone
del Mobile. It was not the first and it will not be the last in this period, taking a world
tour that reflects a sizeable effort of communication. The event, in effect, will have to
face some major challenges. Examined in two hours full of ideas.
The Salone is going through an important and delicate moment of evolution. The
choice of concentrating all the exhibits on the ground floor of the pavilions at Rho-
Pero is undoubtedly based on the desire to rationalize pathways, but also on an
effective reduction of the number of companies taking part: in 2019 there were 2,400,
while the press conference announced about 1,900.
The Salone responds to this situation by following a path of evolution, continuing with and expanding on the sweeping reassessment of the pavilions that began last year. Inserting new contents, for example, to stimulate visitors through what Juri Franzosi of the studio Lombardini22 (in charge of the redesign) defines as “surprisingness.” Or relying on new tools such as those of the neurosciences, which provide an original viewpoint on the way visitors interact with the event.
But there’s more. The President, Maria Porro, spoke of the Salone as an ecosystem, which as such has the ability to adapt to changes in the host environment – and this is not just a question of ecology, although the fair in September did obtain ISO 10121 certification for the system of sustainability management of the events. “Ecosystem” also means a set of relationships, of interdependent factors. A form of collective intelligence. This is how I see design: something that changes, evolves, and not always in a predictable way. The widespread debate on traditional trade fairs is a part of all this. The most interesting response is change. And the Salone del Mobile seems to have plenty of new ideas.
