Milan Design Week: green is the fashion

Sustainability is key at Milan Design Week 2018. Green City. Comfort from Waste. Repairing Nature. The titles of some stands make it clear that reuse and care for the environment are becoming increasingly important themes in the furniture industry.

A related trend is the return to old-fashioned craftsmanship. But then combined with modern technology and natural raw materials, especially wood. For example, designer Philippe Stark presented a wooden chair after years of plastic: 'We have to, because petroleum as a raw material is finite.'

Design Week was held from April 17 to 22. It is considered the world's leading event in the field of industrial design and home furnishings. Last year, Design Week attracted 300.000 visitors. That number has probably been surpassed this time.

Fuori Salone

The Milan Design Week is in the years 80 created as a side event next to the Furniture expo, the 'official' furniture fair on the immense exhibition grounds of Rho, just outside the municipal border. It still exists and continues to be successful, but during the fair week the city is the scene of hundreds of exhibitions without central management, which are known under the common name Fuori Salone.

For a whole week, Milan is buzzing with artistic activity. Renowned furniture makers and designers exhibit in the city center in galleries, museums and stately buildings. While young hopeful designers descend out there into private homes, shops and sheds, turning entire streets into uninterrupted exhibition spaces.

you have to be there

Because everyone knows: if you want to count and stand out, then you have to be there in Milan, which is known as the 'world capital of design' for a reason. This time around 2.500 designers or exhibitors walked around in Milan. In addition to a cosmopolitan multitude of talentscouts, buyers, trend watchers, design students and sector journalists. All of them fashionably dressed, walking hastily and laden with bags and folders, determined the street scene.

An overview of all the activities of the Fuori Salone, which is spread over 14 different districts (clusters) and still growing, can be found at www.fuorisalone.it.

The Netherlands well represented

Like every year, the Netherlands was well represented with about 300 designers. About a hundred of them took part in the collective exhibition Masterly. It was held this year for the third time in the beautiful Palazzo Turati. By the Corriere della Sera she was chosen as number 2 on the list of places to be during Design Week.

In such an exhibition of condensed ingenuity you can also see how extensive the concept of design has become. In addition to real furniture from top designer Edward van Vliet, manufacturer of garden furniture Borek, the Rotterdam vocational school HMCollege and O-Jee, maker of sleek white bathrooms, all possible forms of interior art were on display. Wonderful lamps, vases, collages and the like.

Tulip bulb vodka

One of the most remarkable accessories I thought was the Dutch Tulip Vodka. A subtle distillate from tulip bulbs that can compete with the best Italian grappas in terms of taste and that the makers therefore want to market in Italy as well.

Young talents gave their best at the Salone Satellite, reserved for designers under the age of 35. They also took part in numerous collective exhibitions, including at the hip Porta Ticinese and, under the name Ventura Futuro, in the working-class district of Piola.

Hotels full

If you want to see everything that Milan has to offer during the Design week, you should definitely set aside the full week for it. Apparently many interested parties have done so. There was no longer a hotel room available in the entire city. B&Bs and youth hostels also charged insane amounts for the last remaining sleeping places.

If you want to experience Design Week next year, it is therefore a good idea to book well in advance.

Anyway, this Milan Design Week left a festive and positive impression, partly thanks to the beautiful spring weather. Italy is not yet out of the economic and political crisis, but in Milan it was hardly noticeable!