Next year’s Salone del Mobile is set to be a tour de force

The furniture market hasn’t been an easy business to be in recently. Economic shocks and geopolitical uncertainty – especially in the all-important Middle East – have been affecting exports and making life tricky, which is why a tried-and-tested fair is arguably more important than ever. Enter the immaculately oiled machine that is Milan’s Salone del Mobile. It might not be taking place until April but now that the sleepy summer is out of the way, it already feels as though a new Salone cycle is upon us. On Tuesday the kick-off press conference for the 2027 edition at Bovisa’s Fondazione Sozzani gave us a taster of what’s to come. 

So what can a design fair do in uncertain times? The short answer is that it can become more resilient. Dating back to 1961, Salone might be an international showcase of everything from lighting to furniture but there’s no doubt that a large part of its mission is to support the “made in Italy” sector (about 60 per cent of exhibitors come from the Bel Paese). One of the most important aspects of the fair takes place long before it begins: months of outreach work, taking a Salone roadshow around the world in a bid to explore new markets. Cities such as London and New York remain vital destinations for Salone events – and there’s an increasing desire to explore Africa. The roadtrip will stop in Lagos later this month, marking the first time that Salone has touched down in Nigeria, and Cape Town in February.

Another way that a fair can become more resilient is by constantly thinking about programming – and covering bases. It’s already a mainstay for international high-end furniture brands such as Knoll (pictured below, left) and B&B Italia (pictured below, right).We have already seen Salone move into collectable design through its Raritas initiative; celebrating collectable design, it debuted this year (pictured above) and will return next year. It also organised the Euroluce International Lighting Forum (another 2027 returnee) to entice more people through the door. But the biggest punt this time around is the inaugural Salone Contract, which aims to connect design brands with a network of people who help to bring a contract job to life, from a hospital or education centre to an office or residential block. 

Rather than a fair within a fair, Salone president Maria Porro calls it “a new marketplace”. Designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA practice, we know that it will mix supply and demand, bringing together designers with everyone from architects to developers. The Contract space will operate around a central plaza called The Dome, surrounded by different “neighbourhoods” representing sectors such as boating and office. 
 
Salone Contract is a huge endeavour that involves the fair stepping outside its comfort zone. No one really knows how it will turn out at this stage – with Porro calling it a “large work in progress” – but the point is to be ambitious. Pull it off and Salone del Mobile will be all the more resilient for it. 
 
Ed Stocker is Monocle’s Europe editor at large. For more insight and analysis, subscribe to Monocle today.