Our Favorite Forward-Looking Designs From Salone del Mobile 2022
Milan Design Week is back in full swing—and this year’s exhibitions make space for daring and varied ideas about sustainability, diversity, and well-being.
Milan Design Week is back in full swing—and this year’s exhibitions make space for daring and varied ideas about sustainability, diversity, and well-being.
One beautiful thing about visiting Milan for the world’s largest design fair is the way the city comes alive with contrasts between the past and the present. Milan’s historic architecture—its palazzos, cobblestone streets, courtyards, and steepled skyline—serves as a foil to the experimentation, innovation, and fresh ideas on display. That’s not to say that Salone del Mobile doesn’t nod to traditional craft—but the arc of this year’s fair is unmistakably forward looking.
At this point, sustainability (as buzzy and broad as the term may be) is a design necessity, rather than a novelty—yet we remain in dire need of products, technologies, methods of making, and ideas that can lead us (and our built environments) toward a bright future. Excitingly, these elements popped up in exhibitions across the city (alongside some purely pretty stuff, which is sometimes just as lovable).
Read on for a few of favorite designs and exhibits from Salone del Mobile 2022.
Ekaabo by Studio Lani
Lagos-based Studio Lani’s Ekaabo lights on view at Milan Design Week.
Courtesy of Studio Lani
Lagos, Nigeria–based Studio Lani, helmed by Lani Adeoye, envisions a future that preserves the past. On view at Salone Satellite—an exhibition dedicated to cultivating the work and practices of designers under 35 years old—is Adeoye’s capsule collection, named Ekaabo, which means "welcome" in Yoruba. The lights and furnishings incorporate striking ornaments cast in Benin bronze, and they tether heritage techniques to what Adeoye calls "new futures and imagined possibilities." The designer mixes materials and methods from different Nigerian tribes to celebrate unity and traditions of hospitality.
Children’s Structure by Marija Kojić
Marija Kojić’s worskspace/play structure, showcased in the Young Balkan Designers exhibition at Salone del Mobile.
Photo by Nebojsa Babic
Also at Salone Satellite was Young Balkan Designers, a group show of award-winning projects that focus on well-being through sensory engagement, with dashes of fun, unanticipated function. Belgrade-based Marija Kojić, for example, created a modular structure for children that serves as a both a play structure and a circular workspace.
SOR Collection by Loose Parts
The Los Angeles–based modular furniture brand Loose Parts made its Milan debut at Alcova with the SOR collection.
Photo by Noah Webb
See the full story on Dwell.com: Our Favorite Forward-Looking Designs From Salone del Mobile 2022
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