We preview the highlights of this year’s interior design expo in Milan.

Once a year, the design world descends on Milan for the Salone Del Mobile, the design industry’s annual showcase of product launches, installations, exhibitions and, perhaps most ubiquitously of all, champagne receptions. Leading lights, emerging talents and established brands come out to play, exhibiting the results of months of research, development and experimentation. Founded in 1961 as a small trade show devoted to Italian furniture design, the Salone’s influence has now spread beyond its spiritual home at the Fiera Milano exhibition space to the northeast of the city. Today, the festival encompasses Milan in its entirety and its panoply of products, previews and presentations is hidden away inside the city’s palazzos, showrooms, white cube galleries and warehouses. It is impossible to see everything the Salone has to offer, but the following five events are a good starting point.

by Mr Robert Stadler for Vitra

Overseen by the Paris-based designer and curator Mr Robert Stadler, Typecasting has the potential to emerge as one of the Salone’s headline acts. Set in Milan’s historic La Pelota, a cavernous former sports centre in the centre of the city, Typecasting has been commissioned by the Swiss furniture giant Vitra. The company has invited Mr Stadler to curate a selection of 200 objects drawn from its archives. He has decided that the objects will not be grouped according to typology or historical origin, but will be curated according to behaviours and personality profiles found across contemporary society. It all sounds suitably intriguing and mysterious and promises to bring a welcome dose of critical reflection to the commercialism of the fair.

by Ms Bethan Laura Wood for Moroso

London-based designer Ms Bethan Laura Wood is to be applauded. Her work is generous and luxuriant. It embraces colour and pattern and takes a sledgehammer to the default brand of cool minimalism that dominates contemporary design. Instead, her work is a rich and enticing mélange of visual references and textures. Mono Mania Mexico, a collection of tapestries and textiles developed for Italian brand Moroso, seems likely to capture much of Ms Wood’s exuberance, not least in its pleasingly alliterative title. The result of ongoing research into Mexico’s arts and design history, the exhibition should be visually giddy, while highlighting a country whose design pedigree has often been overlooked.

Part of the joy of Milan is the breadth and depth of design work on display, and this year it seems that the U-Joints exhibition is likely to prove one of the richest hunting grounds. Curated by the architect Mr Andrea Caputo and academic Ms Anniina Koivu, U-Joints takes as its starting point a seemingly narrow subject matter – joining technologies – before exploding it outwards to reveal the full kaleidoscopic diversity of methods through which objects can be created. It features contributions from industry luminaries such as Mr Konstantin Grcic, Mr Jasper Morrison and Industrial Facility, experimental practitioners such as Ms Wieki Somers, Mr Max Lamb and Ms Christien Meindertsma and various emerging designers and should provide a comprehensive and compelling introduction to the world.

By Design

In a week dominated by brands offering their own takes on unfettered consumerism, Salone projects that present a more rounded perspective on material consumption are always welcome. Step forward, Circular By Design, a project overseen by the Danish fabric brand Kvadrat and its new offshoot Really, a company created to upcycle textiles. For last year’s debut iteration of the project, Mr Max Lamb created a series of beautiful benches out of solid textile boards. This year the invitation has been extended to nine studios, including the Swedish conceptualists Front and Los Angeles-based industrial designer Mr Jonathan Olivares. With the work on display likely to be of the highest standard, and an admirable commitment to finding sustainable treatments for materials at the end of their lifespan, Circular By Design is sure to serve up food for thought.

by Mr Phillip K Smith III for Cos

In recent years Milan has been dominated by blockbuster installations from global brands such as Nike, Lexus and Mini. None, however, has taken to the task like Cos, the Scandinavian fashion brand whose minimalist aesthetics have been variously interpreted in a series of all-white installations by industry big-hitters Snarkitecture, Mr Sou Fujimoto and, last year, Studio Swine. Swine’s New Spring, an artificial tree that sheds mist-filled bubbles like wobbling catkins, proved a mega-hit on Instagram. This year, Cos has turned to the American artist Mr Phillip K Smith III, whose Open Sky is a highly reflective series of sculptures intended to bring Milan’s blue sky down into the 16th-century courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi.

Salone Del Mobile takes place from 17 to 22 April 2018

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