With the opening of the Salone del Mobile, the Milan Design Week is also ready to be inaugurated, with an agenda dedicated to the changes needed for the ecological transition in the creative industry. Entitled “Between Space and Time”, the Fuorisalone edition is an invitation to reflect on the changes taking place in today’s world, those changes necessary to achieve the sustainability goals that are essential for looking to tomorrow. After the slowdown suffered in recent years, the event is ready to return as a catalyst for the major themes with which the design sector is called upon to measure itself today, from the climate emergency to urban transformations, passing also through the opportunities provided by the new frontiers of the web3.

Among the novelties introduced this year is the Fuorisalone Award, a prestigious recognition, with the contribution of the Lombardy Region, that will reward the most unique contents and installations presented during the week. In a month unprecedented for the Design Week format, the winner will be presented with both the physical award, created by 3D printing the three-dimensional model developed and the related NFT, through which they will be able to visualize in detail the processing of the Fuorisalone data. The three-dimensional representation of the complex data associated with Fuorisalone.it will be entrusted to Mauro Martino, Principal Research Scientist at MIT where he founded and directs the “Visual Artificial Intelligence Lab”.

Among the Design Districts’ calendars, Brera Design District offers a calendar featuring more than 160 events, including exhibitions, installations, group shows, and new products. ‘Designing the present, choosing the future’ is the proposed theme: finding solutions today to meet tomorrow’s challenges is also the task of design. This topic is debated throughout the year and culminates during Design Week.

The Tortona District, on the other hand, follows the leading venues Tortona Rocks, BASE, Superstudio and Tortona Design Week, where the theme of sustainability runs transversally through the proposed exhibition itineraries to anticipate the needs and interpret the changes taking place in society. Milano Durini Design proposes new products and lifestyle settings, also presenting a new concept district to emphasize the importance of the Association’s member showrooms to enhance the district at other times of the year.

The annual event dedicated to cross-disciplinary design practices, collectibles and unique pieces initiated eight years ago by the 5VIE district is back. This year it will be held around the fil rouge of the co-construction of perspectives of meaning and collective visions for the design of a shared future: “the city as a laboratory for prototyping possible utopias”. Lastly, Isola Design District will present “Together As One”, welcoming more than 250 international designers and design studios, in addition to local galleries and artisans, distributed among more than 30 locations in one of Milan’s liveliest neighborhoods.

Alongside the main exhibition strands conceived by the various Districts, there will be many other satellite events scattered around the city, including tried and tested formats and new arrivals. We start with Alcova, an exhibition project conceived by Joseph Grima of Space Caviar and Valentina Ciuffi of Studio Vedèt in the Inganni area, in the disused spaces of the Baggio military hospital, creating synergies between emerging designers, artists, galleries and institutions. SolidNature will also make its debut here, with Monumental Wonders, a group exhibition of unique pieces created by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis and the international architecture studio OMA.

Design Variations leaves Palazzo Litta this year to articulate itself in two new historical locations: the Circolo Filologico Milanese and Palazzo Visconti. Here the artist Olimpia Zagnoli will present a site-specific work aimed at enhancing the new venues of the collective. Masterly-The Dutch in Milan will instead transform Palazzo Francesco Turati, welcoming the designers, artists, artisans, and companies selected by Nicole Uniquole, curator of the event and founder of the event that has become a cornerstone of the Fuorisalone.

Curated by Beyond Space and Organisation in Design, Certosa Initiative is one of the novelties of the 2022 edition, with an exhibition project that takes shape within a post-industrial space of over 10,000 square meters in which emerging talents and some of the most influential brands in the sector dialogue. Baranzate Ateliers proposes inside the former Necchi factory, an icon of the Italian industrial heritage, an exhibition path dedicated to collectible design and experimental art. Triennale Milano presents a program that brings together permanent exhibitions, such as the Museum of Italian Design and Ettore Sottsass’s Casa Lana, and a series of exhibitions and events proposed for Milan Design Week. Next, Rossana Orlandi returns with Ro Plastic Prize, an award part of the RO Guiltless Plastic project.

The experimental spearhead of this edition ID-Exe will be a real diffuse district realised by D.O.S (Design Open Spaces). At dozens of points in the city, for the first time in the history of the Fuorisalone, it will hybridise the real and virtual worlds, giving rise to new levels and fruition scenarios that come to life on smartphones and tablets, overcoming the limits of space and time.

Opening image: Fuorisalone 2022. ©Superstudio Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), Aibelle, Installation