“We believe that digitization will progressively decrease the presence of physical books. Libraries will increasingly become communal spaces where people meet and spend their time.” This is a firm conviction at Snøhetta, which has been designing buildings for cultural purposes for over 25 years. It has joined forces with UniFor to carry out a research project, begun in 2019, which is defining a series of objects intended to redesign the meaning of libraries. Bokhus (below) is the first: a bookcase system that blends Italian craft skills and engineering with Scandinavian elegance and material qualities. It uses recycled aluminium, wood and cellulose and adopts a production technique that enables each component to be detached, recycled and disposed of appropriately. Another proposal for the Salone is XYZ (top), a flexible office system designed by Foster + Partners, consisting of a bookcase X, a table for informal meetings Y and a height adjustable desk Z. LM

Born in France a and a graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven, Claire Chérigié is one of the four designers (with Tim Couwenberg, Albert Potgieter and Envisions Design Agency) representing the Netherlands at the SaloneSatellite. They have researched innovative materials and solutions related to sustainability, social inclusion and education, starting with a rereading of traditional techniques. Chérigié’s Dawn to Dusk takes us into the field of interactive design, making us reflect on our more or less conscious relationship with time and our perception of it. LM

The Super Random project by Gio Tirotto for Manerba has been designed in accordance with a number of key principles: sustainability, transformability and disassemblability. Conceived for workspaces, this furniture system can be used to shape spaces with straight and curved lines. The designer’s research has concentrated on the use of a single technology, bending FSC-certified plywood, to make all the elements: the supporting legs as well as the removable upholstery, shelves and an independent stackable stool. ES

For the 50th anniversary of the iMaestri collection, Cassina has bet on an iconic piece from its historic catalogue – the Chaise longue à réglage continu by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand – and the evocative location of Palazzo Broggi, restored and reopened last year. The show “Echoes: 50 years of iMaestri”, curated by art director Patricia Urquiola with Federica Sala, describes the approach needed to edit great classics while respecting the design’s authenticity, a sort of preview of Ivan Mietton’s book to be published this autumn. LM

For some years, Cristina Celestino has accustomed us to her elegant and delicate “incursions” in search of new places at the Fuorisalone. It is a titanic undertaking given the density of events occupying every square metre of the city, yet this designer from Friuli seems particularly good at it. Following the Tram Corallo (2018), a 1928 tram transformed into a luxury lounge, and the exhibition at Fioraio Radaelli (2022), a historic shop designed by Guglielmo Ulrich in 1945, this year Celestino invites us to the Milano Bonacossa Tennis Club designed by Giovanni Muzio in 1923.

In addition to products for Atmosphera, Besana Carpet Lab, Bilumen, Skillmax, Barbisio, Dedar and Quinti, the show will also present the new Raquette collection for Billiani, which is a tribute to the age-old technique of weaving strips of wood and is inspired by the world of tennis. In fact, the sides of the seats, with textured panels inside the frames, resemble the strings of a racket. Throughout the week, the We Are One collective will be running a pop-up restaurant while the tennis courts can be booked for lessons or matches. ES 

At the SaloneSatellite, 13 young designers with different backgrounds, talents and practices – braided fabrics, precious wood, marble discards and even steel – are united thanks to craftsmanship. Their design is hybrid, human and poetic. For example, the works by the duo Ahokpe + Chatelin that, made up of a textile designer and an artisan weaver, investigate weaving for domestic use, enhancing the cultures of their respective countries, Benin and Belgium. Meanwhile, Joe Sterck (in the next photo) works between furniture and sculpture, exploring the boundaries of functionality. ES

What is the social responsibility of design? What does it mean to make less, reassess local production, acquire autonomy in the supply chain or production process, improve cocreation or reduce our footprint? This year the Swiss collective explores today’s challenges by confiding in the answers of over 100 emerging designers, independent studios, established brands and institutions active in training and research who responded to the “Urgent Legacy” call by Pro Helvetia and Presenza Svizzera. LM

The exhibition curated by Byungjun Koo and organised by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation, which brings Korean craftsmanship to the Feltrinelli Foundation, focuses on Korea’s unique regional and cultural characters. Twenty craft artists active in various fields, including ceramics, metal, wood, glass, lacquer and painting, with the use of ancient materials such as iron, seek to demonstrate the potential of moving from tradition to transmission and from adaptation to application, through ten different artistic interpretations. LM

Telegram, the new collection of Formafantasma for CC-Tapis, was born not only from the desire to salvage discards, but especially to celebrate the work behind each handmade object. Artisans can freely express themselves with fabric offcuts, weaving together chosen words. Thus the series is composed of a melange of patterns that, like telegrams, narrate names and ideas of each of them, and contain the answers to the designers’ questions: where do they come from, what do they see as they look out the window while working? ES

The main idea is to involve inhabitants in the areas of intervention as key players in these transformations, by working on their skills and making them independent. An exhibition at Assab One will describe this project to the public through Moor’s furnishings with photos by Francesco Giusti, Filippo Romano, Mattia Zoppellaro and Alessandro Treves of Perimetro. LM

A self-taught designer, refined publisher and manufacturer, Christophe Delcourt is the creator of a table, Nin, whose base resembles a small sculpture, and a series of padded furnishings, Zae, with inviting forms. Presented in January at Maison&Objet, they have now evolved into the broader collection At the Edge of the Woods, which also includes a coffee table, console and round table. The leitmotif lies in the natural materials: the brushed durmast of the table joined with high-end furniture craftsmanship, and the natural upholstery of the sofa, part of the new Delcourt Textiles collection. ES

Romeo Sozzi continues the painstaking task of enhancing and experimenting with Bottega Ghianda, a company-workshop founded in the 1800s and known internationally for its woodworking. After the ambitious pieces by Philippe Starck, Álvaro Siza and Marc Ferrand, this year it’s Gaetano Pesce’s turn to get involved, with his “Luigi o mi amate voi?” bookshelf, an early 1980s design for Bernini. This hybrid has a frame in black satin-finished beech wood, shelves in epoxy resin, and LED lights, which makes it see through but also a little magical. ES

The company continues with the Remasters project, which draws on the rich heritage of iconic design pieces from the 1970s and gives them a new life. This year, the choice fell on two creations by Claudio Salocchi and the Due Più chair by Nanda Vigo, which will be present at fair and also in the Spotti shop on Viale Piave. The new re-editions are an opportunity to introduce a few variations in line with the original design. In Vigo’s case, it is the exuberant upholstery in white and rust-coloured Mongolian fur. LM