Each April the city of Milan is inundated with design! Here is what Love Happens will be scouting around the city and at Milan Design Week 2019.

Salone del Mobile.Milano

Salone del Mobile.Milano, internationally known as Milan Furniture Fair, is more than a fair or a large-size exhibition, it is a reference point for professionals in the design and furniture industry. The fair is focused on the production of top quality products. Now on its 58th edition, the Salone del Mobile.Milano fair (once known as I Saloni) is composed of different exhibitions spread over the various pavilions in Rho Fiera Milano:

Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Salone Internazionale del Mobile, i.e. the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition boasts more than 1,300 exhibitors. It is divided into two core themes, “Classic Furnishing Accessories” and “Design Furnishing Accessories”, allowing the best knowledge of design trends.

Euroluce

Euroluce (International Biennial Lighting Exhibition), runs every two years focusing on the most innovative lighting solutions.

Workplace3.0/SaloneUfficio

Workplace3.0/SaloneUfficio (International Biennial Workspace Exhibition), features a mix of furnishings designed for work and office solutions. All creations in this exhibit aim to provide innovative smart office solutions to allow a new, anthropocentric approach to design.

SaloneSatellite

SaloneSatellite, a section dedicated to young, emerging designers, serves as a launch pad into the world of design. This year it features a focus on today’s food revolution with a project titled “Food as a Design Object”

A Focus on Leonardo da Vinci

On the occasion of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, Salone opens the way to a vast array of national events. In particular, the S-project is home to an installation by designer Marco Balich, the mind behind the invention of the Tree of Life, for Expo 2015.

AQUA. Leonardo’s Vision

Leonardo’s Vision is a site-specific immersive experience developed in partnership with Balich Worldwide Shows. The Conca dell’Incoronata, located on Via S. Marco, is covered with an architectural insert in the form of a great expanse of water. On the edge of which a huge LED screen becomes a window into a future Milan, showing a skyline that changes according to the time of day.

DE-SIGNO. The art of Italian design before and after Leonardo

Celebrating Leonardo’s work and craftsmanship, DE-SIGNO, is an immersive installation that marries the languages of film and theatrical scenography. Located at Pavillion 24 on Salone del Mobile’s fairgrounds.

FUORISALONE

Fuorisalone is the set of events distributed in different areas of Milan during Salone Internazionale del Mobile. Every year, in April, Salone and Fuorisalone define the Milan Design Week!

Versace x Sasha Bikoff x Andy Dixon

Versace is launching it’s latest Home collection during Milan Design Week with a collaboration with interior designer Sasha Bikoff and artist Andy Dixon. Staged at Versace’s storied Palazzo in Via Gesù, the exhibit is most certainly one we want to see!

The Design Districts

TORTONA DESIGN DISTRICT

The Tortona Design District is one of the most interesting and energetic areas of Milan. The are is known internationally as a strong point of reference for the fashion and design sectors. Tortona Design District has tons of events during Milan Design Week, but here are few on our must-see list.

Top Tortona Events & Exhibits:

Lexus – Leading with Light

An immersive experience using lighting technology to showcase a vision for a more human-centered tomorrow – realized with Japanese design studio, Rhizomatiks.

LABORATOIRES FILORGA

The first salon where you can rediscover naturally beautiful skin. Come and experience a photo-retouch proof skin care treatment in just 3 minutes. You don’t need filters, just Oxygen Glow: the #Nofilterskin routine by Filorga.

Superstudio Show

An icon of design in Milan and perhaps the most visited and sought-after place in the Tortona District since its inception in 2000. With 13.000 sq.m of exhibitors in 2 locations showcasing the latest trends, this is an area you don’t want to miss.

BRERA DESIGN DISTRICT

The theme of this year’s Brera Design District events is inspired by Bill Burnett’s and Dave Evans’ book “Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life.” Named ‘Design Your Life’, the exhibition expresses the conscious and sustainable design of one’s life and choices.

Top Brera Design District Events & Exhibits:

Artemest Living Objects

For Milan Design Week 2019 Artemest in partnership with TED Milano presents Living Objects: design meets the delightful soul of the theater in a historic Milanese setting. For the first time, Artemest with TED Milano fully decorate a 1930s villa with a curated selection of furniture, lighting, and décor crafted by the expert Italian artisans and designers.

Segni del Tempo presents Phillip Jeffries

Planetario by Cristina Celestino (@Brera Design Apartment)

Essential Spin

An Extraordinary World by Marc Ange

Créations Métaphores at PalermoUno

MELISSA | CAMPANA CROCHET

Moooi – A Life Extraordinary

New York Suite

Samambaia – Fromental by Maresca Interiors

F Design Week – The Pink side of Design

L’OBJET Haas Brothers

Montblanc #Reconnect1858

NEVER STOP EXPLORING – Christian Fischbacher Fabrics

Dedar – New Hermès Home Fabric Collection

Issey Miyake Parfums – Il Senso del Design Corriere della Sera

At Home with The Socialite Family

Rubelli Showroom

Brera Design Apartment

Brera Design Apartment is the Brera Design District’s showroom in via Palermo no. 1, in the heart of Brera. It is a place for meeting and exchanging views on issues related to design, communication and project culture.

More to Love:

BEST BARS & RESTAURANTS IN MILAN

5 VIE ART + DESIGN

The beating heart of Milan Old Town, becomes a new cultural and art district characterized by design and innovation. 5VIE arte + design reconfirms its role of widespread design museum featuring well-consolidated editorial projects consisting of three exhibitions and a site-specific installation, where particular attention is given on the territory and on natural resources.

PORTA VENEZIA IN DESIGN

An itinerary for Design Week to combine design, art with Liberty architecture, food&wine.

VENTURA PROJECT

This Milan Design Week we’ll present 83 exhibitors at the second edition of Ventura Future. Now on its third consecutive edition, Ventura Centrale has announced that its exhibition spaces are now expanding from nine to fifteen vaults at the Magazzi Raccordati.

LAMBRATE DESIGN DISTRICT

Now on its second edition, Lambrate Design District joins forces with NYCxDesign – the event held in May in New York to promote sustainability and creativity through events, exhibitions and installations spread over an overall surface of 13,000 sq.m.

MILANO DURINI DESIGN

Over the years, Via Durini and the surrounding area have increasingly become the home of prestigious national- and international-level Design Companies. This is a strongly expanding urban hub taking in all the area to the east of the Cathedral as the heart of Design in the centre of Milan.

ISOLA DESIGN DISTRICT

If you want to discover young designers and new design brands, this is the right place to be, just next to contemporary architectural excellences such as the Vertical Forest and Gae Aulenti Square!

MILANO MODA DESIGN

An international event that takes place along with the Salone del Mobile furniture fair and celebrates the now famous union between fashion and design. In the hectic calendar of the events which is accompanied by the official ones of Fuori Salone and Salone del Mobile, the protagonists of fashion present their home collections or fashion events related to design. The frequent contamination between the two worlds, both excellences of Made in Italy, gives greater value to the fashion greats that find in Home design and Home Textile a natural continuity of style.

Camera Nazionale della Moda through an incisive international communication campaign gives the possibility to all fashion brands that range in design sector to have the right visibility. Exhibitors include names such as Etro, Fendi, Roberto Cavalli, Trussardi, Missoni, Bottega Veneta, Armani, Versace and more!

Looking for more things to do in Milan? Check out our guide!

DESIGN LOVER’S GUIDE TO MILAN: THINGS TO DO IN MILAN