DESIGN ITALY EDITORIAL by Cristina Morozzi: Predictions for the 2022 Salone del Mobile

The Salone del Mobile is less than a month away and Cristina Morozzi is collecting the first previews and making predictions about the upcoming edition of the international fair. Read the editorial.

The 60th annual International Furniture Fair in Milan (5–12 June 2022) and Fuorisalone, promoted by magazine Interni, which celebrated its 30th anniversary on 22 December 2021 at the Triennale, are finally reopening their doors this year to show off the future of furniture design. Companies and designers are already hard at work, and we’re ahead of the game with some predictions about this year’s designs.

Historical brands continue to be big, as they represent core values and continuously adapt themselves with successful numbers in terms of sales in Italy and abroad. Dieci Corso Como will devote its space to the anthological exhibition of Poltronova, a Tuscan company that will be exhibiting its collection of furniture designed by Ettore Sottsass and the Florentine radical groups Archizoom and Superstudio. The company has decided to recreate Archizoom’s Safari sofa: the one where beat poet Allen Ginsberg was photographed in the mid-1960s.

Many companies have already sent in previews, with the general impression being that new collections were designed carefully, with no extravagance, lots of common sense, and the introduction of new designs to meet the needs created by the pandemic. The return of classic furnishings is also prevalent, including room dividers like the one sold by Cassina and designed by Gaetano Pesce, as well the introduction of outdoor collections by historic companies like B&B.

Also worthy of note in outdoor furnishings is the debut of Babel D, the brainchild of Mauro Baraldo: a young, second-generation entrepreneur who decided to expand the family business by creating an outdoor design company that collaborates with designers including Walter, former director of the Audi style center who is now an all-round designer, including a collection of sexy footwear by Sergio Rossi, and who worked with Mario Antonioli on creating Alodia, a chaise longue in curved stainless steel.

Living offers lightness and geographic forms with the Lemni chair by Marco Lavit. Instead, Saba is presenting a contemporary version of the toilette; Thonet is including the elegant wooden chair 119 designed by Sebastian Herckner; Very Wood is launching bergère chairs and sofas designed by Walter Toffoloni; and Zanotta is reinterpreting the historic Maggiolina armchair by Marco Zanuso, offering a version with padded sections in fabric just like in the original 1947 version.

For now, these are just a few ideas to tide us over until this year’s highly anticipated Salone del Mobile.

Cristina Morozzi