Milan Design Week preview

Interiors fans, here’s a date for your diary – the Italian design capital, Milan, will once again open its doors to international designers, architects and interiors insiders from 4-9 April for the fifty-sixth Salone del Mobile at Rho Fiera. This year’s show will see a wide variety of designers showcasing new products, plus there’ll be a host of new exhibitions and open showrooms throughout the city.

Highlights for this year include the Serious About Food Kitchen Lab by KitchenAid at La Triennale. Eight international designers and architects, including Bernhardt & Vella, Castiglia Associati, Kensaku Oshiro, Marc Sadler, matali crasset, Rachel Laxer, Tor Interiors, and Victor Vasilev, have used sociological and lifestyle changes to radically reinterpret the kitchen – one of the most important domestic spaces in any house. The KitchenLab will be on show from the 4-9 April before going on tour to Paris for D’Days (Le Festival Du Design) (2-14 May) and then on to London Design Week (16-24 September) before finishing in Bad Salzuflen for MOW Fair (17-21 September).

The Italian interior textile house, Dedar, celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a new collaboration between the designer Martino Gamper and the artist Brigitte Niedermair called Screenshot. It is a concept photography project synthesising 500 years of the colour blue in figurative art. This concept has been translated onto Dedar’s sophisticated fabrics, which are then further transformed into a serial piece of art, which acts as a tribute to its history of innovation and commitment to design. First revealed in London last month, the Screenshot exhibition will now be transported to Milan’s Palazzo Serbelloni for Milan Design Week.

Following on from the launch of the “Forma” cheese grater for Spring/Summer 2017, Alessi will further explore its several collaborations with Zaha Hadid during Fuorisalone. The windows of Alessi’s Flagship Store on Via Manzoni in Milan will be transformed with a special installation featuring highlights from the collection. Hadid first collaborated with Alessi in 2003 and the installation will use the designs to highlight Hadid’s ability to render architectural form into small domestic objects.

Once again there will be a large Scandinavian presence at the show, with Ikea showcasing its collaboration with Tom Dixon – a modular bed that explores the notion of adaptability and future-proofing. Named the Delaktig, it is a bed-cum-sofa that can be modified into different styles of furniture. Swedish brand String will also be in attendance with its flexible and innovative shelving systems, located in hall 6, stand e032. It will be showcasing the new String pocket in burgundy, sand and mustard as well as furniture from the String Works collection.