I SALONI – SPARKLING THROUGH THE VOLCANO ASHES OVER EUROPE

From April 14th-19th 2010, at the Fairgrounds of Milano Rho, the famous i Saloni spread out their charms to satisfy and amaze the many people that have defied the volcano ashes wavering all over the continent. According to the organizer, 329,563 accredited visitors had been there and 5,110 journalists, celebrating what is called - The Event is back! - 2,542 exhibitors have come to present the broadest overview ever on the global interior decoration sector and some of its branches. The museal and innovational character of the show – along with the entrepreneurial interests – makes it a pleasure to walk through the halls.
Most attracting to the visitors seemed to be the ten design and modern halls with huge stands offering sitting room options, bedrooms, dining areas, stand-alone pieces of furniture, furnishing accessories, knick knacks and decorative items as well as the four Eurocucina halls.

© 2010 Salone Internazionale del Mobile – Salone classico

Extremely satisfied, Carlo Guglielmi – President of Cosmit, the trade-show organisation – said to have witnessed an outstanding outcome of the fair considering the worldwide crisis topped with the flight cancelling due to the continental spreading of the volcano ashes. He was sure that the 7% foreign visitor participation would have been doubled without the flight stops.

In numbers, 359 foreign exhibitors had arrived: 85 from Spain, 59 from Germnay, 26 from Portugal, 24 from France, 10 to 20 exhibitors came each from Egypt, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and Turkey. The share of foreign exhibitors was 14 %.

THE SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL MOBILE
– celebrating next year its 50th edition - is by far the most established of all the interior decoration exhibitions taking place at Milano Rho which have been all organized into a perfect mutual fitting and completion. With 1,493 exhibitors on 151,000 m² distributed on 14 halls there is no way to get a satisfying overview in a day! Many customers nowadays are from Eastern Europe, Far East and continuously from the Middle East. The SALONE DEL COMPLEMENTO D‘ARREDO has completely been dissolved in all these halls and it proved to be a problem to get a complete and selective overview or grip on it.

The Salone del Mobile was otherwise clearly divided into three great sections: the classic, the modern and the design. As it said there was mainly furniture to be seen. Home and house textiles as well as carpets and rugs appeared as accessories and owned no singular concept. Some exhibitors said to have arranged money saving contracts with some textile carpet or accessories suppliers for their show-booth.

THE SALONE CLASSICO
The first four great halls (halls 1-4) showed the “classic style” high-end interior furniture and decoration offers. With an opulent and widely barroque touch, the shows were daring, amazing and glamorous, ready to leave anyone speechless. They may reflect the new global taste in luxury, attracting a broad public from Eastern Europe and Asia.

© 2010 Salone Internazionale del Mobile – Salone classico

The German Finkeldei upholstery manufacturing company, for instance, showed itself “very satisfied” with the results. Despite the flight restrictions – they said – starting with the second trade-show day, there had been more visitors than in former years and order books had been “filled in well”. Werner Knoche, CEO of Finkeldei: “With our upholstery we were able to win over many new clients and even improve last years results. The Made in Germany label seems as well to continue high. It’s a pity, though, that we are the only German manufacturing company at this trade-show participating in the classic high-end sector. More aplomb would be fitting, for German design has truly no need to hide.”

Very surprising to see, that amongst all the luxurious interior furnishing proposals, there are almost no Oriental rugs or carpets at all. These very stylish and fitting items to the classic sector could be easily and market friendly manufactured in really any design and quality option needed.

THE SALONI DESIGN AND MODERNO
In the following ten halls, the whole potential of the modern world is displayed. There is nothing really strikingly new to see, instead there are quality citations and references as well as recreations of artwork and archetypes of the sixties and seventies; many developments of proven forms and techniques. Design with déja-vue effectiveness is fun and good business! The trade-show says itself to act as an encouraging factor in difficult times.

< ©2010 iSaloni - Salone design                           Salone design'10 -Gmc Micheli- Foto Geert Böttger >

The wall: a room divider
Very interesting indeed are the current developments in wall coverings. The wall is not seen any more as a pale or painted contour to rooms ment for living or a subserving surface for application ideas. The wall has emancipated itself in formats that reflect and throw light and shadow in inherent tectonical structures. This is much more than wall papering or plastering, it is the display of what is meant to live aesthetically on itself through different three-dimensional and sculptural means. Here, among the modernistic proposals, the big trend is rustic nature brought home: raw timber and solid wood recommending sustainability in wonderfully elegant interpretations - as seen at L’Officina from Vicenza Italy – see picture in the centre below.

©2010 iSaloni - Salone design

307 foreign exhibitors had been in the furniture halls: 80 from Spain, 31 German, 26 Portuguese, 21 French, 10 to 15 exhibitors came from Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Singapore, Sweden, Swizzerland  and Turkey.

EUROCUCINA
The biennial kitchen show at the saloni has covered this year four fantastic halls with breathtaking exhibitions. 155 exhibitors presented their products on 32,500m². For kitchens, any possible surface option was on display: from finery lacquered surfaces to wooden, metal, laminate and brick apparelled with lovingly selected equipments and tools; the whole range from antique and retro to classic opulence and luxurious functionality or matter of fact elegance.
The destined technical equipments could be selected at the neighbouring FTK studio.

© 2010 Eurocucina – iSaloni

The living-room kitchen
The central sujet could be described as the integration of the kitchen into the living-rooms. The exhibitions show kitchen as classic luxury furniture interpretations integrated or directly open to the living and dining rooms. Another variety is the hidden kitchen, almost invisible as such and moreover presented in living-room characters. In the classical range, many shows recreated the granny’s kitchen’ atmosphere; others presented lavishly adorned cooking sectors with classical pillar framing. In absolute contrast stood the puristic design kitchens shaped broad and clear: without compromise!

Muebles Picó from Valencia Spain, for instance, had presented right at the beginning of hall 9 an allover silver baroque cuisine which would be hardly difficult to surpass in its originality. There is a significant ironic difference between pomp and gaudiness, with a glow of decadence, subtly mastered by Picó!
And of course, the great ones were there: from Germany, Nobilia, Alno, Allmillmö and Schüller who considered the outcome of the show “very successful”. An important Egyptian producer offering any style you need is AMR Helmy. He showed an extremely interesting wooden kitchen named Origami with a modern relief decoration at the Eurocucina.

FTK – Technology For The Kitchen
FTK is the collateral proposal to Eurocucina at its 4th edition by now and the products on exhibit show the technological innovation achieved in built-in domestic appliances and cooker hoods. The German manufacturer Gaggenau did not merely exhibit the end-product but displayed all the different production related steps. 26 exhibitors offered their very best on a 7,000m² area.

<2010 FTK -Gaggenau-                                                2010 FTK -Faber- >
Fotos Geert Böttger

The Italian Faber company amazed with an exceptional hood design of highest technical standards. On our picture, the Linea Eggs / Symbol model is shown. The hybrid concept has taken over the sector, too: the Linea Hybrid by Faber offers kitchen hoods that apart from their main function bear a heating, cooling, aircleaning, dehumidifying capacity on 40m²!

SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL BAGNO
In two of the smaller halls (22 + 24), the bathroom show – biennial as well –  took place with bathroom accessories, shower cubicles and saunas, sanitary ware, bathroom taps, radiators, covers, bath tubs and Jacuzzis. There were 168 exhibitors on a net exhibition area of about 14,000 m². About a quarter of the hall surface they had to share with the Salone Satellite. The exhibited bathrooms were singular and exceptional in their luxurious originality.

 
2010 Salone Internazionale del Bagno – Antonio Lupi –
Foto Stela Popescu

Outstanding Italian design was displayed by the Florentine Antonio Lupi Design – see picture – at hall 22. Very special and lovingly handmade were the bathroom furnishings of the Parisian Volevatch company where each item is recovered or recreated from old or antique models or artworks.

SALONE SATELLITE
Annualy, young designers are encouraged by the trade-show organisation to present their achievements. This year, approximately 700 designers including students from the 25 international design schools Area were allowed to cover 4,500m².

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