I Saloni 2007: A Quality Project

The annual appointment with i Saloni, a marker of quality par excellence in the Sistema Casa-Furniture sector, will take place in the New Milan Fairgrounds in Rho from 18th to 23rd April 2007.

A particularly packed calendar of collateral events, ranging from light to art, will give significant added value to the wide range of commercial goods on offer. One of the events will be the cultural appointment “Room With a View”, mounted in collaboration with the City Council of Milan – Department of Culture.

With only two months to go before the opening of the 46th edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile which, together with Euroluce, the Salone Internazionale del Complemento d’Arredo (International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition) and SaloneSatellite, will be held in the Rho Exhibition Space from 18th to 23rd April, the air is already thick with the creative fervour and heady expectation that the Saloni generates year after year amongst its varied international public. The last edition counted over 233,000 attendances.

Excitement has fuelled the countdown, thanks in part to the signs of reprisal in the furniture sector, which have meant that even greater enthusiasm and optimism have gone into the work that makes the Saloni into “I Saloni”, that indisputable global point of reference for the sector. The Salone Internazionale del Mobile and the events connected with it are recognised as an exclusive showcase
for exhibitors to present new products. Specialist operators even regard it as must in terms of refreshing their ideas and keeping up-to-date with innovation, technology, project culture and trends in real time.

Spurred by its past success is the quality of mounting interest from foreign companies and the great commitment of those companies taking part, with increasingly competitive concepts – from the product to the image to client service.

Market demand is becoming increasingly polarised towards extremely high-quality products and definitive furnishing solutions. As well as product functionality and quality, the consumer is increasingly also after an image, a means of interpreting his or her own desires and needs, a lifestyle. This is the challenge that companies must now embrace.

As far as this coming edition of the Saloni (furniture, light and furnishing accessories) is concerned, the numbers speak for themselves yet again: 1,948 exhibitors (confirmed to date), of whom 245 come from 30 Countries, who will be accommodated in 205,217 square metres of exhibition space.
It is worth pointing out that there are already 645 businesses on the waiting list, of whom 286 are foreign companies, requiring 47,636 square metres of exhibition space.
The tenth edition of SaloneSatellite will take up 5,200 net square metres of exhibition space, accommodating 160 stands on which 500 young designers will display their creations, 368 of whom come from 37 different Countries.

I Saloni 2007 will therefore be an extraordinary edition as far as the quality of the goods on offer is concerned. The Salone Internazionale del Mobile and the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, arranged according to stylistic typology, are integral components of this exhibition, displaying a huge range of products - from the most innovative design pieces to the best reproduction antiques, manufactured by the best producers in the world, the most creative designers and the most gifted artisans. From single pieces to co-ordinates, from accessories to sectionals, from classical to modern, from ethnic to designer, to fusion.

The two annual events are accompanied this year by the 24th edition of Euroluce, the biennial International Lighting Exhibition, proving itself yet again to be the only showcase for the entire gamut of lighting, representative of all lighting systems, from light sources to domestic lighting, from engineering lighting to

street lighting. 541 companies, of whom 170 come from 22 different Countries, ranged over approximately 50,000 square metres (+9% and +27% compared with 2005) will show a complete range of products destined for an enormous breadth of visitors, from architects to planners, interior decorators, lighting designers, facility managers, contract managers, specification buyers, wholesalers, specialist retailers and representatives from the contract sector. Alongside the Biennial, the collateral “Tales of Light” event, curated by the German lighting designer Herbert Cybulska, with the technical and executive assistance of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d'Europa and sponsored by the City Council of Milan - Culture, will be held at the Loggia dei Mercanti.

An unmissable appointment is SaloneSatellite, the acclaimed platform for young designers, for creativity and an occasion for major entrepreneurs to meet the most promising young designers, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with an equally important exhibition sponsored by the Lombardy Region – Industry, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Cooperation. “A Dream Come True. SaloneSatellite Projects: from Inception to Production” will showcase hundreds of products originally premiered during the nine previous editions of SaloneSatellite as prototypes that then went into production and went on to be featured in the catalogues of prestigious firms.
The exhibition will not simply be a celebration of SaloneSatellite, but a demonstration of just how its original concept – of being a point of reference for young designers – has become a reality.

The cultural appointment with the Saloni, produced in collaboration with the City Council of Milan – Department of Culture, will be held at Palazzo Reale. The event, entitled “Room With a View – Italian Art and Interiors 1900-2000”, will be a major exhibition devoted to the metaphor of the house and living. The exhibition will take the form of a series of rooms arranged chronologically to cover one hundred years of Italian art and style. Along with works by very famous artists, they will be further embellished with a selection of elegant pieces of furniture from Bugatti to great design. The exhibition will also feature objects, music, clothes and photographs.
The exhibition will open to the public on 18th April and will run until 1st July.

One final development, the Cosmit website www.cosmit.it - which gives details of all the information relative to its role as organiser of the Saloni, Saloni WorldWide and Sasmil – has just been totally revamped in terms of design, layout and content, making it easier for visitors, exhibitors and journalists to find their way around. Specialist retailers will be able to pre-book their Passes on-line. Get one step ahead and avoid the queues.