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By Josephine Minutillo
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Click photos
for a closer look. |
Photo: Courtesy Cosmit (above and below)
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Photo:
© Tomas Michalski
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Photo: Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects (above)
From the top: An endless stream of visitors to Massimiliano Fuksas’s Fiera di Milano, the Salone del Mobile’s new home
in RhoPero; inside Moroso’s lively stand at the fairgrounds; the sprawling Pitti Living off-site exhibit on Via Tortona; Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher at the presentation of her new Z. Island kitchen for DuPont Corian.. |
There was a lot riding on this year’s Salone del Mobile. Though 2005 proved to be a tough year for the Italian furniture industry, hopes were high that the furniture fair’s debut in its new venue, Massimiliano Fuksas’s $700 million Fiera di Milano megastructure in the RhoPero suburb [Record, August 2005, page 92] would generate even more interest in what is already an annual frenzy of industry insiders, designers, exhibitors, media, and spectators.
By the time the show closed its doors on April 18, it was obvious the gamble had paid off. Visitors came in record numbers—more than 220,000 people poured into the city and through the gates of the fairgrounds. While the Fiera’s 2.1 million square feet provided enough space for the throngs of visitors, the same could not be said for the rest of the city’s infrastructure. Riders squeezed their way into the newly extended subway line, and traffic was often at a standstill as Milan’s population increased by nearly 20 percent for one week in April.
For those familiar with convention centers, Fuksas’s design is an inspiring experience. But was it enough to provide Italy’¤s furniture industry, and the fair itself, with that much-needed shot in the arm? Italian design remains unrivaled in terms of quality and innovation, but the business of design seems to have grown too big for its britches. Smaller, more avant-garde lines continue to get eaten up by larger ones. Cappellini¤’s takeover by the Poltrona Frau Group is old news, but its inclusion in the massive display at the fairgrounds alongside Frau and other acquisitions Thonet, Gufram, Cassina, and Alias lent a homogeneous feel to the whole thing. Another leading Italian line, B&B Italia, itself recently sold off, took over the once-promising Monica Armani line, as well as a significant share in the daring Dutch line Moooi. It remains to be seen whether this type of merger will produce better or blander design.
The staggering array of off-site exhibits that greeted visitors upon leaving the Fiera was yet another reminder the fair may be growing out of control—to see them all would require much more than one week.
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