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milan design week 2022

“Design is Milano is design.” This phrase was splashed all over Lombardy’s capital last week on colourful street posters that signalled the triumphant return of the global design industry’s main event: Milan Design Week 2022.

Commissioned by the local tourism agency, the posters are the work of Riccardo De Franceschi, the Milan-born creative director of London typeface design studio Dalton Maag. And just as their slogan suggests, there was hardly a corner of the city that wasn’t playing host to some sort of spectacle. Even as the temperature reached the mid-30s, it was the design scene that truly sizzled.

The biggest draw of the week-long design event was the 60th edition of the sprawling furniture expo, Salone Del Mobile, which was held at the Fiera Milano exhibition centre, where major design brands unveiled fresh products that provided insights into hot new colours (oranges, teals, and purples), materials (steel) and silhouettes (all things tubular). Meanwhile, in the EuroCucina section of the fair, there was equal focus on cooking as a science and as an art form, with innovative new approaches to range hoods, steam ovens, and storage solutions sharing space with sculptural new kitchen systems.

Heading into the 60th anniversary edition of Salone del Mobile at the Fiera Milano exhibition centre
One of the buildings on the former military hospital complex that hosted this year’s edition of Alcova

This main Milan Design Week 2022 event was rounded out by hundreds of additional displays installed all across the city as part of the Fuorisalone festival. One highlight saw a former military hospital complex on the west side of the city transformed into the avant-garde design exhibition Alcova, where established design studios like OMA displayed alongside experimental up-and-comers.

In other words, design was truly back in the streets, for all to see — taking over everything from the city’s piazzas to its bars. When we finally made our way to Linate airport to catch our flight home, we even found an Ettore Sottsass bookcase waiting in the departure hall. (Another Carlton room divider was also on display at the Triennale Milano as part of the museum’s triumphant Memphis Again exhibition.) Design is Milano is design.

Click through our gallery below to see a few of the Milan Design Week 2022 standouts that we encountered in between rounds of negroni sbagliatos at Bar Basso. (After all, with temperatures as hot as they were, we needed some refreshment.) And stay tuned for more coverage in print and online!

Milan Design Week 2022: Highlights from Our Camera Roll

The best product launches, installations and exhibitions from the sizzling 60th edition of Salone del Mobile and the accompanying Fuorisalone festival.

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