From April 21-26, 2026, Milan will host the 64th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, an event that confirms its strategic and international role in the furniture and design industry. The event, to be held at Fiera Milano in Rho, will involve more than 1,900 exhibitors from 32 countries, with a net exhibition area of more than 169,000 square meters completely sold out. The 2026 edition is characterized by an orientation toward connecting design cultures, curatorial innovation and openness to the world of Contract, confirming the Salone as a global research and networking platform.
Among the main novelties, the Salone will introduce Salone Raritas, a platform dedicated to curated icons, unique pieces among limited editions, antiques and high creative manufacturing, which will welcome 25 selected exhibitors under the curatorship of Annalisa Rosso and exhibition design by Formafantasma. The A Luxury Way will host Aurea, an Architectural Fiction, an installation signed by Paris-based studio Maison Numéro 20 that transforms interior design into scenic narrative, offering a sensory and emotional experience of living. Inside the fair, the new orientation system developed by Leftloft will facilitate the use of exhibition routes through graphic interfaces inspired by the logic of metropolitan networks, clear numbering of pavilions and pocket maps for smoother navigation.
The Salone also maintains its focus on Biennials, with the return of EuroCucina with FTK - Technology For the Kitchen, which will feature 106 brands from 17 countries, and the Salone Internazionale del Bagno with 163 exhibitors from 14 countries. EuroCucina highlights technological and design advances in the kitchen sector, with open space kitchens integrated with living, tactile and green surfaces, home automation and smart interfaces for multi-sensory room management. The production of large household appliances reflects the growing focus on integrated functionality, energy efficiency and customizable design, with smart refrigerators, ovens and dishwashers capable of interacting with the user and supporting the creation of customized home microcosms.
The International Bathroom Exhibition proposes a wellness-oriented vision, with fluid environments, dramatic showers, non-slip surfaces and layered lighting, where water efficiency and durable materials combine with minimalist and tactile aesthetics. Furniture architecture emphasizes modularity and repairability, with replaceable components and programmed spares. In parallel, digital systems enable tailored scenario management, integrating home automation, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance.
The year 2026 also marks the launch of the Salone Contract project, a long-term strategic initiative designed to interpret the rapidly changing contract market, which is increasingly focused on the integration of systems, data, services and expertise. The Master Plan is entrusted to Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA Studio, chosen for their visionary and methodological approach that crosses scales and disciplines. During the Salone, Contract will be the subject of a thematic itinerary among exhibitors, a Lectio by Koolhaas and an International Forum, anticipating the 2027 Event that will include a structured exhibition with selected companies and the Salone Contract Forum, three days dedicated to B2B meetings with international operators.
SaloneSatellite confirms its role as an incubator for young talent, with 700 designers under 35 from 43 countries and 23 international schools and universities. The 27th edition of the project will focus on the theme Craftsmanship + Innovation, positing craftsmanship as a contemporary language capable of connecting manual heritage and technological vision. The initiative aims to enhance making with thehands as a cultural and design tool capable of responding to the new needs of a global generation of designers.
Sustainability maintains a central role, with increasingly circular and systemic design involving materials, processes and supply chains. The Salone has renewed its ISO 20121 certification for the three-year period 2026-2028, consolidating the measurement and mitigation of environmental and social impacts. Installations and exhibition routes, such as Aurea, also reflect a focus on sustainable materials and conscious resource management. The cultural program Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Pers pectives reaches its fourth edition, confirming itself as a platform for international discussion on innovation, sustainability and new market perspectives. In continuation of internationalization, the series of meetings will continue collaboration with international capitals and fairs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong and New Delhi, strengthening connections between designers, practitioners and global institutions.
The Salone also extends to the city of Milan, renewing its collaboration with Fondazione Teatro alla Scala. The official opening night will take place at Teatro alla Scala with a concert by the Philharmonic conducted by Michele Mariotti and Giuseppe Albanese at the piano. For the third consecutive year, the Design Kiosk will be active in La Scala Square, flanked by the three-dimensional sign “Salone del Mobile.Milano.” A special project with K-Way will feature a kiosk in Piazza del Duomo, the starting point of an urban itinerary designed by Bianca Felicori, with five stops between buildings and light textile installations, accompanied by a capsule collection and booklet also available in the brand’s stores. More than 200 showrooms of exhibiting brands will open their doors to visitors, integrating into Milan Design Week.
The Salone will support sustainable mobility with free shuttles from Milan Malpensa, while MiCodmc will offer a hospitality and hotel booking service. The Mito Design Connection platform, promoted by Unione Industriali Torino and the Turin Chamber of Commerce, will facilitate travel and logistical support between Turin and Milan. Also for the 2026 edition, Agenzia ICE will support the Salone in international missions to attract qualified operators to the IBL - International Business Lounge. Key partners include Intesa Sanpaolo, Panerai, K-WAY, Ca’ del Bosco, S.Bernardo, illycaffè, Radio Deejay, Radio Capital and m2o.
“In the midst of a geopolitical and economic phase marked by profound discontinuities and new polarities,” comments Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, “the Salone del Mobile.Milano reaffirms its role as a global strategic platform and responds with vision and continuity to the markets, presenting itself as a fixed point in an unstable time: a place where industry meets, thought is articulated and the future is planned. The sold-out achievement of the exhibition area and the significant increase in foreign presence are the concrete result of an integrated and forward-looking strategy built over time. A vision that has its driving force in Milan and is developed through a solid and ever-expanding network of international relations. After the stops in the United Kingdom and Germany, we are continuing our international roadshow with new missions in France and Spain. But we are also looking beyond that. To the United States, a fundamental market for the whole sector, where in Miami we have started a collaboration with Art Basel, which we will consolidate in March in Hong Kong, through a project that will involve an even greater number of Italian companies: a strategic alliance between two leading platforms of creativity and contemporary design, capable of opening a new frontier of cultural and commercial contamination between design and art. Other horizons are India, today one of the markets with the most extraordinary growth potential, but also Morocco, Turkey, Portugal. In Riyadh, we opened an unprecedented institutional channel and the Red in Progress pilot event, which involved 35 Italian companies, marked the beginning of a strategic partnership with a key region for the evolution of Made in Italy where next November we will organize a real Salone del Mobile. In Japan, we brought the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection: a cultural mission that put young Italian designers in dialogue with the Japanese market, which remains among the most sophisticated and receptive to our value system. In this international scenario, the Salone also evolves in content and formats. With Salone Raritas we explore the value of uniqueness, the iconic and high craftsmanship, while with the path to Salone Contract we open new design directions dedicated to expanding sectors-hospitality, retail, marine, real estate-with the aim of accompanying Italian companies not only in the definition of competitive and sustainable standards, but so that they are recognized and chosen as partners of reference for the setup of these spaces at the international level. We are talking about supply chains that hybridize, generate work and attract investment, with a concrete impact on manufacturing and territories. Now that the April show is designed, I can only thank those who have accompanied us along this path in recent months. Agenzia ICE, which supports us in our promotion activities abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which has always supported us. The Government and the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy alongside the Salone also in Saudi Arabia on the occasion of ”Red in progress. Salone del Mobile.Milan meets Ryiadh.“ I would like to thank the City of Milan, with the Department of Economic Development and Labor Policies and the Department of Culture, and the Lombardy Region, with the Department of Tourism, Territorial Marketing and Fashion, who have also been at our side in the research activities that have flowed into the second Annual Report of the Salone Observatory. A magic made possible thanks to the excellence of an industrial manufacturing that knows how to team up, innovate, build worlds, disseminating vital energy throughout the city, transforming it into the International Capital of Design. Thanks, then, to Fondazione alla Scala, and to all the other institutions and organizations, public and private, that will once again contribute to the success of this ecosystem, unique in the world. The strength of the Salone has always been to act as a system: not just an event, but a cultural and economic infrastructure in continuous transformation,” the President concluded. “An ecosystem-as confirmed by our work with the Milan Polytechnic-capable of producing widespread value, which translates into economic impact, but also into critical thinking, urban regeneration, hospitality and new services. Milan is our center of gravity, but today the Salone is also an industrial policy that becomes vision and action. The cultural lever is our strategic engine: we invest in the Cultural Program, in Talks, in installations, in exhibition formats, aware that design is no longer just a product, but a tale, a thought, a system. And in this system young people play a key role. With SaloneSatellite we renew our commitment to talents under 35: they are the most lively laboratory of the future, our critical mirror, our sap. In 2026 we took them to Japan, in 2027 we will take them to other emerging design capitals. Because the Salone is, above all, a collective responsibility to the future.”
“The wood-furniture supply chain in 2025 recorded a production turnover of 52.2 billion euros, up 1.3 percent on 2024,” says Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo. “Exports, accounting for 37 percent of the total, over the year are estimated to be stable (+0.4 percent), although showing signs of weakness in the first ten months of ’25 in some strategic markets such as France (-1.3 percent) and the United States (-2.5 percent). In contrast, some signs of improvement and recovery came from Germany (+1%). The data compiled by the FederlegnoArredo Study Center (see dedicated economic note) photograph a picture in which exports maintain a central role for the supply chain, but which requires companies to have greater ability to adapt, garrison markets and diversify, given the international scenario characterized by high volatility. In this context, I believe that our companies have been able to give their best,managing to maintain their garrison even in those markets that are momentarily in difficulty, never abandoning them and immediately catching the signs of the restart, as is happening in the German and British markets. I would venture to say that we have been good at diversifying, and that presiding at the most critical times has proven to be a rewarding attitude. A scenario in which, all the more so, the Salone del Mobile.Milano confirms itself as a strategic platform for the international positioning of the wood-furniture supply chain, a privileged place to meet buyers, operators and designers from all over the world, and to strengthen the presence of Italian companies in global markets, offering them a concrete opportunity to consolidate positioning, intercept new interlocutors and present themselves to emerging markets.”
“Working on a signage project,” comments David Pasquali, Co-founder and Creative Director Leftloft, “means taming complexity without denying it, it means working on words and hierarchies of information, even before graphics, it means designing objects in which form and function and identity come together perfectly, and this is perhaps the most difficult and intriguing challenge.”
“The concert of the La Scala Philharmonic,” says Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, “which will welcome the Salone del Mobile, and the presence of the Manifestation in the city, with installations and initiatives during the days of Milan Design Week, bear clear and concrete witness to the deep bond that unites the Manifestation and Milan: a constant and lively dialogue and collaboration that does not fear the passage of time. I am happy to know that the 64th edition of the Salone shares the city’s visions and goals, starting with the desire to innovate, experiment and invest in young people and environmental, economic and social sustainability of the supply chain. Creatives, architects and all those who work in the field of design, or are passionate about it, are waiting with curiosity for the Salone 2026 to open its doors, to discover how the international design industry has interpreted these challenges and how it has translated possible solutions into products, furnishings, furniture and creative projects. We are confident that Milan, fresh from the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, will be able to welcome designers, operators, companies, buyers and visitors from all over the world with renewed enthusiasm to take part in the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The appointment, outside and inside the spaces of the fair, is undoubtedly not to be missed.”
“The Salone del Mobile in Milan,” comments Attilio Fontana, President of the Lombardy Region, “represents a virtuous model of sustainable development, capable of combining innovation, environmental responsibility and employment growth. It is here that design becomes a concrete lever for the ecological transition of production chains and for the enhancement of the work, skills and talents that make Lombardy one of the most dynamic territories in Europe. Regione Lombardia strongly supports an Event that generates skilled employment, strengthens the competitiveness of companies and promotes a design culture that is attentive to people, territories and future generations.”
“The Salone del Mobile.Milano,” said Matteo Zoppas, ICE President at the Salone del Mobile.Milano Press Conference, “represents a strategic lever for the international promotion of Made in Italy and for strengthening the competitiveness of companies in the wood-furniture supply chain on foreign markets. In line with the export enhancement strategy promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the target of 700 billion euros in exports, the commitment of ICE - which has been collaborating with the event for more than ten editions - has been progressively strengthened by accompanying the evolution of the Salone as a global platform of reference for design. For the 2026 edition, ICE confirms structured support through an articulated incoming program of 370 operators (250 buyers and 120 journalists) from about 50 countries, the creation of reception lounges and high-profile design installations within the event. In recent years we have worked toward market diversification by following three main directions: strengthening key markets, particularly the United States and China; exploring new geographies and targets, with a world tour that in the past three years has touched 19 cities across North America, Europe and Asia-from Shanghai to New Delhi, from South Africa to Seoul, from Toronto to European capitals such as Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin and Copenhagen-and that in 2026 will extend to Mumbai and Mexico City; the special attention given to Saudi Arabia with a teaser event in Riyadh featuring 30 Italian companies representing Made in Italy design, which will culminate in November 2026 with the organization of the first post-covid exhibition abroad in the Saudi capital. The data confirm the stability of exports of the WoodFurniture supply chain, which will stand at 19.3 billion euros in 2025 (+0.4 percent compared to 2024). The signs of weakness shown by some strategic markets such as France and the United States are offset by the recovery coming from Germany.”
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| Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026: here's what this year's fair will look like |
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