The Milan Furniture Fair is the greatest international show of contemporary furniture. In April every year new and well established designers and manufactures show their wares to buyers, journalists and interior designers from around the world. Anyone who wants to know where modern furniture is heading should be heading themselves to Milan.
Some 2,500 exhibitors will show off tables, chairs, bathroom furniture and accessories, domestic appliances and soft furnishings. In recent years modern furniture for the bathroom and kitchen have been a focus of the event with satellite fairs now established to showcase the very best in new designs for baths, sinks and kitchen work units.
In particular, amongst the contemporary furniture for kitchen this year will be laminated plastic, wooden kitchens, metal, kitchens and brick kitchens plus kitchen technology.
The specialist bathroom event is now in its third year and this time will focus on shower cubicles, saunas, bathroom taps and fittings, radiators and whirlpool tubs.
Inevitably at an event showcasing cutting edge modern furniture, technology will be a special feature, with green technology increasingly important. In fact, so important is kitchen technology that at this fair, it has its own section, showcasing innovative products as well as carrying out key research, producing prototypes and concepts of the electrical appliances of tomorrow. The buzz word is “ecocompatibility,” and the message is that you don’t have to do with out modern domestic appliances to be green, in the same way that you don’t have to sacrifice looks for performance. So, gadgets that can save time and effort plus electricity and water will be of particular interest to buyers from the big stores and also to the media who attend the event. What appeals to the visitors to the Milan Fair is what millions will be buying in shops and online in years to come.