Salone del Mobile, the global development plan starts in Osaka

The furniture market is experiencing - globally and for more than a year now - a certain cooling of retail sales, partly compensated by the dynamism of the contract channel, i.e. the sector of large projects, i.e. exclusive turnkey supplies or projects for luxury condominiums, private villas, yachts and prestigious hotel chains, the latter also driven by the increase in tourism demand at international level.

A phenomenon to which the largest international exhibition event in the design-furniture sector, the Salone del Mobile di Milano, could not remain indifferent. The Salone del Mobile di Milano will put the world of contract furniture at the centre of its new international promotional tour in view of the 64th edition, scheduled from 21 to 26 April 2026. In addition to the traditional meetings with the foreign press and B2B operators to present the new edition, which will also include the biennial events dedicated to bathrooms and kitchens, there will also be exhibition and cultural initiatives, especially in some key stages of the promotional tour, to showcase the creativity and excellence of Italian production, but also to spread awareness of the new frontiers of design.

It starts, and it could not be otherwise, from the Osaka Expo, with a major exhibition that will be set up from 7 to 20 September inside the Italian Pavilion and will focus on the new generations: the "SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2025", which is proposed as a tale and a vision, a genealogy and a manifesto, will propose a selection of 47 products that have been presented as prototypes at the SaloneSatellite from its birth to its latest edition, and there chosen by companies to be put into production. Curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire, founder and curator of the SaloneSatellite (dedicated to designers under 35), the exhibition is "a concrete tribute to the fertile alliance between young talents and Italian companies and perfectly interprets the theme of Expo 2025 Osaka: Designing Future Societies for our Lives," as a note released by the Salone reads.

For the President of the Salone del Mobile, Maria Porro, "Osaka represents a strategic stage" and this will be "the start of a new chapter in the international roadshow that every year takes the Milan Furniture Fair beyond national and European borders, to discover new audiences and new visions". Starting in Japan, within Expo Osaka 2025 with the SaloneSatellite's Permanent Collection, has a profound significance, adds Porro, also because of the relationship of creativity and design culture that binds the two countries, as demonstrated by the many reciprocal influences in recent decades and the large number of Japanese designers who design products and collections for Italian brands. For this reason, the Osaka event will also be attended by many designers who have participated in the SaloneSatellite in the past and are now prominent figures in the world of design, such as Oki Sato, Nao Tamura and Takahide Sano.

The Salone roadshow will then continue as usual in the main international metropolises, with the aim of further strengthening foreign participation in the Milan event (already very high, with more than one third of exhibitors and about two thirds of visitors arriving from across the border). "In September we will also be in Los Angeles, because we believe it is important to continue to invest in the United States, the second largest market for our companies, even more so after the introduction of 15% tariffs on imports from Europe," explains Porro. "We need to strongly preside over the market and tell the difference of made-in-Italy furniture, making people understand why it is worth investing in these products.