Fuorisalone Digital, an all-digital event for Milano Design Week

Fuorisalone Milan is everywhere, 24 hours a day, from June 15 through 21. As a result of the current pandemic, numerous events and initiatives in our cities and regions have been cancelled or reorganised to be held in digital form. The 2020 edition of the Salone del Mobile in Milan, the world’s top furniture trade fair, normally held in April, was cancelled at the end of March, when the pandemic was at its peak in Italy. Milano Design Week and Fuorisalone, a big container for events held all over the city of Milan during the Salone del Mobile, decided to experiment with a new way of communicating, and the result is Fuorisalone Digital, a digital event that not only overcomes all the logistical issues connected with travel and gatherings at the current time, replacing the cancelled 2020 edition, but proposes a new way of getting the message of Fuorisalone across in the future, alongside the traditional event with the involvement of the entire city. The digital spin-off offers a new platform and four new independent event formats (Fuorisalone TV, Fuorisalone Meets, Fuorisalone China, Fuorisalone Japan), all connected to the web portal www.fuorisalone.it: a new way of networking, involving over 300 companies and designers in webinars, live talks, videos on demand and more content. Including plenty of exclusive events and sneak previews, such as the unveiling of the new Iris Ceramica Group showroom in Milan, designed by Area-17 Architecture & Interiors for all the group’s brands: Ariostea, FMG Fabbrica Marmi e Graniti, Fiandre Architectural Surfaces, Iris Ceramica, SapienStone and Porcelaingres.

The new Iris Ceramica Group showroom will be inaugurated in the months to come on the premises of a former bank in a building at the corner of Via Santa Margherita and Via Farine, a private road, in a central location in the city of Milan, between the cathedral and Piazza Cordusio. A new milestone on the road connecting the Italian group with the world capitals of design, the showroom in Milan was preceded by similar facilities in London and New York. Iris Ceramica Group showrooms are not just salesrooms but places where planners, architects and designers can meet, learn and interact. The showroom covers a 750 sqm area on three levels, designed by Area-17 Architecture & Interiors with spaces on each level revealing all the potential of ceramic materials. Not only their expressive and emotional potential, but their technical potential too, as the material can be used not only for covering walls and floors but in new solutions and items of furniture. Each level in the showroom is dedicated to a specific function, reflected in the design of the spaces. The ground floor is the entrance foyer, the place where guests are received; here, big ceramic slabs underline surfaces and key elements in a cosy lounge area, with a flexible display space for installations or events. The upper level is a cutting-edge spa facility, with niches presenting spaces for private life and a multi-functional area for coworking, events and meetings featuring products from the Diesel Living line. Lastly, on the underground level, the original structure of the former cellar has been preserved to present samples of Iris Ceramica Group materials.

(Agnese Bifulco)

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