By Stefania Rendinelli, Senior Architect at AGi architects.

Once again this year we couldn’t miss out the most important interior design event: the Milan International Furniture Fair and, of course, Fuorisalone 2017.

We see how this fair, which has more and more success, brings together the main brands of the sector and the young designers with their own firms. All this in a city that this week becomes the perfect setting for any type of installation or event related to the design.

In the same fairground enclosure we have appreciated how this year many brands, in addition of teaching their new products, have renovated their pavilions creating a “container” with high architectural level for their collections. With our eyes on our future projects, we visit the pavilions of the companies that we already know as we had proposed them in some of our works and that are guarantee of quality and design for our clients, such as Flexform, Poliform, Poltrona Frau and Vitra, which has presented their new Line Vitra Home Collection. We were surprised by how changing the materials used in their Contract line for natural materials like linen, wool, solid wood, the same products transmitted us very different sensations and as simply with the cushions they get different positions when sitting on their new sofa. Of course we tried them all!

Associated with the furniture fair, this year also took place the Euroluce Lighting Fair, of which we highlight Flos, Davide Groppi, Vibia and Artemide, whose showrooms in Milan also visited. It was amazing to see how the same luminaire can make you feel different depending on the environment in which they are installed.

At Fuorisalone we could not miss our visit to Paola Lenti, a renowned brand of outdoor furniture that opened a new location on the outskirts of all the districts of Fuorisalone and, although it was far, it was worth getting there. What surprised us most is the brand’s orientation, which is becoming more accentuated towards recovering and offering artisan values to its products, creating in this way, above all with the use of ceramics, lava stone and cocciopesto, unique pieces that can be customized for each client, achieving exclusivity in a sector (the one of outdoor furniture) in which there is more competition each year and turning their experience also in the interior furniture.

We also took advantage of our visit to see the exhibition curated by Patricia Urquiola on the 90 years of Cassina‘s activity, whose most emblematic products were found at the Feltrinelli Foundation, a building designed by the international architecture studio Herzog & De Meuron.

The truth is that the week of the Milan Fair, with its facilities and all that goes around it is for us a good source of inspiration and a starting point for some of the projects we will work on this year. We are waiting for the next edition to come back to live this enriching experience!