Italian architect, designer and academic Mario Cucinella has revealed installation which will be showcased at this year's Salone del Mobile, the world's largest trade and design fair in Milan, Italy. 

Salone del Mobile will be helding its 60th anniversary from 7 to 12 June, 2022 at the Fiera Milano fairground in Milan. The design fair was originally planned to be held from 5 to 10 April, 2022, but due to the new increasing coronavirus wave all around the world, it was postponed to June 2022.

Mario Cucinella has designed an installation that will raise questions about recycling and upcycling and show the significance of "ecosystem" and questions the new norms of "ecosystemic know how".

Called Design with Nature, the installation, situated at S.Project’s Pavilion 15, will be created specifically for the 60th edition of Salone del Mobile. 

The installation, covering a total of 1,400-square-metre area, will spark questions and many suggestions and reflections, on ethics, circularity, domestic space, participatory architecture and urban regeneration. 

Cucinella's project is promoted as "an emotive exercise in pursuit of recycling and upcycling," reevaluating the possible reconciliation of man and nature. It aims to create a debate on the importance of sustainable living. 

The 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will explore the relationship between nature and the way we live, with a major exhibition/installation that will offer triggers for reflection on the future of design practice.

Design with Nature will focus on circular economy and reuse

Design with Nature installation will focus on the themes of circular economy and reuse, starting with the idea that cities could be possible “reserves” of the future, where most of the raw materials used in construction could be sourced. 

Seen from this perspective, urban areas could become genuine, new opportunities to cut environmental impact. 

The installation will be channelled under three main themes: ecological transition, the home as the prime urban element and the city as a mine. 

The installation will be designed on a large area that turns into both a landscape and, simultaneously, a refuge for discussion, sharing, reading, reflecting and working.

"It is a substantial piece, because, following the events of the last few years, we have rediscovered the value of sociality, although it does need to build a new equilibrium with what surrounds us, both the spaces we live in and the areas we occupy – on both a small scale (from homes to cities) and a large one (planet) – and with the resources available to us," said Mario Cucinella. 

The vision of an ecosystem is described by Mario Cucinella, the founding architect and artistic director of Mario Cucinella Architects, "A large space mindful of design and the environment, dedicated to the new sociality." 

"An installation in which the word “ecosystem” is fundamental and with which we aim to show that our vision of the future needs to be ecosystemic and capable of bringing knowledge, skills and technologies together for a new generation of materials and design." 

"The final and specific goal of “ecosystemic know how” – if we can call it that – will be to make life better through a rediscovered respect for nature," Cucinella added.

Just as everything that makes up nature changes, has more than one function and more than one life, the same is true of the components of Design with Nature, an assemblage of forms and functions that will find new lives and new destinations: a small library for a school, a classroom, a chair for a public space, a table for a laboratory. 

The materials of the installation were derived from natural supply chains – demonstrating that ecological transition is already ongoing and that businesses can be the catalysts of this change – or from waste products upcycled and recycled. 

Cities are rich fonts of the latter, veritable reserves of resources and materials recoverable through circular processes.

"Design with Nature will show, therefore, that we can find a different way of building and creating products in conjunction with nature, without continuing to consume raw materials, but by triggering virtuous ecological behaviours," stated a press statement. 

By working with nature, architecture will rebuild a new, fundamental and vital friendship with it, said the architect. 

Designing sustainability, celebrating beauty

The fair announced in a press statement that key values, such as quality, innovation, beauty and sustainability, will be at the heart of the event. The organizers emphasized that raising questions about sustainability and environmental awareness into furniture production will be another important component at the fair. 

"The Salone del Mobile.Milano has drawn up and circulated a series of guidelines to help exhibitors and stand designers and builders to respect basic sustainability criteria," said in a statement. 

"The Salone firmly believes in the need for a real and immediate ecological transformation"

"The Salone del Mobile has always been a catalyst for creativity, positivity and energy. We have always been a place of dialogue and construction, in Milan and at the Shanghai and Moscow editions. Now, we are as shocked as everyone else by the war in Ukraine and believe even more in the importance of being a crossroads of cultures and styles open to the world," said Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano.

"This is why we have made sure that the work of the exhibiting exhibitors takes centre stage again. The event acts as a “blank canvas” for all its protagonists – companies, brands and designers – allowing them to project their own identities, promote their own content and tell their own stories."

"A point of reference for the entire design community. We cannot stand still, in fact we have a duty to move even faster in the direction of design, production and distribution solutions that are as sustainable as possible – what we need today is an ethical approach to design," Porro added.

"We will see many companies at the Salone that are working hard to create furnishings with the wellbeing of the environment and of people in mind."

"The Salone firmly believes in the need for a real and immediate ecological transformation, which is why it has decided to be an accelerator of ethical and virtuous behaviours, investing in a large project curated by the architect Mario Cucinella." 

"Companies and creatives will be able to physically touch alternative materials that are already a reality and let themselves be inspired by a vision of urban areas as potential “mines” of raw materials and reflect on the function of our homes as cells that make up a more complex organism: the city."

"The sustainability of the event is the competitive lever on which we want to focus with honesty, commitment, and transparency," Porro continued.

The 2022 Salone del Mobile will involve more than 2,000 exhibitors, including over 600 young designers under 35. The fair will also host a stimulating programme of talks and debates featuring the most outstanding figures on the contemporary design scene. 

The program will be curated by a  brilliant all-female trio Chiara Alessi, independent design curator and author Maria Cristina Didero, MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza. 

See the architecture and design fairs on WAC's Upcoming Fairs page. 

All images © Mario Cucinella Architects 

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