"More is more" is the unspoken motto of this year's exhibition in Milan*Design articles on interior design trends, latest design events, new furniture, design marketing

"More is more" is the unspoken motto of this year's exhibition in Milan*

As any good creative will tell you, if you want to see what's next in the world of design, you have to start in Milan first. From a personal perspective, for each visitor Milan Design Week in April is an experience full of emotions, discoveries and inspirations, and for each designer and manufacturer, Salone del Mobile is a valuable opportunity to show the world their ideas and achievements.

Salone del Mobile, furniture and interior design industry,s largest global event, as well as Fuorisalone with the vast majority of events outside the boundaries of Rho Fiera, and Milan Design Week in general has always acted as the annual showcase forming a compass for trends over the next 12 months, but also about the direction of design in the long term.

During this week every year, visitors from all over the world are immersed in a sea of presentations, products, collections, events, meetings, dinners and parties, and it is impossible to cover even half of all the novelties. But what makes an impression from the first glance at the exhibition held in April this year is the desire of designers and manufacturers for more color, liveliness, a sense of well-being, and not so much for brilliance, despite the presence of a lot of beauty and expensive materials in most new products shown.

Blu mediterraneo

This year the highlight was the two biennales, the International Bathroom Exhibition and EuroCucina. Huge stainless steel modules, dark colored wood veneer and translucent stones with LED light inserts attract attention. Sumptuous kitchen islands, undulating curves and sculptural forms, grooved textured surfaces and a wealth of colors and materials coexist with recycled materials and sustainably made products. Even the German manufacturers of luxury kitchens deviate from their minimalist asceticism.

The white color in kitchens is now rare, and the design responds to the need for spaces to flow into one another. In the modern home, where the boundaries between the kitchen and the living room are blurred, the kitchen should have a much more "livable" look, while maintaining its function not only as a place for cooking, but also as a place for socializing. The island configuration is the most concrete expression of this trend, connecting the kitchen with the living room, and new models now emphasize the social role of the kitchen, but new multifunctional units are also being introduced.

No less impressive were the interesting technological proposals, such as different variants of a hood built into the cooktop, which is designed to extract smoke, steam and odors directly from the cooking surface, providing effective ventilation without the need for a separate chimney or hood above the stove. Or the new Siemens iQ700 series of ovens with a browning degree sensor allowing perfect browning that can be preset by the user with the built-in camera.

Häcker Kitchens

It is noticed that electrical appliances increasingly become the special accent in the room - the Blu mediterraneo kitchen by Dolce&Gabbana and Smeg is a good example of this. Imagine a relaxed alfresco meal with loved ones, a bright blue sky overhead and a view of the sea in the distance – even if you're not somewhere around the Mediterranean you can recreate this atmosphere at home with the fresh white and blue design of this unusual us series of kitchen appliances and accessories.

The Italian manufacturer Gessi presented a sample of its new luxury product - the "Vita Gessi Caffé" sink faucet, which will soon be able to not only provide us with water, but also prepare fresh espresso using a simple coffee module. The corresponding capsule, for example from Nespresso, is placed in the side arm of the tap. The function of boiling water is included in the product anyway. A simple step with a big surprise factor, but not yet in mass production: like many other models of kitchens and appliances at this year's EuroCucina, the "Vita Gessi Caffé" is for now a prototype that is being tested in public.