Design As A Mix Of Culture And Industry

On the occasion of the 55th Milan Furniture Fair, the president of both Federlegno Arredo (since 2011) and the Furniture Fair (since 2015) tells Domus about the strategy he adopted to overcome the crisis. By internationalising the Italian market from Moscow to Shanghai and from Tehran to Miami, he aims to export the Italian design industry as well as Italian culture, all the while giving support to entrepreneurs and creating training opportunities for young people.

- Roberto Snaidero

The 55th Milan Furniture Fair along with the biennial EuroCucina kitchen exhibition, the International Bathroom Exhibition, the SaloneSatellite and 650 young architects from numerous countries all make for an accurate reflection of our trade sector by being increasingly international. Thirty per cent of the 2,400 exhibitors, for example, are foreign. The quality remains high, because we offer all our exhibitors maximum visibility on a worldwide level. Every year, in addition to showing products, we stage a cultural project with an international scope.

I became the president of Federlegno Arredo in 2011, which was economically speaking one of our darkest years. First of all I reflected on what our trump cards could be, and on the positive things that we needed to embody if we were to overcome the crisis. Both the domestic market and consumer spending were at a very low ebb indeed, not just in our sector but in general. Our primary goal therefore had to be that of internationalisation. A major operation was accordingly launched to grandstand Italian companies on the world market. We organised business-to-business meetings from Russia to the United States, and then China and Iran, introducing firms to Italian products. The initiative required greater support and visibility, and that is where the Milan Furniture Show came in as our Trojan horse. The figures for last year, around 320,000 visitors, 67 per cent of whom were foreign, were promising and I believe they will be reached again this year. They are the result of our drive to present a complete picture of the Italian furniture industry.