The SuperSalone which opens on Sunday 5 September in Milan, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella (beloved in Milan), has a decidedly unique imprint compared to previous editions since what Stefano Boeri with his team of designers he built in Fiera Milano, is something completely different.
It is a very harmonious set not of large stands, but of proposals, concepts and already made, by the great world of design, not only Italian, with a large and open exhibition pattern that is totally green, recyclable, open to the public for the entire duration of the event, and where you can make purchases. It is highly emotional and welcoming at the same time, full of ideas for changing the way we live, work and study in the name of our health and that of the planet. But be careful: the entire Design Week - with its gigantic Fuorisalone, hundreds and hundreds of appointments and events at the Triennale and the Adi Design Museum, the Museum of Italian Design recently inaugurated – will prove to be the first and perhaps the only event capable of providing for the first time an exhaustive overview of all the components that make Italian style so incisive and influential in the world.
Extremely illustrious historical components, still very valid (there are best-selling products everywhere that are 60 years old or more!), industrial components of unique technologies (the Triennale itinerary is simply amazing), components of unique beauty at theADI Design Museum, cultural components impossible to grasp in other places such as the series of academic events that the super expert in design, Gilda Bojardi, director of Interni Design Factory, has been organizing for years with the most prestigious world experts….
And all this, together with the novelties and even amusing and always surprising ideas, of which we will give a summary report, constitutes the unique background of the primacy of Made in Italy. Furniture and lighting will close - according to confidential indications - 2021 with an increase in turnover on 2019 of close to 16 percent (net of the shortage of raw materials), exports in the first five months increased by 43,2 per percent on 2020 but 5,7 percent on 2019, the golden year…
However, the business world has told us that the year should close even better. And then that for the next gigantic Salone del Mobile which will bring together all the biennial salons (euroluce e Eurokitchen) over 450 visitors are expected….
Almost 60 percent of Italian furniture exports are made up of high-end and medium-high-end furniture, services and furnishing accessories, directed above all to particularly evolved markets: the United States, France, Germany, England and Switzerland. Markets that buy the Made in Italy because it undoubtedly combines the luxury of a refined design, but because it guarantees an eco-compatibility that is becoming increasingly decisive when making choices at the point of sale. And since the share of the Premium range has risen from around 30 per cent in 2016-2017 to the current 56 per cent (at the end of 2021 it should be 60 per cent), it follows that today, in order to have a precise indication of where the the tiller of the patrol of leading companies of good Italian design is going, it is necessary, well before reviewing the creations of the designers, to see the certifications. Sure that, as a forerunner of this virtuous (but fortunately profitable) path tells us Alberto Scavolini, brilliant CEO of Ernestomeda Spa of the Scavolini Group, this is a very important guarantee of true Italian excellence.
“Ours is among the first Italian companies in the furniture sector to obtain the Certification for Product Circularity, attested by the Cosmob certification – he explains to FIRSTonline – as demonstrated by the further important certifications obtained – such as that on the Environmental Management System (standard UNI EN ISO 14001), able to bear witness to Ernestomeda's concrete commitment to reducing the environmental impact in terms of products, processes and services – and compliance with the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) requirement, which certifies that Ernestomeda kitchens comply with the standards relating to low emissions of indoor pollutants (EQ Credit 4.5 “Low emitting materials – Furniture and seating”). circularity of the product is assessed through the measurement (material balance) of the resources used to create an eco-sustainable product. In particular, all the furnishings were tested for Ernestomeda”.
A long path, but above all a very demanding one for a company that will have a turnover of 28,5 million euros at the end of the year. Not only that, Scavolini has measured down to the smallest details of the company's activities, the degree of circularity carried out which stood at an exceptional level, between 97 and 99 percent according to the various sectors. It must be taken into account that the production of kitchens is very complex, since every time what is delivered is an integrated system of design, technologies and services, coming – as Scavolini points out – from at least 200 direct suppliers. The road taken years ago by the CEO of Ernestomeda has yielded decidedly satisfactory results, turnover in 2021 will grow by 20 percent on 2019 and exports by as much as 30 percent.
“What worries us is the crisis that has arisen on world markets due to the shortage of raw materials and semi-finished products and the increase in prices. Hard-to-find steel, for example, is the basis of the production of our suppliers' household appliances and faced panels for furniture are becoming difficult to find”. As for aluminium, the object of colossal speculation, the car industries are hoarding it - Scavolini declares worried - to use it instead of steel to lighten their particularly heavy hybrid models. Finally, a truly unique preview case history.
Eco-sustainability and technology, design and innovation have a background that few know about and which is often based on research and patents of a supply chain whose terminal part is the noble industry. Foreign newspapers such as the prestigious one have written above all about this little-known supply chain Wall Street Journal who dedicated an extensive service to a laboratory located in Brianza, la Fauciglietti Engineering, holder of 50 international invention patents, and about 500 projects with dozens and dozens of international awards, in addition to the Compasso d'Oro. In reality, prizes are often awarded to products that Fauciglietti has engineered at the request of the furniture and furnishing accessories manufacturer.
Fauciglietti's holistic, multidisciplinary and scientific approach, implemented since 1989 by hundreds and hundreds of case histories, has made it possible to accumulate such a quantity of inventions and knowledge – the company invests 30 percent of its turnover in R&D – which often already has a part of the optimal solutions for new projects. The development process complies with ISO9001 and 2000 standards and is based on 57 phases divided into four macro platforms: product planning, preliminary design, product and production process engineering and, finally, their industrialization. The excellence of the Italian style is also this.
Photos of the event:
