TREND ALERT
The six looks to know from Milan Design Week 2022
As the pinnacle event on the global design calendar made a triumphant return, design devotees from across the world descended on the streets of Milan in June for its first full-format itinerary in two years. Milan Design Week 2022 also marked the 60th anniversary of its main event, Salone del Mobile, the world’s biggest furniture fair.
Among the attendees were two in-house designers from the King design team: Alinta Lim and Mina Bassilious. Attending 24 large-scale halls at Salone del Mobile, not to mention the satellite events all around the city, the designers were first-hand witnesses to the vibe shift. “In terms of mood, I can definitely confirm there was a sense of joy and optimism on the ground during Milan Design Week this year,” says Lim.
“There were fewer visitors than pre-pandemic years, no doubt due to travel restrictions. However, after so long, it was exciting to be reimmersed in the design community and to experience the physical scale of exhibitions and the tactility of new products.”
Among the design manifestations of joy, Lim observed a fresh focus on the outdoors as one of the most optimistic. It also happens to be one of the most relevant trends for the Australian lifestyle.
“It makes me happy to know that people want to spend more time outdoors; presumably this represents leisure and relaxation,” she explains. “The use of plants on stands at the fair was also abundant and lush. The trendy and ubiquitous tree of this year was the Japanese maple, which has this super-vibrant young green colour.”
Lim was joined by fellow King senior designer Bassilious. Of all the trends Bassilious plans to bring back home, flexibility is a standout. And after two years of working, schooling and doing just about everything at home, agility makes sense.
“The spaces we live in often serve multiple purposes,” observes Bassilious. “A compact living space where we relax with friends may also be our dining area and, more recently, our place of work. Changing the format of an environment refreshes our experience of being there.”
Products and furniture with adaptable functions make the new normal so much nicer. “A shelving system may infinitely grow with a person’s collection of books because the pieces are designed as part of a system,” says Bassilious. “Products with a quiet, understated form are often more usable in a home.
They can adapt to changes in the environment as they do not demand one’s attention.”