Salone del Mobile: DeLightFuL Exhibition
Salone del Mobile showcases DeLightFuL, an exhibition to highlight Design, Light, Future and living, curated by Ciarmoli - Queda.
This year, Salone del Mobile pulled out all the stops, showcasing the very best of design, from contemporary furniture to luxury lighting. For the fifty-sixth edition of the world's most famous furniture and design exhibition, it was time to mix things up and create a new concept for the hundreds of thousands of visitors to experience on an interactive level. This concept was named DeLightFuL and was curated by Ciarmoli - Queda as an original take on contemporary living, narrating the trends of the world and the impact that design has on our surroundings.
Set out into a series of rooms, visitors were transported into an eclectic world of colourful design, all influenced by light. Visitors enter the space by walking down a narrow electric blue corridor adorned with three animal-shaped mirrors of a monkey, owl and a fox to insight a playful and fun tone into the journey with a singular white bronze chair at the end of the corridor striping back design to its basics.
The journey continued into three separate design rooms for visitors to explore. The first room, known as the Hall of Arts, demonstrated the dialogue between interior and exterior design from a public and private point of view. The idea is that one space can connect to another yet have an entirely different function and it is design and lighting that can bridge this gap or widen it depending on what is needed. This concept was demonstrated with a line of ten glass doors for visitors to peer through. Each of the ten rooms located behind contained different objects, styles and forms. As coloured lighting flooded these spaces, there was a visible connection in design, and notices of similarities, however, when the light faded or became clear, guests started to notice the differences within.
The second room exhibited the connection between design and time. Daily times in our lives from morning to evening and the time of man, growing up as a child, through to adolescence and into adulthood. Gathering around the dining table, a familiar activity to all cultures becomes the central focus of this section. Three tables named Las Vegas, Shanghai and Aegean represent the differences in style whilst demonstrating the familiarities and connections that we all have. Whilst design may appear to be different on the outside, there will always be similar characteristics to connect us all.
The third and final room was a space for visitors to sit back and relax. Filled with white sofas and chairs, each a different shape and style, guests could feel at home by selecting a chair and space they felt most comfortable in, even moving furniture to watch the video on the screen. This area connected people together, demonstrating that there cannot be a one size fits all approach to design. It should be taken into consideration the diverse range of needs required from an interior, and how different people will interact with space differently. particularly in public-facing designs.
Once the film finishes and the lights come up, visitors make their final journey through the silvery curtains, down a sloped corridor back into the real world, surrounded by the buzz of thousands of people once more.
