The 19th edition of the most important event in the design world for young designers lays special emphasis on new materials. SaloneSatellite, the first event to focus on young designers, immediately became the premier meeting place for manufacturers, talent scouts and the most promising young designers. It was being held concurrently with the Salone del Mobile Milano, from 12th to 17th April, at the Rho Milan Fairgrounds. SaloneSatellite has always looked to the future, and will do so again this year with the theme “New Materials> New Design”, exploring the latest that new materials science has to offer. A large bookcase becomes an actual “materiotheque”: a repository of innovative samples from the most advanced materials research centres in Europe -such as Materfad in Barcelona; Material ConneXion Italia in Milan; matériO/Happy Materials in Prague; Chris Lefteri Design in London; materialscout in Munich; Matrec in Ancona- and international companies and designers working within this sphere. Representatives from all these research hubs -Valérie Bergeron Materfad Barcelona (ES), Christine Vroom Het Nieuwe Instituut (NL), Lucie Havlova matériO/Happy Materials in Prague (CZ), Elodie Ternaux matériO/ Happy Materials (FR), Christian Tubito Material Connexion (IT), Mette Bak Andersen Material Design Lab, Copenhagen School of Design & Technology,KEA. (DK), Efrat Friedland materialscout (DE), Carole Collet Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UK)- discussed the subject at a specially convened round table: “New Materials> New Design”. Innovative materials also paid due homage to noble classical materials, such as wood, plastic, glass, metal, fabric and marble to which a great totemic sculpture is dedicated, created by the leading Salone del Mobile companies specialising in the production of pieces made out of these particular materials.
