Each April, since 1961, the Salone del Mobile has taken over Milan, drawing attendees from across the globe eager to catch a glimpse of what’s unfolding in the future of home design. Set against the beauty of the Italian spring, masterful exhibits from over 2,000 brands come to life, setting the global benchmark for design trends.
In developments, an industry often viewed as traditional, Salone del Mobile dares us to think outside the box. As an investment in our development projects, senior team members of rennie Developer Services along with Inform Projects, traveled transatlantic to attend Milan Design Week.
“Attending Milan Design Week really taught our team about how we can break the rules,” explains Senior Vice President, Jason Dolker, “Going and seeing where home design is heading opened our eyes to how we can do things differently, how we can break away from the traditional structures we usually see in presentation centres and interiors.”
At the inception of new development projects, rennie Developer Services along with our development partners begin with the spatial elements, for instance, defining which directions offer the best views or the layouts of each floorplan. It’s often later when we turn inward, the textures, materials, and brands come into focus. It’s a dance of detail and quality that can become the deciding factor for prospective buyers selecting their future home from a myriad of pre-sale projects available in the market. With the foresight of the trends shaping tomorrow’s home designs, we can better weave them into the buying experience–from our presentation centres to the home’s interiors.
Kitchens at the intersection of craft and storytelling
In Milan, we explored some of Italy’s leading brands to uncover their stories to better understand why Italian kitchens have become so esteemed worldwide. Widely considered the heart of the home, kitchens have often been the centrepiece of Salon de Mobile.
Unshackled from its orthodox designation as the cooking hub, the hardest working room in the home has become the axis between connection and celebration. Italian kitchen design, in particular, has become internationally recognized for its balanced formula of function, detail, and aesthetic. And upon deeper investigation, each brand has its own distinct story that is an intrinsic keystone of its products’ value.
In Guastalla, we were welcomed behind the doors at Bertazzoni. For over a century, the company has brought together family, food, and engineering with their practical elegance and devotion to tradition. Their very first oven still sits in an office, a timestamp of Bertazzoni’s 1882 inception. As wood-burning stoves were being used to heat the trains traveling between Guastalla, Italy, and Austria, the Bertazzoni family adapted the innovation for cooking in the home.
Now, six generations later, their brand remains synonymous with premier engineering that sustains the family’s original values. Keeping true to their heritage, Bertazonni continues to innovate without losing a sense of their identity. You can feel it in the knobs and dials, which deliver that satisfying tactile experience that allow at-home chefs the time-honoured pleasure of dialing up the heat, just so.
South of Milan, rennie took an excursion to Tuscany’s family-owned Stosa Cucine, to step inside the factory and see firsthand how their kitchens come together. Unlike many of their North American contemporaries, where flat-packing individual pieces is commonplace, Stosa remains involved throughout the entire assembly process. Produced and packaged to the strictest standards of safety, strength, and durability, their kitchens are assembled fully in their warehouse and shipped whole.
The brand safeguards its commitment to quality which has been the backbone of its international reputation. The materials are the heroes of their designs which can be customized to an array of tastes: calcutta marble with its distinctive veining, or the durability of quartzite, etched copper accents, or the endurance of solid wood. Minimalist, clean, and functional, Stosa’s contemporary kitchens embrace the future but honour its legacy.
Lezioni dall’italiano
Since Salone del Mobile wrapped up, the lessons we’ve learned remain instilled in our team and at rennie. We can continue to relay the stories that capture the magic of the details, quality, and passions that will become discerning components of future projects. We can connect on a deeper level with the brands, developers, and homeowners, by immersing ourselves in what’s ahead.
For more than four decades, the rennie Developer Services team has been putting clients first. Their teams collaborate to deliver expert support for every project from before a project breaks ground until well beyond the final sale. Through our process, they have helped developers build powerful, recognizable, and successful brands. Learn more about rennie Developer Services and our projects.
