Milan furniture fair 2009: Plan before you arrive

Aways need to carry a very heavy bag with plenty of info, such as magazines, pamphlets, postcards, catelogues... etc.! But you don't need to carry your own, people are distribute it where the design shows are!

It's my 5th visiting the Milan furniture fair + design week this year. The weather just can't be better than ever. I miss Europe, the life in Milan, nothing really changed in Milan after 5 years apart. Sun is still shining and grass is still green, the fashionable people run through the streets still. I can hear my heart pumping for the vibrant city with design in spring again.

The trendy people hanging around at the corner of Via Manzoni and Via Montenapoleone, where the metro entrance of Montenapoleone, and the Armani Global Flagship boutique located.

Though leaving from the beautiful city like Barcelona, when I landed in Milan Malpensa Airport around Midnight of April 21 2009. Everything was still so familiar to me. But I was a bit different than before, compared to Barcelona, Milan is totally a mess. dirty streets, messy car parking and not many friendly faces on the streets. The urban planning looks aweful! But still, it's still "Mecca" for the deisgners around the world and the capital of the modern design! So much to see here until you drop! Espcially this time of the year! Yeah... that's why I was there!

"Floating Chairs" installation project was REALLY floating on the cannal in Naviglio area, the canal zone of Milan. The installation was composed with almost a hundred of the chairs that designed by local Italian designers.

I asked my friend in Milan to buy a copy of INTERNI for me before I landed this time. Normally I will buy it on the first day I arrive Milan. It's the first thing you need to do before the show. For the INTERNI always provides a small pamphlet with all the deisgn exhibitions out of Fiera, we call it "Fuori Salone" in Italian. As everyone knows, the shows out of the Fiera are always much more exciting, gorgeous, creative, diverse and innovative than the shows in the Fiera.

After you got the pamphlet, mark all the shows you wanna visit day by day in order to fit your schedule in Milan. Make sure you don't miss anyone you wanna see. If you're wel-planned, try to get there during the cocktail hours for the every show. You can even save a meal or so! (if you have plenty of 7 days here in Milan. And that's what I do when I was a student in Milan!) But if you only have 3 days, I would suggest you to plan it wisely, make some clusters for the day trips. One day one zone. PLEASE, don't be greedy at this moment, not a good time to be a hero. Or you will kill yourself by endless walking and be drowned to death by the countless design shows. Be good, ok?

Basically there are FOUR spots I will never miss during this time of year.
1. Triennale, the design museum of Milan: They always provide the abundant exhibitions, not only the theme show that arranged by the museum, usually it's about Italian design and their proud in Design, but only the shows from all over the world and diverse brands and designers. Always a enjoyment to visit there at this time.

2. Via Montenapoleone + Via Durini: I list them two together because they are so close to each other. Via Montenapoleone is famous with its high-end fashion, the block is full of the most famous big fashion brands boutiques around the world, some shops will have special events for the design week and also some cool chic shows will hide inside. And for Via Durini is the big street where the flagship shops of big Italian furniture brands such as B & B Italia, Cassina and so on. Never miss it.

3. 10 Corso Como: The most chic fashion design mix shop in town, the legendary owner Carla Sozzani built up the brand and create her fashion empire on her own. It's the "Mecca" for the world fashion designers now. "10 Corso Como" is the address of the shop also the title of the brand, which is a mix shops with cafe, bookstore, gallery, CD shop, restaurant, fashion boutiques with the wel-known brands around the world. Years ago, they even start their own boutique hotel called "3 rooms". Yes, you are smart, there are 3 rooms only, and the design of each room is all different but somehow you know they are created by the same designer with the same chic style. There are always fully booked during this time of year. So all the chic fashion brands and some design shows just cluster at this area too. Also there is a Sandwich shop I love most, called "Panino Giusto"~The Right Sandiwch!, it's a chain store actually, but I just love it's flavor! Actually there are plenty of good restaurant around that district, very exotic, charming and diversed, perfect for the afternoon "passagiare"!


4. Zona Tortona: I think the people and design gather around here can be more than the actual people and design in Fiera maybe! Along the Naviglio, the old canal area of Milan city, it was the warehouses district. But lately it was transformed into the industrial district with the factories which produces the mockups and prototypes for the design brands. Also my old school Domus Academy was here too, so we can work with the factories for the design projects. As Armani started his Teatro here, which was designed by Tadao Ando, polish the shine of Zona Tortona again. Now it's a must-go for the creative managers and designers, kinda like the SOHO area in NYC for now. During the Milan Design Week, it's even more glamous with hundreds shows and you can't never finsih it in one day, trust me!

Maybe you will ask me, why there is no "Satellite" that most people will recommend? Well Satellite is one of the pavillions in the Fiera, where demonstrates all the innovative designers of young generation. I do think it's worthy to take a visit. However, if your time is limited and your budget is limited too, that's the last point you you skip, coz you will find a lot of similar ones in Zona Tortona and some others "fuori Fiera". It's far from downtown (20 mins by metro) and also you need to pay over 10 EURO to get in the Fiera, it's too big to get lost. And you will be easy to be attracted by those other design pavillions and surroundings, very time consuming. And the rest of the pavillions in Fiera are very commercial actually. So that's the last spot I will skip.

Since I am here only for 3 days this time, I just have to arrange my itinerary a bit. So here is my schedule:
Day 1:
Triennale
Via Durini + Via Montenapoleone
Duomo
Day 2:
10 Corso Como
INTERNI theme show(at "L'universita di Studi Milano")
Day 3:
Zona Tortona

So here we go!