From Salone Del Mobile Milan
Some signs seem to be peeping out in the office world: The unchallenged reign of telecommuting may be coming to an end, in favor of a partial return within corporate walls. But to which office should we eventually return? What are its characteristics, after years of habits lived in domestic, more decorative and less plastered environments? In absolute convergence, to the Salone del Mobile.Milan 2025, the exhibitors at Workplace3.0 all seem to point in the same direction. If we are talking about a place exclusively devoted to the world of work, it can only be light, open and flexible, informal and reconfigurable. Even its register, its tone of voice — borrowing a word from marketing — will necessarily have to be non-threatening, welcoming, horizontal and inclusive. Forgetting the coercion at the desk, now outdated even for the most hardened advocates of all-out productivity, the office will have to equip itself with spaces of waiting, where moments of sweet do-nothing, of joyful absence of factual and concrete activity, can be taken in charge.
The other interesting sign we are recording is the increasing convergence between the hospitality and contract worlds. After all, if the office can change its skin and become joyful and intelligent, how can we draw a line between work spaces and those of a lounge, a museum, or even a hotel? A tour of the Salone exhibitors seems to confirm this approach. Following this cue, we are not surprised to find from Infiniti, a company from Veneto that specializes in the office world, a bench designed for the museum environment: it is Museum-not a coincidental name-a reissue signed by Giulio Lazzotti of the Giulio bench. Among the brand’s novelties for 2025, the Diane chair, by French designer Ambroise Maggiar, on the other hand, goes to meet the outdoor world: in painted steel, it stands out for its soft, clean lines, with or without armrests, and can be complemented by a magnetic cushion that also fits well with the needs of the indoor world.
The novelty of Segis, another Italian company specializing in seating, tables and upholstered furniture, is the Plose polypropylene chair designed by Archirivolto. Its shapes are emblematic with respect to a certain taste in office furniture (and beyond): the linear essentiality of the form prevails, but the use of curves, in this case parabolic, provide that injection of grace that makes the product more friendly. Renewing its collaboration with AMDL CIRCLE and Michele De Lucchi, the brand. Mara. An evolution of the Typo chair unveiled at the Salone last year, the Typo Lounge chair is yet another confirmation of the shooting range of the new office ergonomics, which is increasingly calibrated toward infiltrating even our living rooms, both public and private.
The Croatian brand Prostoria takes yet another step on the road that leads us toward the informal: its Aire sofa, a novelty for 2025, is described by its designers, the Spanish duo Ramos Bassols, with a comforting word: freedom, a reminder that inspires this piece’s vocation to make itself versatile in whatever space it is used. Instead, the focus on product dematerialization, understood as containing the amount of material used with a view to increased sustainability, guides one of the latest products launched by Arper at the last Salon. The Catifa RE 46, yet another reinterpretation of the model designed by Lievore Altherr Molina in 2004, is not only the proven proof of the longevity of good design, but also the careful outcome of a technological path that thins the 100% recycled plastic shell, giving it more incisiveness.
From Fantoni, another historic brand in the office sector, the new collection presented in 2025, Alis, is expressed through the rigorous language of architecture. In fact, designing this system of operative and semi-directional desks, meeting tables, bookcases and storage solutions is the architectural firm Park Associati, which focuses on the structural purity of the pieces and their ability to play with the effects of light thanks to the 30-degree cuts of the surfaces. Instead, it looks to organic softness and attention to finishes by Belgian office brand Bulo. The soft, beveled shape, which seems to welcome and encompass those who sit at the desk, becomes-they explain to us at the booth-an opportunity to fit more nimbly into any kind of space, breaking the Cartesian order of the grid and adapting to an ideal driven by fluidity.
Returning to the Milan Furniture Fair after more than a decade, Swedish brand Johanson focuses instead on the graphic character of its seating: a language capable of speaking to the younger generations, who find character-filled abstractness close to their style, as the bench in the SKETCH series, a design by Färg & Blanche, shows well. Humanscale, specializes in the ergonomic elevation of the office experience. In addition to its historic office chairs, the company now complements new sit-stand solutions-increasingly popular as an option for improving office well-being from mobility opportunities-along with monitor arms, keyboard and laptop systems, swinging footrests, cable management systems, and desk accessories.
Finally, well-being in workspaces is measured not only from furniture, but also from countless details capable of making a difference. Among the most original examples spotted at the Salone are Bloom acoustic panels produced by Slalom: their upholstery textures, which include petals and natural fibers, bring us back to a feeling of quiet that fits the new spirit of office life. Also noteworthy in the field of upholstery are the increasingly sophisticated proposals presented under the auspices of S. Project, the Salone del Mobile Milano exhibition dedicated to decorative and technical solutions in interior design. An opportunity not to be taken for granted to emphasize the continuum that links the world of furniture to a broader vision of the inhabited space, where what makes the difference is the increasingly technological search for the performance of materials, components, finishes, furnishing complements and lighting solutions.
Specializing in highly customized panoramic glass windows, the brand Protections offers solutions characterized by thermal and lighting comfort, despite the season. Dooor, the company that revisits the folding doors dear to the tradition of Gio Ponti presents this year a circular soundproof dressing room ideal for retail spaces. Among the companies at the forefront of wood composite design solutions, Alps presents new collections designed by Piero Lissoni, Nendo and Estùdio Campana. Specializes in the production of modular furniture systems, Dresswall presents Grids light panels at the fair, featuring a graphic personality that can nevertheless coexist with pre-existing environments. Focusing on circular design, the proposal by Giovanardi. Under its Refelter brand, printed polyester advertising displays are recycled through mechanical treatment to obtain felts for use as decorative sound-absorbing panels or as structural components for furniture, chairs and accessories. Raytent, another Giovanardi brand, on the other hand, uses fabrics recycled from waste from the awning industry.
What’s new in 2025 from Caimi Brevetti is an “acoustic sofa,” CB SOFA by Claudio Bellini: a solution that combines superior acoustic comfort, enveloping relaxation, and ergonomics adapted to office life thanks to the support offered by the high back.
The Florentine company antoniolupi presents a washbasin made entirely of Cristalplant®. The minimalist language of the new proposals further highlights the purity and tactile comfort of the material. The Veneto-based company Oikos has a mission: to offer relevance to the front door, returning it to its starring role, as with the Vela and Synua models presented for the first time at the fair. The Belgian brand Renson looks instead at the ultimate form of comfort, relaxation in the outdoor environment. Its proposal at the Salone, Amani-a Red Dot 2023 award-was a fully customizable outdoor pergola that allows people to benefit from outdoor living by configuring multiple details. The “SensiTerre” collection, designed by Matteo Thun and Benedetto Fasciana for Florim, explores the qualities of clay by transposing them from craftsmanship to architectural expression.
