Eye For Design: Salone Del Mobile Milano 2018

To celebrate the launch of the limited-edition Paul Smith for Globe-Trotter suitcase at Milan Design Week, we bring you our guide to this year's must-see shows

Milan is renowned as a fashion capital but, for one week every April, design reigns supreme.

Salone del Mobile Milano is one of the world's biggest furniture and design fairs, attracting 300,000 visitors from more than 165 countries. Inside the Fiera Milano expo centre, more than 2,000 exhibitors come together, with a jam-packed programme of design-related talks, exhibitions, events and parties taking over the entire city across six days.

On Wednesday 18 April, Globe-Trotter will unveil a new limited-edition trolley case designed in collaboration with British fashion legend Paul Smith. The case will make its stylish debut at Paul Smith's beautiful flagship Palazzo Gallarati Scotti store and, while the launch party should be top of your agenda, we've collated the Salone del Mobile Milano highlights every design lover should know.

Lee Broom presents Observatory

Observatory is a brand new celestial-inspired collection of lighting from Lee Broom, which will make its debut at this year's fair. The British design wunderkind describes the seven new sculptural lights as his 'most progressive body of work to date' and they're the first in a three-phase launch of new lighting collections for 2018. Keep those eyes peeled…

Carlo Ratti Associati: Living Nature

'In the 20th century, cities expanded outwards to conquer nature and the countryside. We believe that today's challenge is the opposite – how can we bring nature back to the city?' This is the question posed by Italian architect Carlo Ratti, whose award-winning eponymous practice has designed a major attraction for this year's fair, located in the iconic Piazza del Duomo. 'Living Nature' is a state-of-the-art garden pavilion where all four seasons coexist in one place, designed to immerse visitors in nature and experience seasons changing as they make their way through the space. Unmissable.

Vitra gets typecast

Legendary Swiss furniture brand Vitra has commissioned Austrian designer Robert Stadler to curate a large-scale exhibition taking over former sports arena La Pelota in Milan's Brera design district. Tasked with an ostensibly simple yet ambitious brief to 'encapsulate the whole panorama of the brand', Stadler has collated over 200 items from the Vitra archives in a whimsical exhibition titled: 'Typecasting: An Assembly of Iconic, Forgotten and New Vitra Characters'.

David Rockwell Diner

To mark its 25th anniversary, influential design magazine Surface has teamed up with New York architect David Rockwell to create a unique homage to that great all-American institution: the diner. Making its debut at Salone del Mobile in 2018, this fully functional diner will be one of the main attractions during the fair, offering a culinary 'coast to coast journey across the USA'. During the day, the diner will dish up contemporary American food and drink, and at night it will transform into a nightclub complete with performances and parties.

Softwear by Google

The integration of technology in the home is increasingly big business – and for tech giant Google it's all about bringing the two together as seamlessly as possible. For the first time ever, Google will make an appearance at Salone del Mobile with 'Softwear', an installation curated by Dutch trend forecaster and longtime Google collaborator Lidewij Edelkoort. The installation features interactive Made by Google products dotted around homely environments to promote 'a conversation about the future of technology and its place in our lives.

Salone del Mobile Milano 2018 takes place between 17–22 April salonemilano.it/en/