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After a year off due to the pandemic and a scaled-down iteration in September 2021, Milan’s Salone del Mobile — the international design fair that’s been held annually since 1961 — was back in full force last week. Beyond the trade show itself, which was packed with household names in the world of interiors, the Fuorisalone saw young creatives and smaller brands take over galleries, abandoned spaces and art hubs across the city with shows and installations, proposing new ideas for what our homes of tomorrow might look like.

From sustainability to boundary-pushing designs and an emphasis on craft, here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the event.

Bringing the outdoors indoors

Perhaps in response to the time spent indoors over the past two years, nature and organic materials underpinned many of Milan Design Week’s most interesting works. In the Brera district, Brooklyn-based Calico Wallpaper collaborated with international interior design studio AB Concept to showcase a Japanese Alps-inspired wallpaper in collaboration with interior design studio AB Concept that aimed to recreate an immersive forest experience, while in the 5 Vie area Berlin-based all-female collective Matter of Course debuted a series of home furnishings in wood, clay, and water.

inspired wallpaper to create a serene space.”/

Nature-inspired decor could become a future interiors trend. “Forest of Reflection” uses grass-like carpet and Alps-inspired wallpaper to create a serene space. Credit: Jonathan Hokklo

At Alcova, an itinerant exhibition that took over the derelict Centro Ospedaliero Militare di Baggio, natural stone brand SolidNature collaborated with Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis and architectural studio OMA to rethink home furniture as monolithic slabs of onyx and marble, creating a monumental bathroom, a multi-functional rotating cabinet, and an imposing (though possibly not very comfortable) bed.

Milan’s DWA Design Studio brought raw