Queen Máxima to meet Dutch designers during working visit to Milan Design Week
On Tuesday 18 April, Her Majesty Queen Máxima will pay a working visit to Dutch designers who are exhibiting work at Milan Design Week in Milan, Italy.
The Netherlands is always among the most prominent participants in Milan Design Week. Dutch designers stand out internationally, not only for the quality of their innovative designs but also for their ability to pursue social impact through their work. For new designers, the prestigious Milan Design Week often serves as a stepping stone towards the international market. Queen Máxima’s visit to Milan follows an earlier meeting with designers during her visit to Eindhoven on 16 February. She will meet some of them again in Milan.
Queen Máxima’s visit to Milan will begin in the city’s Isola neighbourhood, where she will tour the innovative urban park designed by Dutch landscape architect Petra Blaisse together with the architect. She will also speak with Italian architect Stefano Boeri, who designed the high-rise residential buildings named Bosco Verticale – or vertical forest – situated on the park’s edge. Boeri also designed the sustainable Trudo Vertical Forest in Eindhoven and Wonderwoods in Utrecht.
After this, Queen Máxima will visit Circolare – The Circular Village, designed by MAST, and other locations in Isola, where she will meet a number of Dutch designers and brand teams. Along with nearly 300 other designers, studios and makers, they will be presenting their work as part of Isola Design District, an international community founded by Gabriele Cavallaro, Eindhoven design scout Wisse Trooster and others. One of the themes at Isola this year is the circular economy and the repurposing of materials. Isola Design District will also be participating in Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.
In the afternoon Queen Máxima will visit Salone Satellite. This section of the Salone del Mobile aims to enhance links between research, design and industry, focusing on designers under the age of 35. Accompanied by Salone president Maria Porro and Satellite’s founder and curator Marva Griffin, Queen Máxima will meet five young designers from the Netherlands whose work was selected for Salone Satellite by an international jury. She will also speak with students from Design Academy Eindhoven and hear about the approximately 20 established Dutch design brands exhibiting at the Salone del Mobile.
The working visit will end with a visit to ‘Masterly, the Dutch in Milano’ at the Palazzo dei Giureconsulti, where, for the seventh time, curator Nicole Uniquole has brought together the collections of more than 70 Dutch interior designers and design companies. Here, Queen Máxima will discuss craftsmanship with students from HMC, a school for woodworking and furniture making with locations in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Finally, she will attend the official opening of Masterly during an annual networking event attended by designers, businesspeople, dignitaries and people from the cultural sector.
Government Information Service, no. 56