In collaboration with the Milan Polytechnic University, Salone del Mobile.Milano will be paying homage to one of its leading protagonists Manlio Armellini. The event is expected to benefit deserving students doing their Masters in Furniture Design.
A knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and a man of great human qualities, Manlio Armellini was the life and soul of the Salone del Mobile.Milano from 1965, when he became Secretary General and subsequently CEO of Cosmit, organiser of the trade fair as of its very first edition in 1961. It was under his watch that the fair became the undisputed benchmark for companies and the international showcase for the furnishing system.
“A volcanic and visionary man, refined and generous,” is how Maria Porro, President, Salone del Mobile.Milano, remembers him. She, along with his wife Armida Armellini, is a promoter of the University Masters Study Bursary in Furniture Design at Milan Polytechnic University, administered by POLI.design. “After his brainwave in 1965 of rounding off the trade offering by gathering together all the leading furnishing sector companies, the Salone really took off, becoming the event we all know and appreciate today, a jewel in the crown of Milan and of an entire nation,” continued Porro.
The choice of the Milan Polytechnic University, an ancient Milanese institution of acknowledged excellence, especially in relation to the University Masters in Furniture Design, led by Alessandro Deserti, Professor in the Design Department at Milan Polytechnic University and Francesco Zurlo, President of POLI.design and Dean of the Milan Polytechnic University Design School, chimes with the deep roots of the Salone del Mobile, which has become a model of savoir faire and a special place for business and design to come together, as well as a centre for research and innovation, always in the name of quality.
The study bursary will cover 50 per cent of the Masters enrolment fees for one Italian and one foreign student – underscoring the internationality that has always set the Salone del Mobile.Milano apart – and will be awarded by a committee composed of the directors of the Masters, Maria Porro and Armida Armellini.
Image credits: Salone del Mobile.Milano