Was that a spaceship outside the Louis Vuitton show? Did you see Tom Dixon’s robot arm at Euroluce? What did the AI perfumier at Moooi mix for your signature room scent?

Milan’s annual design week was beamed to us from the future but, this being Milan, it was more of an arty, cinematic sci-fi future than one where design experts had fathomed how to house, feed and furnish the world with zero carbon emissions.

The problems of our warming planet were, however, still hot topics among the 2,000 or so brands exhibiting to 307,418 attendees at this year’s Salone del Mobile, and much was made of the progress made on circular manufacturing and reducing energy consumption. Meanwhile, outside the fairground, the greatest design show on