Creating and presenting a product is no longer enough. It must also reveal where it comes from, what memory it carries, what solution it offers, and what future it projects. In 2026, this is the understanding with which Brazil arrives at Salone del Mobile.Milano under the theme “Connections,” presenting Brazilian furniture as the result of the encounter between manufacturing, design, territory, research, material richness, cultural diversity, and productive strength.
With a delegation of more than 70 brands, designers, and emerging talents, the Brazilian Furniture Project — an initiative by ABIMÓVEL (Brazilian Furniture Industry Association) in partnership with ApexBrasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) — brings to Milan a presence structured around three complementary fronts: a commercial exhibition; a showcase of collaborations between designers and manufacturers; and the exhibition of award-winning and specially recognized pieces from the 1st Brazilian Furniture Design Award, now reaching the world.
Connections: From Brazil to the World
The choice of theme for 2026 is not merely a frame. To speak of “Connections” in the context of the world’s leading event for the sector is to speak of a network of knowledge, resources, and articulations that today defines relevance, originality, and competitiveness.
The theme ‘Connections’ was born from the perception that the value of design is not concentrated solely in the final form of a product. It lies in the network of relationships that sustains that form: the origin of the material, productive intelligence, the culture embedded in the project, the technology employed, the storytelling surrounding the piece, and the way all of this is presented and circulates in the market. By choosing this theme, we want to show that contemporary Brazilian furniture is, above all, the result of encounters
A Matter of Salone: Materials at the Center
It is no coincidence that iSaloni itself reaches its 64th edition organized around the concept “A Matter of Salone,” placing raw materials back at the center of the conversation as origin, memory, process, and meaning-making. It is within this setting that Brazil presents itself in tune with a question that runs across the entire chain: how can the country engage with the international market without diluting the singularities that make its production authentic and recognizable?
Brazilian furniture stands out precisely for the way it translates, through design and materiality, values rooted in the country’s culture, such as conviviality, hospitality, a blend of rhythms, accents, biomes, symbols, and references, the intelligent and sustainable use of native raw materials, integration between spaces, and an openness to the new without breaking with tradition.
In other words, Brazil has an immense material and cultural heritage, but that only becomes valuable when it is shaped through design, engineering, portfolio curation, positioning, and market insight.
What will be seen in Milan, therefore, is raw material shaped by research, industrial transformation, design, finishing, ergonomics, functionality, and market strategy. This is essential. It is not a matter of displaying a material singularity, but of revealing consistent processes through which material is transformed into a contemporary product that is competitive and internationally legible.
That is where Brazilian design gains strength: when it shows that origin and sophistication are not opposites, but parts of the same construction. The result is a sector that does not seek recognition solely through the image of a product “made in Brazil,” but through the consistency of its diversity, the sophistication of its design language, and its ability to adapt within a global landscape in transformation… through its connections!
This means that Brazil's furniture sector has been maturing in its understanding that international competitiveness is not built only on scale or price, but on positioning, consistency of language, differentiation, and the ability to translate cultural and productive assets into perceived value. 'Connections' allows us, in this way, to organize this vision of the country and of the sector. Rather than presenting Brazil as a scattered group of brands and pieces, we present an integrated panorama of what we have, what we are, what we create, and what we produce.
Brazilian Identity in Material, Repertoire, Language, and Product
In practice, “Connections” manifests itself in multiple layers. It is present in the relationship between materials and techniques, when surfaces and finishes are treated not merely as aesthetics, but as language. It is also present in the relationship between designers and manufacturers, as seen in the Design + Industry Showcase, where different design visions, geographic references, and cultural repertoires meet distinct productive capabilities. And it is also present in the exhibiting brands themselves, which come from different regions of the country, with different vocations, yet converge on a common objective: to create furniture capable of speaking to the world without losing its Brazilian identity.
There is also a subtler, but equally important, translation: the way Brazilian products engage with the idea of conviviality. In much of the country’s furniture production, there is a very clear concern with hospitality, fluidity between environments, smart use of space, comfort paired with visual lightness, and a more sensorial relationship with materiality. This applies to living pieces, outdoor collections, kitchen and bath environments, and decorative pieces alike. When we speak of connections, we also speak of this capacity to produce furniture and objects that articulate spaces, eras, and styles.
This dialogue comes very naturally to Brazil. The country has a very strong and extremely plural material culture. We have a long-standing relationship with wood, fibers, stone, textiles, leather, clay, ceramics, and so much more. But perhaps the most important point is not the availability of these materials, but the ability to assign meaning to them through design and industry. The Salone's concept this year values raw material as origin and meaning; Brazilian furniture responds to that by showing that, for us, matter has never been merely substance.
It is also territory, memory, technique, repertoire, and identity.
Brazilian Exhibitors
The Exhibition of Brazilian Brands and Products is the country’s main showcase at iSaloni. Spread across three areas of the fair — Espaço Brasil (Pavilion 03), EuroCucina (Pavilion 02), and the International Bathroom Exhibition (Pavilion 10) — the initiative presents Brazilianness through materials, techniques, and proposals that express the plurality and versatility of contemporary furniture designed and made in the country.
Meet the exhibiting companies at the 64th Salone del Mobile.Milano:
Brazilian Furniture Project
The Brazilian Furniture Project is an initiative by ABIMÓVEL in partnership with ApexBrasil, created to increase the participation of Brazil's furniture industry and production chain in the international market through a set of strategic actions built on the pillars of sustainability, competitiveness, and design integrated within the industry. Hundreds of companies are part of the project.
In the current cycle, the project's organizers are inviting not only furniture manufacturers and designers, but also component companies and industry suppliers to join Brazilian Furniture, further expanding the reach of Brazilian furniture and reinforcing the competitiveness of the Brazil brand worldwide.
To become part of the project and place your brand at the world's leading furniture industry events, visit:
brazilianfurniture.org.brAbout ABIMÓVEL
The Brazilian Furniture Industry Association (ABIMÓVEL) has spent nearly five decades supporting, developing, and strengthening Brazil's furniture production chain. The institution promotes and leads a positive agenda for the sector, benefiting more than 22,800 companies, which in 2025 generated more than R$ 92.1 billion in business and 287,200 direct jobs, within a production chain that indirectly employs around 1.1 million workers.
Throughout its trajectory, ABIMÓVEL has led a series of programs and actions focused on business, competitiveness, design, sustainability, technical standardization, innovation, and internationalization, promoting initiatives that expand the positioning of Brazilian furniture in both the domestic and global markets. Today, Brazil is the largest furniture producer in Latin America and the seventh largest in the world, a position that reflects the strategic relevance of a production chain that is diverse, capillarized, and closely aligned with market transformations.
abimovel.comAbout ApexBrasil
The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) works to promote Brazilian products and services abroad and attract foreign investment to strategic sectors of the Brazilian economy. To achieve its goals, ApexBrasil carries out a variety of trade promotion initiatives aimed at boosting exports and enhancing the value of Brazilian products and services abroad, such as prospecting and trade missions, business matchmaking rounds, support for the participation of Brazilian companies in major international fairs, and visits by foreign buyers and opinion leaders to learn more about Brazil's productive structure, among other business platforms also designed to strengthen the Brazil brand.
The Agency also works in coordination with public and private stakeholders to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to Brazil, focusing on strategic sectors that contribute to the competitiveness of Brazilian companies and of the country as a whole.
apexbrasil.com.brFURNITURE: OUR BUSINESS!
Brazilian Furniture Industry Association – ABIMÓVEL
Press Office: press@abimovel.com | +55 14 99156-0238
