As its success at the international interior design show imm cologne 2011 showed, Pure Village is not just an innovative, forward-looking trade fair format, it is a sign of the times as well. Today interior design is a holistic assignment that incorporates furniture systems and individual pieces, colour concepts, lighting design and luminaires, continuous materials for floors and walls as well as technical equipment. And yet holism and homogeneous design concepts don’t automatically mean boredom. Modern man lives and grows with his interior: he seeks the special, the exciting, the personal, he combines neutral basic furnishings with unusual one-offs or heirlooms; besides technical equipment, he is again attaching importance to furniture and textiles that have been manufactured in old artisanal tradition and deliberately factors in a certain amount of latitude that allows scope for variations and reconfigurations. Thinking in norms was yesterday, today we’re looking for inspiration. With its unconventional combinations, a mix of interior product ranges with their excellent design quality as the only common denominator and a communication-fostering hall and booth architecture, Pure Village provides the ideal platform for promoting product concepts for this lifestyle.
The compact format of Pure Village, where the exclusive neighbourhood and cultural diversity are condensed into the kind of inspiring mix otherwise found in the heart of a city, holds equal appeal for exhibitors and visitors alike. And so the presentation format launched last year was able to score points in round two as well: once again, Hall 3.2 of Cologne Exhibition Centre was booked out with numerous exhibitors from all areas of interior design. A colourful mix of furniture for all kinds of living space, for the bedroom, outdoors and bathroom, in combination with accessories, home entertainment, lighting, colours, wallpapers and floor coverings, ensured plenty of variety and a heterogeneous neighbourhood.
Premium brands in dialogue
Just how seriously the exhibitors take the neighbourhood idea was evident from the numerous collective cubes, of which the bathroom installation by Grohe, Hasenkopf, DuPont and Zumtobel was one of the biggest. Together they were showing a spa landscape that combined future-oriented materials with innovative technologies. “As an interior design platform for premium brands, this year’s Pure Village was again precisely the right format in which to present our unusual collaboration. Especially for the imm cologne 2011, we and our three partners developed a holistic concept that shows what a unique, creatively designed bathroom landscape can look like. It was fantastic to see how interested the visitors to Pure Village were in our ideas,” says Ulrike Heuser-Greipl, Grohe’s Senior Vice President Public & Investor Relations, summing up the joint booth concept.
The architecture of Pure Village went down particularly well. Thanks to the open structure and consistent booth design, the focus was very definitely on the products and installations. As a result, even smaller companies could present themselves on an equal footing. “As soon as you entered the hall it was obvious that it wasn’t just another classic hall concept but a very special variety of trade fair presentation, divided up into smaller sections but exciting, inspiring and refreshing as a result,” says Volker Streckel, Office Manager of the DesignPost in Cologne, which moved into Pure Village with a selection of exclusive brands to stage one of the exhibition’s most original interior landscapes.
Neighbourly help from Koelnmesse too
With such a compact format, customer-friendliness and the right service package are essential. “The booths are professionally constructed. And it would be hard for us to achieve the same level of booth professionalism right now. The fact that the companies’ booth design is no longer the dominant factor also makes a pleasant change – it’s much more a question of the product. It’s also nice that, visually, there’s a pleasantly calm feel to the hall as well,” says a pleased Klaus Kiefer, CEO of Mocoba, of the hall architecture. But it wasn’t just the external framework Kiefer found positive, he was impressed by the overall standard of services as well: “We also very much appreciated the all-round package such as e.g. free parking behind the hall, the prepaid card for The Club, the WLAN connection and the support during the set-up phase.” Particularly for smaller companies, it is precisely this support that makes it possible for them to present themselves at the trade fair in the first place – something that Dick Spierenburg, responsible for the architecture and concept of Pure Village, considers characteristic of this new format: “This platform is meant to provide a way of taking part in this big trade fair with a first-rate presentation. You can’t do that if you’ve only got a small booth at the very end of the hall. In Pure Village, however, everything is clearly visible and easily accessible, and all the space is equally attractive. That’s why it’s also a very democratic platform, where big, prestigious brands are direct neighbours with young, creative firms,” says the Dutch designer in explanation of his approach.
International flair at Pure Village
Already in Pure Village’s second year, visitors could experience a broad spectrum of nationalities. Besides Italians like Matteograssi, Zeus Noto or Bensen and Spaniards like Gandia Blasco, Vondom or Viccarbe, Pure Village also had Scandinavian guests such as Fritz Hansen, Furnism or String Furniture. And whilst MGX (Belgium), Pilat & Pilat (Netherlands), Wogg (Switzerland) or Zumtobel (Austria) came from the immediate European vicinity, Japanese futon manufacturer Takaoka Kyoto undertook a particularly long journey. Besides classic furniture producers and home textile brands such as A.S. Création, Rasch or Vorwerk, the German participants also included a number of companies from the sanitary industry and technical sectors. As well as Grohe, Burgbad and Kaldewei, companies like Erco, Siedle, Philips and Loewe were also demonstrating how water, high-tech and interior lifestyle can be combined. There were even suggestions for integrating the kitchen from firms like Küppersbusch and Mauser.
“The Square” at the centre of the village, carpeted with green and adorned with little trees, turned out to be a major attraction. Situated between the “Club” hall bistro and the new hall supermarket, there was always plenty going on at the heart of Pure Village: visitors sat on the steps, chatting animatedly or taking a break from their tour of the fair over coffee and cake. Esprit drew attention to its new carpet collection from Vorwerk with a rapper demo, whilst Benelux exhibitors Fatboy and Recticel invited guests to make themselves at home on huge beanbags or in bed. DesignPost enticed hordes of visitors to take the weight off their feet at a long table and enjoy some hearty rye bread with various spreads.
Stage for designers and interior design trends
This year designers like Stefan Diez, Cristian Zuzunaga or Shay Alkalay celebrated success of an unaccustomed kind at “The Stage” lecture forum. Seats for the trend lectures on materials, patterns, functions and colours were quickly snapped up, which is why the rest of the audience simply settled down on the floor or followed the lectures from the entrance. The well-attended lectures in this year’s supporting programme for Pure Village also included topics such as lighting, the effect of colour or bathroom design. At the weekend, the interior architects of RoomDoctor gave talks and practical advice to interested consumers. At the green “Square”, the panel discussion with the imm cologne’s Trendboard numbered amongst the highlights: Patricia Urquiola, Dephne Koz, Martin Leuthold, Marco Velardi and Harald Gründl of design firm EOOS discussed the Interior Trends 2011 they had analysed in the run-up to the trade fair and which they visualised with four installations at Pure Village.
Change as a matter of principle
The new format has established itself. Koelnmesse even expects demand for the much sought-after spaces in Pure Village to grow even further over the next few years. The spectrum of exhibits is right, the neighbourhood top-rate and design-oriented, and the exhibitors feel that they are in good hands. Dick Spierenburg expects that some companies will see Pure Village as a way of getting started at the imm cologne and will probably move to a different hall next year: “Yes, Pure Village can certainly function as a springboard. If a company wants to secure itself a place for the next year and plan a bigger stand of its own, it makes sense to change halls. But then other new companies will come to Pure Village. That way there’ll always be new participants.”
At Pure Village, change sets the agenda. New exhibitors, new collective cubes, new combinations of furniture, furnishing elements, accessories, supply systems, interior concepts, multimedia and textiles await trade visitors and interested consumers alike. The recipe for the success of Pure Village is based on exclusivity and design, diversity and density. Exhibition maker Dick Spierenburg will continue his fine adjustments to make Pure Village even more attractive and compact. But the underlying principle will remain unchanged. The success of the well-communicated supporting programme speaks in favour of an expanded sequel in 2012, and the “public facilities” of “The Square” and the surrounding eateries will be brought up-to-the-minute as well. There is nothing unalterable in Pure Village – no regular places, no hereditary leases, no real estate deals. Pure Village is urban life on a temporary basis, where it’s not just the tenants and neighbourhoods that change but the streets are laid out differently every year too. And so Pure Village will no doubt be presenting a totally new face again in 2012 as well.
The next imm cologne will take place from 16th – 22nd January 2012.
You can download the Pure Village application documents here.
You can download the Pure Village hall plan 2012 here.
07. April 2011
Categories: pure village
Tags: A.S. Création, accessories, application documents, Bensen, Burgbad, Club, Cologne, colours, Dephne Koz, design, DesignPost, Dick Spierenburg, DuPont, EOOS, Erco, floor coverings, Fritz Hansen, Furnism, Gandia Blasco, Grohe, Hall 3.2, hall plan, Harald Gründl, Hasenkopf, home entertainment, imm cologne 2012, Kaldewei, Klaus Kiefer, Küppersbusch, lighting, Loewe, Marco Velardi, Martin Leuthold, Matteograssi, Mauser, MGX, Mocoba, Patricia Urquiola, Philips, Pilat & Pilat, premium brands, pure village, Rasch, Siedle, String Furniture, Takaoka Kyoto, The Square, Ulrike Heuser-Greipl, Viccarbe, Volker Streckel, Vondom, Vorwerk, wallpapers, WLAN, Wogg, Zeus Noto, Zumtobel
