imm cologne

“If you go to your nearest newspaper kiosk right now, you can get a great furniture catalogue for just 50 pfennig” – that was an advertising slogan the company used back in the 1970s. And it worked: 300,000 copies of the catalogue for the modular beech system of Flötotto were sold at newsstands as if they were magazines. The robust Profilsystem was thoroughly in tune with the times and quickly took up residence in German households.

Regardless of whether it was used in the living room or bedroom, home office or children’s room, thanks to its modular principle the wooden system could soon be found virtually anywhere in the house. Besides the typical shelves and chests of drawers – which are called containers – the Profilsystem also includes tables and desks, chairs and armchairs, beds and children’s furniture, as well as decorative elements ranging from interchangeable recessed handles in a choice of colours all the way to mirrors.

The contract segment also soon learned to appreciate the system’s merits, using it to furnish playschools, nursing homes and youth hostels, as well as conference rooms, open-plan offices and waiting rooms. Over the last 40 years, more than 5 million metres of wood have been processed to make the furniture.

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Who says modern everyday life and sensuousness have to be at odds with one another? The “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” installation by Doshi Levien at the imm cologne 2012 aims to furnish evidence to the contrary. In an installation that is visionary not just at architectural level but in creative terms as well, the design experiment is developing into a fascinating study on modern ways of living.

“‘Das Haus’ combines the best of some very different worlds. It could be located anywhere on the planet.” Designer Nipa Doshi is alluding to an encounter between modern architecture and a world of contemporary forms on the one hand and the traditionally colourful aesthetics of Asia, the chaotic-seeming building tradition of Indian or Far Eastern megacities and the open, inward-facing interior culture of Morocco on the other. According to the plans of London design team Doshi Levien, many of these elements will be brought together in their installation in such a way that something totally new emerges: “It combines unconditional modernity with a sensuous lifestyle,” says Jonathan Levien of the blueprint for the imm cologne’s new design format: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”. His wife Nipa Doshi adds: “That’s precisely why we designed ‘Das Haus’ this way – because it doesn’t exist in this form. Only parts of it do.” weiterlesen…

Anybody coming to the imm cologne in search of top international brands and high-end design is certain to find what he’s looking for – especially in Hall 11. The “pure” segment covers modern furnishing styles with premium appeal and is where top-class exhibitors showcase complete interior philosophies. Relevant complementary ranges such as carpets put the finishing touches to this variety. In the run-up to the event, the imm cologne reveals some of the highlights many of its exhibitors will be presenting at the fair.

Functionality is the most important requirement of all modern furniture. As a result, most furnishing items are getting smaller again, enabling all sorts of things to be done with them. Easily adjustable sofas that conjure up a bigger seating area in the blink of an eye, tables that can be extended with just a few easy moves when friends come round for dinner, flatscreens that can be made to disappear into the sideboard via remote control. And as technology gets smaller and smaller, even desks don’t need such a big work surface any more. These are just a few of the latest trends that have already been revealed by exhibitors. weiterlesen…

Most of the cubes are already standing, the structure that will be shaping Pure Village 2012 is already discernible. A big open space in the middle of Hall 3.2 is the only indication that there’s still something special in the offing. And this is exactly where the foundation stone for koelnmesse’s new design event “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” is to be laid. A few days before Christmas Eve, the imm cologne’s Creative Director Dick Spierenburg came by to see how things were progressing for himself and clarify the final details with the construction manager. weiterlesen…

The days when the bathroom was a separate space and spent its lonely existence in isolation from the rest of the home are long since gone. The bathroom has meanwhile become living space in its own right, a veritable wellness oasis – and thus an elementary component of modern architecture. Rather than ignoring the bathroom, interior decorators and architects are now incorporating it into their plans on an equal footing with the kitchen and living room. Bathroom furnishing concepts are becoming increasingly varied and individual: when it comes to our personal sense of well-being, we all have our own standards and expectations – which can vary considerably depending on our life stage and situation. There is a growing demand for consistent room concepts that go beyond the scope of individual products and pure functionality. weiterlesen…

Layouts are loosening up, architecture is becoming more open, various areas of the home – like the bathroom and bedroom – are growing together. But bedrooms themselves are still dominated by massive, overpowering wardrobes that stifle any hint of lightness. Holzmanufaktur is trying to counteract this with a clear design vocabulary and subtle contours.

Holzmanufaktur’s Plan B is still pretty big – between 200 and 400 cm wide and 220 or 240 cm high. weiterlesen…

How will we be furnishing our homes tomorrow? Will the bedroom still consist of a bed, bedside table and wardrobe, the office of a desk and filing shelves? And what will our furniture be like? Will we still have individual rooms at all, and always four walls? When it comes to furniture and interior design, being visionary is anything but easy.

And yet it is precisely these ideas about the future that ultimately spur the entire industry on to excel itself. When it comes to interior design, Koelnmesse has come up with a real sensation for the next imm cologne in January: its new “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” format.

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Contemporary Relaxation: the 405 PF and 406 PF Padded Armchairs by Stefan Diez Complement the Designer’s Successful Chair and Table Series for Thonet.

The use of bentwood for excellent seating comfort has always been a hallmark of Thonet’s seating furniture. Introduced three years ago, Stefan Diez’s 404 chair series has further developed this theme, using new wood processing techniques and building a bridge between tradition and contemporary interior design. Thonet has extended the successful 404 collection with two new and distinctive designs: the 405 PF and the 406 PF padded armchairs, furniture that provides relaxing seating comfort for the home as well as for hotels, restaurants and bars. weiterlesen…

Dick Spierenburg is Creative Director of the imm cologne’s new design highlight: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”. For the first installation, he has invited London design studio Doshi Levien to build a sort of turnkey vision of what living in one’s own four walls can be like in the midst of the Pure Village hall.

Which interior design trends do you think will dominate the next few years?
A lot of developments are apparent right now, but I think trying to infer trends from them is going a bit too far. The complexity of the developments made it difficult to focus on the four trends we depicted in the annual Trend Book. There are always several directions that remain constant as well: quieter ones that aim for simplicity and livelier ones that use lots of colour and materials. That won’t ever change, because there are so many different people out there, so many different clients and interior designers. But it isn’t possible to name totally new and completely different trends every year.

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“Let me introduce myself. My name is Jan Müller, I’m 18 years old and live in Germany’s commonest teen bedroom.” That, at least, is how Jan’s spiritual mother Karen Heumann sees it. Heumann, who is Chief Strategy Officer at Hamburg advertising agency Jung von Matt, created the fictitious Müller family seven years ago: father Thomas (43), mother Claudia (40) and son Alexander (13 at the time), who is now called Jan and is 18 years old. The teen bedroom is the fourth room Jung von Matt has created as a location for lively target group research. It all started with Germany’s commonest living room, which is still on display at Jung von Matt’s premises as a socio-demographic study. It was followed by living rooms at the agency’s branches in Vienna and Zurich. Each of the interior designs reflected the typical German furnishing style at the time. weiterlesen…