Whether it’s a vase, glass collection, ceramic tile, luminaire, car tyre, sofa or wash basin – her creations are quite simply beautiful – and sensuous. And she has the looks to match. In the course of the interview, however, multi-award winning product and interior designer Defne Koz turns out to be not just charming and sensitive but tough and uncompromising as well – especially when it comes to quality issues in design. She thinks today’s design scene is lacking in diligent research, serious design, passion and courageous visions for the future. Following her participation in this year’s Trendboard Workshop for the imm cologne, she joined us in a café on the banks of the Rhine for an extensive interview about trends and the future of interior design, the power of design traditions and the hierarchy of visions.
The design philosophy of the Turkish-born product designer who currently lives in the USA was shaped by none other than Ettore Sottsass – it was in his studio that she completed her training. With branch studios in Milan, Istanbul and her new home town of Chicago, she is making her quiet but enduring mark on a wide range of sectors, from jewellery design all the way to architectural projects. She designs furniture for Mobileffe, Liv’it and MPD, luminaires for Foscarini and Leucos, decorative objects, household goods and accessories for Alessi, Egizia, Aski, Cappellini, Guzzini, WMF or Authentics, impressive tile collections for VitrA and bathroom items for Rapsel-Nito and Merato.
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Harald Gründl (EOOS), member of the imm cologne Trendboard. (Foto: Koelnmesse)
Born in 1967 in Vienna, Austria, Harald Gründl studied industrial design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and holds a PhD in philosophy. In 1995 he set up the design agency EOOS together with Martin Bergmann and Gernot Bohmann. EOOS has become a leading studio for furniture design, brand spaces and design research with clients including Alessi, Armani, Bulthaup, Dedon, Duravit, Matteo Grassi, Walter Knoll and Zumtobel.
Harald Gründl, member of the imm cologne Trendboard, has chaired the Institute of Design Research Vienna since 2008 and is a partner at EOOS design, where he heads the studio‘s research activities.
What was the most interesting thing about the imm cologne Trendboard Workshop for you?
I found it very interesting to see that there are a lot of similarities in the way the various members of the Trendboard perceive the design sector, and that we’d all noticed similar phenomena. Meeting new people is always the most interesting thing!
The Trend Book shows what’s happening in design right now and what motivates the people who make use of this design offering. In your opinion, where are the strongest influences on product and interior design coming from?
As far as I’m concerned, the sustainability debate is the most important influence on design right now. How can we react to this development intelligently, and how does that affect the trends of the future? We discussed this aspect in relation to all four Interior Trends and were able to identify the different ways it’s manifesting itself.
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Patricia Urquiola, member of the imm cologne Trend Board. (photo: Koelnmesse)
Patricia Urquiola is a member of the imm cologne Trend Board and was born in Oviedo, Spain and now lives and works in Milan. She attended the faculty of architecture at Madrid Polytechnic and Milan Polytechnic, from which she graduated in 1989 having completed her thesis with Achille Castiglioni.
In 2001 she opened her own studio, working on product design, architecture, installations and concept creation. In 2006 Koelnmesse invited Patricia Urquiola to build one of the ideal houses for imm cologne. Urquiola‘s clients include, among others, Agape, Alessi, Artelano, Axor, B&B Italia, Bisazza, BMW, Bosa, De Padova, Driade, Salvatore Ferragamo, Flos, Foscarini, Kartell, Kvadrat, MDF Italia, Molteni, Moroso and Panasonic.
During the imm cologne’s Trendboard workshop, you didn’t just name four of the most influential tendencies in interior design right now, you discussed other trends in the design scene as well. How much of it do you think is really important?
I think there is a new trend regarding the idea of what is innovative. Innovation was always primarily connected with the idea of industrial progress, i.e. with a more traditional idea. More and more, however, the term innovation is coming to be associated with values like sustainability and with what people really see as innovative – for instance if something is surprisingly intelligent or opens up new usage possibilities. People are paying more attention to how something is done and why it is done. More importance is being attached to the concept.
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Martin Leuthold, member of the imm cologne Trend Board. (photo: Koelnmesse)
Martin Leuthold was born in 1952 in Hegi-Winden, Switzerland. He completed an apprenticeship as an embroidery designer in his youth. Since 1973, he has been employed as a textile designer at Jakob Schlaepfer in St. Gallen (Switzerland), a company that makes innovative textiles for the fashion industry and interior decoration.
Martin Leuthold has held a management role at Jakob Schlaepfer since 1989 and, as Art Director, heads the creative division. In this function, he was and is involved in projects including the development of numerous new textile design processes and the laser and inkjet processes for printing on textiles.
What was the most interesting about the imm cologne Trendboard Workshop for you?
The various presentations by the different personalities who got together for the workshop were very interesting in themselves. And it was very rewarding to hear the various opinions and interpretations of the new trends. Another important aspect of this meeting was that we all want to safeguard our future.
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Defne Koz, member of the imm cologne 2011 trendboard. (photo: Koelnmesse)
What was the most interesting thing about the imm cologne Trendboard Workshop for you?
It’s always interesting – and important – to reflect on what we do and share our ideas about design. I like the fact that the Trendboard initiative is able to structure our collective thoughts into something that could be useful and helpful to other designers.
The Trend Book shows what’s happening in design right now and what motivates the people who make use of this design offering. In your opinion, where are the strongest influences on product and interior design coming from?
For a designer, there are always multiple influences. Personally I’m curious about art and architecture, but I always centre my inspiration around understanding people, how they live, how their behaviour is changing. That’s the root of new aesthetics.
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At the beginning of June, the designers Patricia Urquiola (Milan) and Defne Koz (Chicago/Milan/Ankara) met up with the designer Harald Gründl (EOOS, Vienna), the textile designer Martin Leuthold (Jakob Schlaepfer, St. Gallen) and the editor Marco Velardi (apartamento, Milan/Barcelona) for a two-day imm cologne Trend Board workshop in Cologne. Here they filtered out four of the most important trends in furniture and interior design – trends that represent the different levels of style and lifestyle. Once again this year, these four interior trends are summed up in a trend book called Interior Trends 2011, complete with informative names, exemplary products and lavishly photographed settings.
The four interior trends will take on shape for the public at imm cologne in January 2011 in the form of installations. These will be presented by the members of the Trend Board in four exhibition cubes that will be part of the still relatively new trade fair format Pure Village.
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Patricia Urquiola, member of the imm cologne 2011 trend board. (photo: E15)
“Our task was to take a look at the various forms in which the trends are expressed,” says the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola concerning the work of the imm cologne 2011 Trend Board. She considers this a pioneering development. “We have to realize that today there are completely different perspectives on what people consider innovative,” she says. “Sometimes a new interpretation of something old or a particularly simple and intelligent production method is much more innovative than a new material or an innovative technology. The concept of innovation is changing. In my opinion, it’s closely connected with people’s needs and with the way we use objects.”
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What’s really new about the interior trends for 2011? What are the hidden similarities between the increasing number of diverging trends and new products? And what are the differences? What motivates designers? What do consumers find appealing about the designs?
The Trend Board of imm cologne, which this year is full of new faces, has the job of analysing current trends in the world of interior design and projecting them into the future. This year its discussion topics included phenomena such as individualization, sustainability, developments in style, materials, colours and shapes.
weiterlesen…
Whether it’s a vase, glass collection, ceramic tile, luminaire, car tyre, sofa or wash basin – her creations are quite simply beautiful – and sensuous. And she has the looks to match. In the course of the interview, however, multi-award winning product and interior designer Defne Koz turns out to be not just charming and sensitive but tough and uncompromising as well – especially when it comes to quality issues in design. She thinks today’s design scene is lacking in diligent research, serious design, passion and courageous visions for the future. Following her participation in this year’s Trendboard Workshop for the imm cologne, she joined us in a café on the banks of the Rhine for an extensive interview about trends and the future of interior design, the power of design traditions and the hierarchy of visions.
