imm cologne news

The 2010 year in furniture begins on January19 at imm cologne with an explosion of trends, new products and inspirational exhibition design all centred around the theme of living and interior design.

Here, you are directly in the centre of a thriving market, here, business is made. There are many good reasons why you should be there, when Cologne is again home to all things design, trends and business.

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The Trendboard has been talking about the end of design icons. What does that mean for interior design?
Yes, that’s something we discussed, but I don’t think it’s as absolute as that. In my opinion, there will always be iconic design. Because whether or not an object has cult character depends on the design itself and not on whether it’s marketed using that particular label. Many things are designed without a single thought being given to their symbolism, but they manage to capture consumers’ imagination at a certain moment in time all the same, so they come to represent a certain zeitgeist. What has really changed is people’s need to fill their homes with designer items as if they were toy chests. That attitude has gone slightly out of fashion.

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Johanna Grawunder, member of the imm cologne trendboard, photo: Koelnmesse; Lutz Sternstein

Johanna Grawunder isn’t easy to pin down. She builds houses, designs interiors and creates classic industrial products for clients like Boffi, Flos, B&B or WMF. But above all, she creates exclusive furniture and lighting for galleries in Europe and the USA, often integrating LEDs and seemingly dematerialising the forms.

For her, light is an important medium for designing the interior as part of the whole. Nor does lighting always have to be a stand-alone item, believes Johanna Grawunder. Integrated into furniture, it’s simply there – and takes on a whole new quality.

The architect from California began her career in Ettore Sottsass’ Milan studio in 1985 and was involved with some of his most prestigious architecture and interior design projects.

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Walter Knoll (exhibitor at imm cologne 2010, 19.-24.01.2010), one of Germany’s oldest manufacturers of upholstered furniture, cultivates a close partnership with designers and architects – an approach that is key to the company’s success. “New products evolve out of thorough communication, immersing yourself in processes and clarifying ideas. We seek out gaps together, looking for the right opening for something that has never been done before,” says CEO Markus Benz.

Benz, head of the Herrenberg-based company since 1993, sets great store by communication. It is a recurring theme that is also reflected in the company’s products. Take the Ameo lounge chairs by Austrian design team EOOS, for instance: they are ideal for relaxing with friends and putting the world to rights. The island-like swivel chairs can be turned to face one another for a conversation or away from the crowd for a moment of reflection, open to new perspectives. Or Living Landscape – another EOOS design. The sides and back turn with the seat and change their position.

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Interior designer Kirsten Antje Hoppert and product designer Steffen Kroll have been in business as Studio Vertijet since 1998. Both studied at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. They define the spectrum of their work as ranging from dessert spoons all the way to architecture.

It was their shared ideals and their enthusiasm for “beautiful things with an equally high functional value” that brought them together in the present constellation. “If our products manage to sensitise people, we would have achieved one of our ideals …” they say. This conviction and passion serve as the starting point for their ideas. “Dreaming” and “fanciful ideas of life” are an important part of the product development process – a method they like to describe as “planned intuition”.

According to the duo‘s philosophy, mankind is heading for the ground again – but this time with a few layers of padding between us and the carpet. Those in search of relaxation, say Kirsten Antje Hoppert and Steffen Kroll, cannot expect a solution to their problems either from comfortable office chairs or classic sofas – the fundamental ergonomics of the sitting positions are the same.

We stand up from sitting down, only to go and sit down again. In an attempt to get us moving, Cor‘s “Lava” model therefore introduces new ergonomics for recumbent positions – the first sofa on the planet not primarily intended for sitting on. Kirsten Antje Hoppert and Steffen Kroll live and work together in Halle/Saale, Germany.

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What are the key trends influencing furniture design this year? We asked designers, manufacturers, retailers and journalists for their assessments and observations.

Arik Lévy, Designer, Paris:

This last one was an interesting period for us all. Many things have changed in people’s eyes, minds and in their way of thinking. For me personally – and confirmed by the fair and some of the products shown – trends are or can become a tool – a tool to use and to understand what we see. Trends change so fast that maybe it is not the trend itself that is important but the way and reasons it changes.

I think the current trend is and will be to get ones identity back, to be honest and to be devoted to ones original ideas. Believe in what you do and concentrate your vision towards the future, towards quality and efficiency, outstanding solutions to real every day problems from the end user to the supply chain, delivery and storage.

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Five months before the next event all indications are pointing to a successful imm cologne 2010. The current registration status looks good despite the difficult situation in the industry. “We are currently assuming that we will again have around 1,000 exhibitors from over 45 countries. It’s time to think ahead, and for me that means stating my commitment to the leading trade fair. Germany needs a strong leading trade fair and that is imm cologne,” says Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse.

In the coming years imm cologne is set to be Europe’s most cutting-edge furnishings and interior design trade fair. By fulfilling all market-oriented criteria, it is offering optimum prerequisites for business and networking on the international scale. In the modern design area – halls 10, 11 and 3 – visitors will be presented with a show of ideas for global design developments in a compact form. Over 300 companies will have stands there, including such brands as COR, interlübke, Ligne Roset, Walter Knoll, Domaniecki, de Sede, Kettnaker, Fraubrunnen, girsberger, Team 7, Riva, and Gervasoni, all with strong emotional appeal. “We are firmly convinced that in the coming weeks additional registrations will come from renowned companies, particularly from Italy,” says Udo Traeger, Head of the Furniture, Interior Design and Textiles division at Koelnmesse.

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Konstantin Grcic (*1965) trained as a cabinetmaker at the John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Dorset (1985 to 1987) before studying furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London.

After a year as an assistant to Jasper Morrison, he founded his own firm in Munich in 1991: “Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design”. The 90s saw the start of his success with laundry baskets and other plastic items for Authentics; then came style icons such as the Mayday lamp for Flos (1999), the swaying shelving unit Es for Nils Holger Moormann (1999), the Chaos armchair for ClassiCon (2001) and the Osorom seating element for Moroso (2002). The chair_ONE die-cast aluminium chair with a conical concrete foot (Magis, 2004) was actually intended for public spaces but went on to sell in its thousands as a sculptural lattice structure with seating function for the private loft. It was followed by the Miura bar stool (Plank, 2005).

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Stefan Heiliger, born in Berlin in 1941, studied at Ulm School of Design and under Wilhelm Wagenfeld in Stuttgart. From 1964 to 1977, he worked for Mercedes-Benz as a designer. One of the most important designs of this period was the 207 D for Mercedes, a van that was produced by the millions.

In a 2007 retrospective of the designer‘s work, Frankfurt Museum of Applied Art showcased his Relax furniture from the time after his years as a car designer. As a professor at Ulm School of Design and owner of a design studio, Stefan Heiliger specialised in furniture design. He has received numerous awards for his chair, armchair and sofa designs for manufacturers like Bonaldo, WK Möbel or Ruf Betten.

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ID_OS is a development company for industrial and public design based in Frankfurt am Main. Since 1996, proprietor Olaf Schroeder (*1966) has been developing design concepts and solutions in the fields of product, furniture, system and exhibition design, as well as design projects for public spaces.

Besides the household products he has worked on for manufacturers Hailo, Leifheit and Rowenta, Olaf Schroeder has also developed and designed exhibitions and pavilion architectures. In 2003, Olaf Schroeder was awarded the state of Hesse’s special environmental award for his development work in connection with a solar-powered boat project. From 1998 until 2002, he was a lecturer at Offenbach University of Art and Design.

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