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16. - 22.01.2012

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Foundation stone laid in Pure Village: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” is under construction

(Foto: FAR Consulting)

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. read more…

“Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”: visionary design at imm cologne 2012 by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien

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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D3 Contest: commited to the promotion of young designers from all over the world


Mid-January is nearly here again. Furniture manufacturers, designers and interior designers will once again be turning the halls of the imm cologne into a huge exhibition area. The D3 Talents design platform has long ceased to be an “inside tip” and is now widely regarded as a “must” for anyone with an interest in design. For at the D3 talent forum, visitors can discover products that are still waiting for their future: experimental designs, original creations and clever new construction principles developed by the most promising newcomers the design scene has to offer.

“With D3, we deliberately offer young designers a unique opportunity to present themselves to international experts, the media and companies,” says Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse. “Our commitment goes down well with the international design scene too. At the end of the day, it’s precisely this encounter between experimental design and the market-driven offerings of the furniture industry, the contrast between the commercial and the experimental, that makes the imm cologne so attractive to so many people,” adds the imm cologne’s Creative Director Dick Spierenburg.

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Pure Village: innovative design summit and focal point for unique kind of interior design presentation

First-class design and a successfully interwoven mix of innovative brand and product presentations in an interdisciplinary arrangement – that’s what the imm cologne‘s Pure Village exhibition stands for. Next year it will be the meeting point for more than 50 interior design brands.

Firms like Thonet, Gandia Blasco, Mocoba or E15 will rub shoulders with bathroom furnishers like Kaldewei, Burgbad and Grohe, textile brands like Creation Baumann, floor specialists like Parador and Carpet Concept and home entertainment pioneers like Loewe. Inspiration is guaranteed – en masse!

With Pure Village, imm cologne art director Dick Spierenburg has created a place for design and interior visions. Pure Village is different because, instead of unfurling a multitude of huge brand worlds hidden behind high walls, it presents the best ideas and visions from both big names and smaller labels in the intimacy of a village-like setting. “Our aim is to convey lots of impressions, lots of different approaches, lots of discussions and lots of juxtapositions between various areas of the home as well as between different products and thus generate a suspenseful atmosphere for visitors,” says the art director of his concept.

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Interior design trends and design highlights at imm cologne 2012: an interview with Dick Spierenburg

„Wir werden auf der imm cologne 2012 einen Einrichtungsstil und Produkte sehen, die ihrer Zeit weit voraus sind.“ (Dick Spierenburg, Creative Director Pure Village)

“We’ll be seeing a furnishing style and products that are way ahead of their time.” (Dick Spierenburg, Creative Director Pure Village)

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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London design studio Doshi Levien to create imm cologne highlight “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” 2012

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien. (Photo: Doshi Levien)

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien. (Photo: Doshi Levien)

Starting in 2012, the international interior design fair imm cologne will again be hosting a major design event: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”. The project focuses on the design of an artificial living situation within the trade fair – public and yet very personal living space designed by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien. The London-based design team will be kicking off the new format in January 2012.

“Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” will show a structure created entirely in accordance with the guest designer’s ideas – architectural elements, interior and outdoor space – as well as arrangements of furniture and furnishing elements for an individually configured interior design. In the middle of the Pure Village hall, the trade fair will erect an approx. 180 m² platform to serve as an open stage for the project. “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” is thus both a designer portrait and a visionary blueprint, an example of how it is possible to create a world of one’s own that becomes an expression of one’s own personality.

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Pure Village – also in 2012 an innovative design platform

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.

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imm cologne launches successful offensive with Pure Village

To go by the name, it should have been a quiet, idyllic little place amidst the hustle and bustle of the fair – but it wasn’t. There was simply too much going on. Instead, Pure Village was more like a dimly lit piazza in the evening, when travellers from all over the world throng the streets to enjoy a little inspiring window shopping or linger over an espresso on the steps in the middle of the square. And yet it wasn’t so much the visitors that were unfamiliar as the surroundings, which countered the conventional fair architecture of light-flooded, hermetically sealed stands strung along perfectly straight aisles with their own very individual, intimate brand of aesthetics and an open structure.

For many visitors, the presentation format and wide range of different categories was totally unaccustomed: Pure Village was intended to be disconcerting and change the way we see things. And the concept did just that. The effect that koelnmesse and exhibition designer Dick Spierenburg had hoped for turned out to be a positive surprise for exhibitors and the public alike. By focusing on just a few highlights in an exclusive setting, the show managed to present a concentration of sometimes fascinating interior design ideas with a density reminiscent of an art gallery. In addition, the absence of the usual pigeonholes shone the spotlight on the creative quality of the exhibits as the decisive connecting link. And the way products were staged in the context of vastly different interior design solutions gave people plenty to talk about beyond the scope of the usual trade fair routine, allowing exhibitors to make totally new contacts with interesting target groups. read more…

imm cologne 2010 final report: about 100,000 visitors and a plus in exhibitors

The imm cologne ended on Sunday, 24th January 2010 with a positive closing balance. Despite being shortened by a day, the fair managed to equal the previous year’s result with around 100,000 visitors. The number of exhibitors even slightly exceeded last year’s level. From Koelnmesse’s perspective, the high expectations of the imm cologne as one of the most important fairs for the international furniture and interior design sector have thus been met.

“The exhibitors have used their innovativeness to brave the crisis and been rewarded by doing good business,” says Koelnmesse’s CEO Gerald Böse. “Cologne is the business forum for the industry,” concludes the head of the trade fair company. The positive mood that prevailed in the halls for the entire duration of the fair was also emphasised by Dirk-Uwe Klaas: “This was by far the most successful furniture show for years. In the midst of the crisis, trade visitors and end consumers alike have given us impressive confirmation that the imm cologne has regained its former strength,” says the chief executive of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (Verband der Deutschen Möbelindustrie, VDM). As announced last Friday, Koelnmesse and the VDM as non-material sponsor of the imm cologne have extended their contract long-term to continue this successful collaboration beyond the scope of the imm cologne 2010.

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Pure Village – A Community for Design

Construction work in major cities is by no means unusual. Roads are repaired, squares remodelled and new apartment blocks erected. It’s no different in Cologne. But even though the cathedral city isn’t exactly lacking in curiosities, building an entire village in its midst certainly qualifies as a special event.

And yet the construction noise doesn’t bother a single resident; nor does the traffic have to be diverted. Because Pure Village, the township that will be built here in just a few weeks, will be constructed in the middle of Cologne Exhibition Centre, beneath the roof of Hall 3. Which explains why no doors will be hung and the big windows will remain unglazed – nobody is planning to move in permanently. On the other hand, there’s no need for visitors to this idyllic spot to do without a street café, ample entertainment, the services of a “doctor” or childcare facilities. Pure Village is the artificial but far from virtual venue where the design-savvy world will be gathering from 19th to 24th January 2010.

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