The IMM Cologne 2015 “Das Haus” installation, Chinese architects Neri & Hu interpretation saw them collaborate with Danish flooring brand Dinesen to create an elevated winding walkway that took visitors on a tour of interiors filled with mid-century design classics as well as a selection of new prototypes fresh from the Shanghai-based studio’s factory floor.
The architectural composition of “Das Haus” 2015 is compact and urbane: five tall rooms, closed on all sides, create an exciting ensemble around a large interior courtyard, conceived as a semi-public living space. Through this compressed architecture winds a bridge, its path zig-zagging through and over “Das Haus”, intersecting the rooms at different points, breaking through walls, swerving over dining tables and granting the visitor precisely calculated insights into the installations of living space.
Green is here to stay in 2015, lots of green as a colour in its various hues on home textiles, furniture and accessories. Many jungle prints on textiles and upholstery, many booths have been styled with plants abound.
Natural materials continue to convince in 2015. Lots of wood furniture was presented and the focus on natural materials is also interpreted in various material combinations like wood and leather.
Imm cologne is the world’s leading platform for new ideas, for innovations and trends and for young, creative, new design. This is where business momentum for the entire industry is generated and trending topics for the coming months take shape.
Innovation and trends will be presented not just at the exhibitors’ stands but also showcased at a series of exciting and inspiring events. One of the most spectacular is sure to be “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”, in which life in the house of the future is imagined, designed and realised by a renowned international designer.
Imm provides comprehensive, concise and clearly structured overview of the international world of interior design. From living rooms to bathrooms, from entry-level to high-end. With these changes, exhibitors will be able to generate high-quality contacts among their target groups and inform visitors efficiently.
Cologne is also an opportunity to present new tools dedicated to retail entrepreneurs, including the new retail gallery concept, an innovative in-store communicationand the 3D configurator. The new retail concept is one of the cornerstones of the Partnership Program Editions and focuses on the modularity of the exhibition, which allows you to adapt the format to the real needs of space and business.
The emerging trends and conceptual developments showcased here have a palpable influence on the design market across the world. imm cologne is increasingly establishing itself as an international platform for both business and cutting-edge design – a rare and highly attractive combination that is set to be highly influential in the long run.
Exhibitors will be offered the opportunity for product and market tests on the final consumer. The imm cologne is considered as an indispensable communication forum, an important impetus driver and creative center of ideas. Anyone who exhibits here reaches the decision-makers of the global furniture scene.
Highlights
The inside of “Das Haus” reveals itself to be far more homely than the outside. That’s not just thanks to the wooden flooring sponsored by Dinesen and the tiles from Mutina. The sophisticated colour concept from NSC Colour also contributes. Neri&Hu specified a colour palette of muted shades from this palette, inspired by the traditional Shanghai lanes (nongtangs), by houses overgrown with ivy, red painted doors and crumbling plaster walls.
Each of the five rooms represents not just a statement about the history of our living culture but also a suggestion for potential uses such a room holds, if we allow ourselves to think beyond living conventions. The structure of the closed-in rooms presents our traditional concept of living as “cage-like enclosures” the result of which is that our homes are represented as a place of refuge but also as a cage for our belongings and our rituals of living.
The pattern of dedications, colour schemes and quotations is repeated in the other four rooms: in the green “Room for Eating”, devoted to the skilled kitchen chef; in the glowing dark red “Room for Bathing”, dedicated to lovers; in the exhilarating yellow study designed for the poet, entitled “Room for Reading” and in the light grey “Room for Living” wherein Walter Benjamin’s thesis on the possible disengagement of art from ritual due to the former’s reproducibility is quoted.
“Das Haus” does not just present a whole range of design classics but also actually a number of products and exclusive new products from Neri&Hu. There is the Jian sofa from Gandia Blasco, for example, or the two new carpets called Blur and Street from Nanimarquina. The new luminaires series from Parachilna is reminiscent of Chinese lanterns and for the bathroom, Neri&Hu designed a Communal Tub for the studio’s own label, linking in the idea of the Asian bathing tradition and advocating the idea of bathing as a communal experience.
An entire collection, conceived for De La Espada, develops Neri & Hu’s idea further – that certain furniture could support communal experiences: Communal Stool, Table and Bench in their puristic design seem made for the most natural and ancient of communal rituals – Eating. The Communal Table also seizes on the tradition of the “Lazy Susan” – a rotating tray positioned in the centre of the table for holding serving bowls, very common in China.
As well as the bed Single and a range of decorative candlesticks (both for Neri & Hu), the Shanghai studio also presents another furniture highlight in “Das Haus”: the new Sedan Chair for Classicon, which updates the successful Lounge Chair of 2013 into a light, elegant and comfortable chair, while maintaining its materiality – an option particularly suitable for use at the table and as well as in the contract sector.
Rebranded as ’Pure Talents’, IMM’s annual showcase of young designers was moved to the roomier environs of the Messe’s Hall 1 where we spotted plenty of new names as well as some more familiar faces who were showing as part of a collective exhibition titled ’ The Journey’.
Winners of Best Denim 2015 Wallpaper* Design Award Matteo Fogale and Laetitia de Allegri showcased their ’Ish’ furniture collection made using marble-like materials created from post-industrial denim and cotton scrap; while recipient of our Best Space Race award, Elisa Strozyk, presented her series of swirling liquid-glazed ceramic tables that resemble far away planets.
Of the graduates showing as part of der Universität der Künste’s presentation, Friederike Delius caught our eye with her ’Foldwork’ drying rack. Part of a project that set out to elevate the everyday products more often associated with domestic drudgery, the wall-mounted rack, crafted in brass, folds away flat against the wall, saving space and doubling as a graphic artwork when not in use.
Exhibition Hall
Koelnmesse – Global Competence in Furniture, Interiors and Design: Koelnmesse is the world’s top trade fair organiser for the areas of furnishing, living and lifestyle. At the trade fair hub of Cologne, the leading international fair imm cologne as well as the trade fair formats of LivingKitchen, ORGATEC, spoga+gafa, interzum and Kind + Jugend rank among the internationally renowned and established industry meeting places. These fairs comprehensively represent the upholstered and case furniture segment, the kitchen industry, the office furniture sector and outdoor living as well as the innovations of the furniture supply industry.
Over the last few years, Koelnmesse has specifically added international fairs in the most important fastexpanding markets to its portfolio. These include idd Shanghai, interzum guangzhou in Guangzhou and Pueri Expo in Sao Paulo. With ambista, the online portal for the interiors business, Koelnmesse offers direct access to products, contacts, expertise and events relevant to the industry all year round.