• New format at imm cologne furnishing fair as a stage for interior design ideas
• Trade fair highlight for public and design scene in Pure Village
• London design studio Doshi Levien to create “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” 2012
imm cologne announced that starting in 2012, the international interior design fair 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.
“With ‘Das Haus – Interiors on Stage’, the imm cologne is resuming the tradition of the Ideal Houses, although without adopting their rather abstract dimension,” explains Dick Spierenburg, under whose leadership Koelnmesse’s internal creative team is developing and implementing the project. Instead, the imm cologne is very deliberately seeking to connect with real conditions, thus building a bridge between the industry’s furnishing products and the progressive creative drive of the international design elite. For the creatives have to design “their” home under relatively narrowly defined architectural conditions, making use of furnishing elements that are actually available – mainly their own furniture and designs. To complete their design, they can choose from the spectrum of products provided by the ranges of goods on show at the imm cologne– a spectrum which today represents all the segments relevant to interior design, from carpets and kitchens, textiles and beds, bathrooms and lighting, all the way to colour systems.
It’s the human measure that counts
The designer’s talent stands for the ambitious aspirations and visionary nature of the project, the implementation by Koelnmesse for its accessible presentation to the public. Visitors will be presented with the scenography of a home – not a sleek and glossy “designer home”, but the home of a designer. The kind of personal living situation a designer would dream about – for himself, for one night, for a lifetime, for the future. A game between improvisation and perfection, between intimacy and prestige, between indoors and outside.
Besides picking up on current interior design trends, the project also addresses the public’s aspirations and social change. Ultimately, anybody interested in the art and culture of interior design – whether for private or professional reasons – has an ideal of his perfect home. But what does it look like? How can the dual function of one’s own four walls – as both a prestigious interior and an intimate place of retreat – be resolved on an individual basis? How can the aspects of trend-savvy, timelessly classic and individual living be reconciled? And what does the interior say about one’s own character? “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” provides the ideal platform by providing prominent designers with an opportunity to experiment, a chance to formulate a creative statement on modern interior culture using up-to-the-minute products.
Doshi Levien set up home at the imm cologne
Koelnmesse has invited Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien from London to design “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” as guests of honour. “We are delighted to have found such a progressive and forward-looking studio as Doshi Levien, who are not just part of the scene’s avant-garde but, thanks to their many product developments, also cover a wide spectrum and can genuinely point the way ahead,” says a pleased Dick Spierenburg. The London design team is famous for its original designs for major players like Moroso, Authentics or Cappellini, but also for its affinity with interaction design and other sectors of industry. The Anglo-Indian husband and wife team takes a hybrid approach to design that allows them to combine various cultures, industries, technologies and craft techniques. “It will be interesting to see what unconventional way they choose for combining furnishing objects and elements from other sectors into something unique in “Das Haus”. They reconcile many worlds. That initself is one reason why they are so well suited to our new project, as well as to Pure Village,” says Spierenburg in explanation of Koelnmesse’s decision to invite Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien to design the first “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” installation.
Further information:
www.imm-cologne.de
www.purevillage.de
www.doshilevien.com
imm cologne + LivingInteriors
16 to 22 January 2012
9:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm
Public days: 20 to 22 January 2012