The first international design fair of the year, IMM Cologne welcomed over 100,000 visitors. Indesign’s Adele Troeger was there.
February 4th, 2009
With around 100,000 visitors, the first international design fair of the year, IMM Cologne proved that despite economic uncertainty, design is thriving. Indesign’s Adele Troeger was there.
One of the really interesting features of this year’s IMM was the presence of a host of Singapore design firms, creating outstanding work. Managed by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council, ‘A Singapore Showcase @ IMM Cologne’ presented the latest design to come out of the island nation.
Outstanding work from Air Division, Exit and Urban Foundry was on display, along with Outofstock – a company operating out of Singapore, Barcelona and Buenos Aires.
Pre-event interviews with Konstantin Grcic and Jehs + Laub provide insight into the character of German design – both from a historical context and in relation to current trends, preparing visitors for a good dose of German design when they arrived.
At the fair, 1057 exhibitors were present including leading European manufacturers, with products from Draenert, Glasitalia, E15, Plank and Ligne Roset taking out top honours from the Interior Innovation Awards 2009.
Student work was outstanding, with Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop taking out the prize for ‘A Restless Chairacter’ – an innovative design with the chair made of a number of pieces that fit together like Meccano, making the chair particularly flexible.
Also innovative was the Recycling Designpreis which awarded designers for creating products with all second-hand or discarded materials.
Another fascinating product with a history was a 12-metre table by Mario Botta for Riva 1920. Made of wood preserved 50,000 years ago in the glacial period by water and mud in New Zealand, the piece was resurrected to create a 3.8 tonne tabletop of amazing beauty.
There was plenty to see at IMM this year and, as always, too much to cover. But this bustling fair provides an encouraging start to the year of design.
Text by Adele Troeger
Hero Image: ’Room Art’ Signet Wohnmöbel GmbH, & Co. KG. Courtesy IMM.
Out of Stock ’winter arrives’
Out of Stock ’forest stool’
‘A Restless Chairacter’ by Pepe Heykoop
The Verwoben (Interwoven) shelf by Marco dos Santos Pina
Pulpo
Urban Foundry ’Droplet chair’
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
The workplace has changed – and it will continue to evolve. With dynamism at the heart of clients’ requirements, architects and designers at leading practices such as Elenberg Fraser are using and recommending Herman Miller’s OE1 products for the future workplace.
British architecture practice, McLaren. Excell champions emphatic design, adaptive reuse and design for longevity in the fourth short film to be released as part of On Design, an online series produced by VOLA.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Beauty meets performance in Bromic Heating’s outdoor heating solutions. In fact they make a space look – and feel – so good, you never want to leave it.
Brothers Mark and Jack are spearheading Fearon, designing objects that range between furniture, sculpture and everything in between. This is one up-and-coming Australian design label to keep an eye on.