Well, today was always set to be a big one and despite the ominous clouds forming over Cologne, the atmosphere inside was electric.

Today was the first day of imm for trade and industry and it was a big one.

I headed straight for the press conference for the Interior Trends 2011: imm cologne’s yearly trendbook…

Interior Trends 2011

In the middle of the Pure Village hall at imm cologne sits an exhibition of design trends put together by 4 of the 5 members of the 2011 Interior Trends Board – a group of designers and one journalist chosen six months ago to prepare the imm cologne Interior Trends report.

This morning I was lucky enough to hear Patricia Urquoila, Harald Gündl, Martin Leuthold, Marco Velardi (apartamento magazine) and Marco Susani (husband and partner of DefneKoz), all speak about their part in the exhibition.

Patricia Urquoila’s ‘Emotional Austerity’ is a collection of design pieces from times gone by and modern pieces from some of the world’s best designers (including Urquoila herself of course).

Her belief is that we are living in a time when we can borrow selectively from the past and combine with modern design to create simple spaces and better solutions.

Harald Gründl, on the other hand, feels there is a realisation that we can no longer be just consumers, and that we must all become both producers and consumers. He used his space to bring light to environmental impact and our ability to give back – showing different ways we can produce for ourselves to reduce our impact.

Textile designer Martin Leuthold’s works look at ‘Transforming Perspectives’, with his sequinned wall murals asking us to look at ourselves post-GFC, to look for the “archaic”, “animalistic” and purely magical.

DefneKoz has used the chair designs of others to point out our ‘Surprising Empathy’ towards new materials, that designers and manufacturers are not afraid that new will be soulless.

Of course, this exhibition is simply a glimpse of the Trend Board’s more detailed trends for the year, which you can buy here.

Tomorrow I’ll bring you my favourites from the largest of the halls – Pure – and a review of the Living Kitchen exhibition.