Visionary Design at Imm Cologne 2012: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”

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. “Das Haus” is the embodiment of a very individual approach in which architectural elements, interior and outdoor spaces as well as arrangements of furniture and furnishing elements merge to create a subjectively configured interior design. And with its choice of designers for the premiere of this innovative project, Koelnmesse has hit the bull’s-eye first time. London designer duo Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien will be giving our conventional ideas about living a thorough shake-up – not just in terms of aesthetics but content-wise as well. “And yet the solutions they come up with are nevertheless thoroughly realistic and surprisingly inviting,” reveals Markus Majerus, Press Officer at Koelnmesse and contact person for the trade fairs imm cologne, LivingInteriors, LivingKitchen and interzum. “In January 2011, LivingKitchen gave us a very vivid demonstration of how the boundaries between cooking, dining and living are increasingly disappearing. Live-in kitchen concepts are dominating the kitchen furniture industry. Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien prove that the possibilities in this respect are far from exhausted.” “We bring different living areas together in every part of the house and redefine them in terms of what they can be or how they can be used,” says the designer team of studio Doshi Levien. The brief Koelnmesse gave them for “Das Haus” was to create an artificial living situation in accordance with their own very personal wishes. The couple interpret this as an object within a socio-economic neighbourhood, for the house will be located in the centre of Hall 3.2 in the “Pure Village” segment. It is an extremely individual home that the two of them will be building in the midst of the imm cologne: based on their own plans and ideas, with their own furniture, their own bathroom, their favourite pieces from other brands and prototypes from their own studio. As to how much transparency they will permit and how much intimacy they will create, the couple aren’t giving any details away prior to the event. The young design team is known for its original work for major names like Moroso, Authentics, or Cappellini. Doshi and Levien also bring together various cultures, industries, technologies and craft techniques. “We are delighted to have found such a progressive and forward-looking studio for ‘Das Haus’. Doshi Levien aren’t just part of the scene’s avant-garde; thanks to their many product developments, they also cover a wide spectrum and can genuinely point the way ahead,” says a pleased Dick Spierenburg, under whose direction Koelnmesse’s internal creative team developed and implemented the new concept. “Doshi Levien stands for an affinity with interaction design and pursues a hybrid design approach.” imm cologne + LivingInteriors 16th – 22nd January 2012 9.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. Public Days: 20th – 22nd January 2012