Cologne, January, 14-20, 2013
During the imm cologne the Museum for Applied Arts and Design Cologne – the so called MAKK – has this year a very special program. The special exhibition ” Von Aalto bis Zumthor” shows exclusive furniture, designed by architects, from the past 100 years. At the design talk „Design’s two Ways“ designers from Italy and Germany discus about the different approach to design.
No architecture, no interiors: time and time again, it is outstanding architectural works that have a decisive influence on innovative interior concepts. For as preferences with regard to contemporary buildings change, our interior design tastes naturally change as well. A look at building styles in the private sector shows that changes in certain conditions can result in entire room concepts changing.
In the second part of the interview Dick Spierenburg, creative director of the imm cologne project “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage” talks about expectations of the project and draws a comparison to the former imm cologne project “ideal house”.
Dick Spierenburg is Creative Director of the imm cologne’s new design highlight: “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”. For the first installation, he has invited London design studio Doshi Levien to build a sort of turnkey vision of what living in one’s own four walls can be like in the midst of the Pure Village hall. In the interview Dick Spierenburg talks about his decision for Doshi Levien and the basic idea of this project.
How did you proceed with the design for the imm cologne?
Nipa Doshi: We worked with intersecting volumes of the kind you might find in industrial buildings to create fragmented spaces. For the structuring elements, we’re thinking of walls with different degrees of transparency and frames with mesh-like coverings, rather like Indian jalis. The spaces are connected via windows, and there are steps that lead down from various living levels to a central courtyard.
Anglo-Indian designer couple Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien will be creating a large-scale interior design installation at the imm cologne 2012. In the midst of the planning phase for “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”, they talked to us at their London studio about their vision of individual forms of living, merging spaces and organically evolved houses. Their design is a collection of interweaving functional spaces, rather like a collage of real architecture, different cultures and original imaginings. An interior perspective.
Pure Village is an offshoot of the “pure” segment in the neighbouring Hall 11 more than in name only. In the tightly packed Pure Village, design is the binding element between different areas of interior design. With the successful introduction of this new exhibition format in Hall 3.2 two years ago, the Cologne trade fair established an interdisciplinary design platform which takes the transformation of imm cologne into an all-inclusive furnishings exhibition one step further. Here, exhibitors from a wide range of industries, young designers and design labels, as well as a major new design event, present innovative product concepts and furnishing ideas in a highly compact form.
The reason modernist architecture is so topical again today is that – perhaps for the first time ever – it is compatible with many people’s desire for open living spaces, a more flexible organisation of their lives and aesthetics with a bearing on the present. Today we want to live the way Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier proposed. But also the way Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien depict in their installation for “Das Haus – Interiors on Stage”: in an individual, lively home with cultural echoes. In a house that permits privacy and publicness, that connects the kitchen, eating and working zones, family and friends, areas of retreat and shared wellness experiences in an individual way.
Dick Spierenburg studied architecture at the Technical University of Delft and has been working as a designer since the late 1970s. As co-founder of the Nederlands Interieur Collectief, he promotes collaboration between Dutch design manufacturers and importers. After working for architecture and urban development firm Bo.2, he ran his own design studio with Karel Boonzaaijer from 2001 to 2008. He designs furniture for private interiors and offices for clients like Artifort, Arco or Moroso and works for Koelnmesse in the capacity of Art Director.
