We received advance warning of what awaited us at IMM 2012 on the Friday afternoon before the official opening.

Ambling through Cologne town centre we came across a large plastic hemisphere – the IMM Snow Globe.

Dispatched on a tour through the city to entice the good folk of Cologne to visit the fair, the IMM Snow Globe was filled with some of the delights that would be on show, and, at the touch of a button, feather-lite snow blustered over the scene.

Beautiful!

IMM Cologne 2012 Schneekugel

However, as Julia Landsiedl taught us all with her “Wunderliche Kugelkammer” exhibition at Vienna 2010, snow globes can also have a dark side.

Such as the armchair in the IMM Snow Globe.

All that is wrong with the majority of the furniture one finds in the Cologne trade fair halls brought together in one item.

Beauty and the beast have rarely fused so poetically since OMD underscored a song about Hiroshima with one of the most seductive melodies ever put to paper.

For us the snow globe beautifully illustrated how at IMM one is caught between two opposing realities.

And raises the question, how much longer can the organisers keep up the pretence?

On the one hand we have the IMM as represented by the Kölnmesse press department. A world where words like “new” or “innovative” predominate.

And on the other hand we have the IMM as represented by those people who sell the stand space. And clearly couldn’t give two figs for innovative, thoughtful and interesting furniture design.

A good example of this indifference was the Interior Innovation Award Exhibition 2012. Organised by the German Design Council in co-operation with IMM Cologne the Interior Innovation Award may not have the star allure of the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – is however an award that furniture producers always seem genuinely happy to receive. And is one of the very few external publicity tools IMM has.

Last year all winners were displayed in a simple yet accessible show in a central passageway in the exhibition centre. In a passageway that many visitors and all press had to walk past; and which indeed could be viewed from the press room windows.

This year, the Interior Innovation Award Exhibition was tucked away in Hall 4.2. A hall that doesn’t even feature in the hall plan as published on the IMM Cologne website.

Hall 4.2 housed the “Living Interiors” exhibition – but the Interior Innovation Award is part of IMM. And so doesn’t feature on the Living Interiors website or interactive hall plan. Which one could also interpret as meaning the exhibition was banished outwith IMM. Discuss

The prime space of yesteryear meanwhile had been sold to a magazine so that they could display their furniture “trend tips”.

IMM Cologne in its public face. A glowing beacon on the domestic furnishings plain...

“Cologne is a sales fair” has been the industry’s cry since at least 1962.

“If that’s the case then do us all a favour and lose the innovative producers and young designers“, has been our cry since at least 2011.

This year the design schools were gone – in our opinion the only logical step following their disgraceful treatment in 2011 – and it can only be a matter of time before the complete d3 design talents section follows them into the city.The heavily scaled down programme and non-updated website being a good hint that the decision has already been made.

And the innovative producers?

They’re gathered together in Hall 11 like an alpine sheep flock protecting themselves from the circling wolves.

We spoke to one producer who had a truly appalling stand position. Honestly one of the least advantageously located stands we have ever seen. The producer was quite happy though because it was in Hall 11. Had it not been Hall 11 he wouldn’t have come. In Hall 11 he was prepared to accept the space offered. Regardless

No one who shops in Hall 11 shops in the other halls. And vice versa.
And the press only visit Hall 11. And 3 for the d3 Talents.

IMM Cologne. Two realities. One location

If we’re honest we hope that in the coming years those producers who place quality, design and innovation above “units sold” find a new home.

If they’re clever the IMM organisers will instigate the fission and let a new young team establish a new fresh fair in Cologne parallel to IMM. That would not only help invigorate IMM, but also help develop the Passagen programme of fringe events and so help re-establish Cologne Furniture Week as a truly important event.

The only obvious alternative at the moment for those producers no longer prepared to accept the limits of Hall 11 would be Qubique Berlin. But they first need to prove their staying power. And also consider moving from their October date.

And so it’s “Advantage IMM” If they choose to take it.

However at the moment they show little sign of wanting to and instead seem set on using the passivity of the media to continue promoting an image of IMM that diverges ever more from the reality one meets in Cologne.

Kartell at IMM Cologne 2012. With a reduced version of the Milan 2011 show. Almost a historical artefact

We’ve noted a couple of times in the past just how uncritical the media has become of such events.

Ahead of IMM much was made of the number of Italian producers showing in Cologne. And most of the press picked up on this “positive development”

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung¹ even going so far as to claim, “And for all the global tone setting producers from beyond the Alps are the yardstick if a fair is doing well and is being well received”

Global tone setting Italians as a yardstick! Is it still 1982? Have we dreamt the last three decades?

Italy does have a special place in the story of European furniture and there are a great many wonderful and high-quality Italian producers.

But not because they are Italian. Because they care.

High quality furniture can also come from other countries.

And while it is justifiable that the IMM press department set up the smoke screen of “We’ve loads of Italians, hurrah!” to disquise the fact that a great many quality producers from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, Belgium, Denmark or America aren’t present.

It’s inexcusable that leading media buy it.

Not least because it does the whole industry a disservice and hinders the positive developments that would come from a complete overhaul of IMM and Cologne Furniture Week.

We spent about 20 minutes watching the IMM Snow Globe. And the longer we watched the more certain we became that change is coming. And as we say IMM still have the chance to decide how that change happens.

We hope they take that chance. For if they don’t then in a couple of years we could all be quoting OMD.

“It shouldn’t ever have to end this way”

1. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/design/koelner-moebelmesse-wohnen-fuer-alle-11616978.html Accessed 25.01.2012

A&W Designer of the Year 2012: Patricia Urquiola

For a decade and a half the unofficial start to Cologne Furniture Week has been the honouring of the “A&W Designer of the Year”

Awarded by the German magazine “A&W Architektur & Wohnen”, the prize was inaugurated in 1997 to honour a designer whose work has particular defined the home furnishing style of our time. Previous winners including Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio or Tom Dixon. To name just three from 15.

The A&W Designer of the Year 2012 is the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola.

Perhaps best known for her work with Moroso, B&B Italia, Kartell or Molteni, Patricia Urquiola initially studied architecture in Madrid before moving to Italy where she completed her studies at the Politecnico di Milano. In 2001 she established her own studio in Milan and in addition to furniture design work has also completed numerous interior design projects and since 2002 has been a Guest Professor at the Domus Academy.

Ahead of the awards ceremony we spoke with Patricia Urquiola about her career and specifically, and in keeping with both the award and the exhibition “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” in the MAKK, discussed if architects make better furniture designers.

(smow)blog: You studied architecture, now work principally as a designer. Was it your intention to follow a career as an architect, or was that just a way to means?

Patricia Urquiola: From my early teens my intention was to become an architect; I was one of these adolescents who is already certain what they want to do. And so I studied architecture at the Politecnica Madrid and there I met Marco Zanuso, Achille Castiglioni and many other very interesting architects who were working in both architecture and design. And that made me focus more on design. And so in a way the Italians led this change of focus.

(smow)blog: And then you moved to Milan where you later you went on to work with another architect and designer, Piero Lissoni…

Patricia Urquiola: Yes, but with the background I have and amongst my contemporaries it was quite natural to work across the borders of architecture and design. Which of course is part of the reason Milan became important as a centre for architecture and design.

(smow)blog: At the moment there is an exhibition here in Cologne looking at the role of “furniture architects”. Do architects make better furniture than designers with a different background?

Patricia Urquiola: No, I don’t think so. I am, for example, a big fan of Konstantin Grcic and he is not an architect. The discipline of design can be approached in many ways, and for me the border between the two is on the one side the “habitat” and the other “tools for living”. That was my education, that’s me and that is my approach. But the disciplines leave a lot of space to approach it in many ways and we’ve got to be open to listen to new voices. And I think there is currently some very good research and some very good schools, I think, for example, Eindhoven is currently very interesting. But, as I say, there are a lot of possibilities for working in these disciplines and we have to remain open to read the situation.

(smow)blog: You’ve been living in Milan for some 25 years now. Have you noticed a change over the decades? Is it still a city where one feels creativity?

Patricia Urquiola: I moved to Milan in a very creative period. The likes of Castiglioni or Vico Magistretti were still active and the Memphis group were in their best period. But then obviously Milan changed a lot, became more bourgeois, and today we have all these crises. But like all design centres in Italy in Milan there is still a desire to produce quality work. I had the luck in Milan to meet people who believed in design and who gave people like me a certain credibility, and I’m very grateful for that. But then my life is not only about Milan, and the work that I do in Milan is only part of my work.

The sofa Volant for Moroso by Patricia Urquiola

Silver Lake by Moroso and in thebackground Comeback Chair for Kartell by Patricia Urquiola

Maia Egg swing for Kettal, the lamp Chasen for flos and Tropicalia for Moroso, all by Patricia Urquiola

Following on from last years “Kids Only” collection, Richard Lampert was/were back at Cologne 2012 with a collection of new outdoor furniture

And just as “Kids Only” clearly wasn’t. So too can “Living Outdoor” clearly also be used for “Living Indoor”

Which is important if you live north of Alicante and can’t guarantee your summer will be in any way summary.

Featuring four new products from three of the company’s roster of young design talents, the new collection can be seen as an extension of Lampert’s existing garden and balcony furniture range that includes, for example, the table & bench set Ludwig, the side table Flip or the outdoor version of Herbert Hirche’s monumental Lounge Chair.

Following on from last years Pit Stop beanbag for the “Kids Only” collection, Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Bertjan Pot has developed the chair Tie-Break, a chair made from tennis netting.

An admittedly unconventional material but one chosen specifically because it is weather resistant and so allows the chair to be left outside in all weathers.

Now you know us, we don’t dig furniture made from “everyday items” Tie-break however uses tennis netting material as its base rather than simply re-interpreting how one can use a tennis net.

It’s an important difference. And a wonderful example of how designers have to think when choosing materials for projects. Its not all “Form follows function”.

Cologne native and long-time member of the Richard Lampert team, Eric Degenhardt has created a new folding table, Hook. A delightful balcony table that folds to a sort of flat frying pan form that can be hung up on simple screw.

A further long-term Lampert collaborator Alexander Seifried has created two products for the “Living Outdoor” collection. A sun lounger/day bed by the name Dish’s Island and – and for us the highlight of the collection -  the folding chair MASH. When we first saw MASH we initially thought of a tennis line judge’s chair from back in the day. So way back in the day when tennis racquets were still strung with pig gut.

But the real story behind the chair was revealed in our conversation with Richard Lampert…..

(smow)blog: Garden Furniture. We’re assuming that means things are going so well you are planning kicking back and spending the coming summer lounging in your garden…..

Richard Lampert: Exactly! And as every year I expect that we will very soon be enjoying spring sunshine!

(smow)blog: Optimistic. But we’ll give you that! For the”Living Outdoor” collection you’ve recruited some familiar faces…

Richard Lampert: Yes. We have Alexander Seifried who has developed two pieces, a sun lounger and then a folding chair that is a re-make of an old army folding chair that we found amongst some junk and have re-worked and updated. And we’ve called it MASH after the film and TV series.

(smow) blog: So you were cleaning out the cellar, found it and thought….?

Richard Lampert: …fantastic piece, wonderful chair we’ve got to do something with that!

In addition from Bertjam Pot we have a chair crafted out of tennis netting combined with safety belt material from the automotive industry. And we’re still working with a young Swiss architect on a new table with matching chairs. It wasn’t possible to get that ready in time for Cologne so we’ll introduce that in Milan.

(smow)blog: And how strict was the brief this year. Did you say, for example, to Bertjan Pot that you wanted a chair….

Richard Lampert: No this time it was all very free, we said we wanted “garden furniture” and obviously that doesn’t offer so many possibilities as “kids furniture”. I can make a table, a bench, a sunshade, chair, lounger…. then there is not that much more.

(smow)blog: For the second year in succession your launching your new collection here in Cologne rather than in Milan as most other producers choose to. Why?

Richard Lampert:  Here I have 100 sqm in Milan I only get 50. In Milan I can’t show so much and don’t have the space to create such a presentation as we have here. And then there is the simple fact that Germany is my most important market, and where we make the majority of our turnover and so for me it makes sense to launch our new collection here in Cologne.

On January 27th the Design Museum Helsinki opens “DesignWorld”, its first major exhibition for 2012.
A not unimportant fact given the Finnish Capital’s tenure as World Design Capital 2012.

And very much in keeping with the Helsinki 2012 Manifesto – if we can use such phrase, apologies if that’s going to far – DesignWorld asks how design can help, influence and improve man, society and the ways we interact with the world around us.

Featuring market products, prototypes and “concepts in development” DesignWorld looks at design in numerous contexts, such as sustainability, responsibility or safety.

We’ll sadly not make it to Helsinki for the opening; but if your in or near Helsinki it certainly looks like an exhibition worth checking out.

And if you go during the opening weekend you’ll also catch the last couple of days of “Finnish Design Unwrapped – A Deeper Look” Featuring photographs of 19 designers taken by the London based Finnish photographer, Jani Kaila displayed alongside contemporary pieces of design “Finnish Design Unwrapped” is the opening exhibition in the Design Museum Helsinki’s “Design Gallery 12″ series of exhibitions which will see 12 one month long exhibitions hosted to mark World Design Capital 2012

DesignWorld at the Design Museum Helsinki runs until May 6th 2012. Finnish Design Unwrapped – A Deeper Look until Janury 29th

Mine Kafon by Massoud Hassani. To be seen as part of DesignWorld at the Design Museum Helsinki

The Copenhagen Wheel by MIT Senseable City Lab (Photo Max Tomasinelli)

Stefan Lindfors as photographed by Jani Kaila for the exhibition Finnish Design Unwrapped – A Deeper Look

A drawer. Honestly that is all it takes and you’ve got us. A desk with a drawer. Or even better multiple drawers.

As if Müller Möbelfabrikation could read our minds, we were met on their stand in Cologne by the most fantastic sheet steel desk. With soooo many drawers.

If that’s not a guaranteed to way to get our attention!

The TB 299 from Müller Möbelfabrikation as seen at IMM Köln 2012

If we did have one slight criticism it would be the decision to display a version in orange.

If there is one colour that is real hard to photograph under exhibition lighting……

But then orange was very much the trend colour on the Müller Möbelfabrikation stand.

And Lippert Studios, although not responsible for the desk, very much the dominant design studio.

Following last years delightful davenport PS 08, Lippert Studios were present this year with 3 new products.

The davenport PS 10 is an open version of the PS 08 with a slightly larger usable surface area, the ST 08 is a makeup table version of the PS 08 and….

No honestly. It is.

Kitted out with an illuminated mirror, deep-set storage spaces and a drawer, the ST 08 resembles how we romantically imagine makeup tables in the dressing rooms of provincial theatres look.

They probably don’t. But certainly should.

Maintaining the same basic form as the PS 08 parent, the ST 08 has a more understated frame, which gives the whole construction a much more sophisticated air and, perhaps most importantly, when closed you’d never guess what was inside.

Which of course means it is a wonderful accessory for all modern urbane girls living in a modern urbane one room flat.

The makeup table ST 08 by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation. Here in use.

Despite our unconcealed joy at the ST 08, the stand out item for us was the LS 05.

Closed the LS 05 is an innocuous side/couch table.
Extended it is a delightful laptop table, complete with a drawer.

What really appealed to us was the simplicity of the “sliding” solution.

OK we can see a few space problems; you need to make sure that you have enough space behind the unit to allow the top part to slide out.

But if you can organise that you have in the LS 05 a wonderful, 3-tiered laptop workplace in the most enchanting retro-futuristic optic.

Or simply use it as a side table, bedside table, telephone table. Whatever.

It’s fair to say the LS 05 was one of our favourite discoveries at IMM 2012.

And all in all it was genuinely very pleasing to see the the way Müller Möbelfabrikation and Lippert Studios have successfully developed the basic idea contained in the original, and multiple award winning, PS 08 to create a very innovative and modern family of tables.

Now we just need a kitchen version…..

The LS 05 laptop side table by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation. Here full opened...

The LS 05, PS 10 and St 08 by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation at IMM Köln 2012

The colourful world of Müller Möbelfabrikation.....

... in which ever direction you look

In addition to showing “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln is also showing off it’s new acquisitions: 10 early Michael Thonet stools and a rare work from Jacob and Josef Kohn.

Plus 2 monumental pieces of modern abstract metal furniture: “2 R Not” by Ron Arad and “Bell Metal Horse Chair” by Satyendra Pakhalé

The Thonet chairs are currently being displayed in a special showcase that wonderfully portrays the development of Michael Thonet’s work.

And is if to taunt the founder of industrial furniture production, the curators have placed “2 R Not” and “Bell Metal Horse Chair” directly in front of the Thonet exhibition like two menacing, futuristic, bouncers

Michael Thonet and Ron Arad. Juxtaposition of the year.

Michael Thonet. A man who had an idea. And never gave up on it...

Michael Thonet and his "Boppard Chair"

Michael Thonet and Ron Arad

Although it would be wrong to say that we misled you in saying that there would be no Moormann furniture at IMM Cologne.

There was one piece.

A brave, young Strammer Max

Not in Cologne however as representative of his designer or producer, but as the Global Ambassador of an idea so genial, so eye wateringly simple, so necessary, that we’re more than a little twisted with jealousy at not having thought it up ourselves: World Furniture Day.

Looking to put the fun back into furniture the forces behind World Furniture Day are overseeing a number of events on Sunday January 22nd to help us rediscover the bond between us and our furnishings.

Because, despite what the thousands of “trend researchers” currently combing their way through IMM Cologne looking for something, anything, to proclaim as “The” trend for autumn 2012 may say; furniture isn’t about trends and continual new collections.

Aspects of the furniture industry may want us to believe it is because they calculate that by convincing us that furniture is just fashion you can sit on they can increase their profits.

These people are charlatans.

Furniture is a life-long commitment. Not a weekend of lust until something fresher comes along.

The twin highlights of the inaugural World Furniture Day are a “Chair Slam” in Berlin and a Furniture Flashmob in Cologne. In the first the public are invited to bring along their chair and convince the public why there chair is the best.

And in the second the organisers invite us all to bring a chair to Cologne City Centre, and create a “Pop-up Living Room” next to the Cathedral.

Genius!

But of course all are invited to organise their own, local, event and to celebrate as they wish.
And if not this year. Then maybe next.

Because speaking to the good Strammer Max it was clear that World Furniture Day will become an annual celebration of all that is good, fun and personal in furniture.

Or important might be a shorter way of putting it. And that the plans for World Furniture Day 2013 are well underway.

Fuller details and background information on World Furniture Day 2012 can be found at http://worldfurnitureday.com/

World Furniture Day 2012 representative Strammer Max in the IMM Cologne Press Room

Aside from the exhibition concept and their knack for choosing the perfect location, there’s another reason we always look forward to Design braucht Täter.

Every year we find something new.

And 2012 is no exception. Even though we admittedly snuck in while they were still setting up and so didn’t actually get to see all exhibitors.

We know it not good form. Sorry. But we have a huge schedule here. And simply had to. And of course: We can. Cheeky buggers that we are.

Design braucht Täter 2012: Schreibtisch für Zwei by Handwert Möbeldesign

Schreibtisch für Zwei by Handwert Möbeldesign is a desk designed for two users. A desk designed for two users with a drawer per user. A drawer. Honestly that is all it takes and you’ve got us. A desk with a drawer. Or even better multiple drawers.

A desk specifically designed for two users of course makes perfect sense. In modern offices most people work with space saving “island” concepts, with cables and the like coming up between the desks. This is especially the case in “Start-ups”, or backward thinking village administraions in Brandenburg,  where two people often share a space that would be considered unfit for an egg laying chicken under EU legislation.

And so why not assume two users per workspace from the beginning. Obvious really. Beautifully crafted from oak, in addition to the drawers “Schriebtisch für Zwei” also has a gap in the middle, not only for cables, but also for supporting the integrated plastic pen holders. Our tip – increase the range of things one can add to the gap and you’ve got a real winner. Flower pot, speakers, phone charger, cable organiser, tablet holder, lamps etc…

Design braucht Täter 2012: Bench2bed by Thomas Bohm

Bench2bed by Dortmund based Thomas Bohm didn’t catch our attention ahead of the show. But did in the show. In essence its a bench that converts into a bed. So a variation on the sofa bed. We really, really liked it. But do we need such? A bench that converts to a bed. We’re still not 100% convinced. Or were we just irritated by the the steel/wood optic that made it resemble garden furniture? But we love the lateral thinking behind the project. And even if Bench2bed isn’t Thomas’s major commercial breakthrough, it certainly demonstrates a designer with the correct attitude and a healthy disregard for convention.

Design braucht Täter 2012: Moveo by Reditum

Another project that didn’t really grab us in the pre-exhibition warm up was Moveo by Cologne based producer Reditum.

Now you know us, when it comes to recycled furniture we’re very hard to please. We’re probably the only people you know who class Piet Hein Eek’s wooden chairs and tables as graphic design rather than furniture design.

But Moveo passed our test.

Composed of bits of old pallets, old bike inner tubes and pieces of metal, Moveo is/are a series of boxes that can either be stacked into a unit or hung as shelving.

We suspect we have granted Moveo our mercy because like “homage au velo” by Sebastian Donath, it doesn’t focus on its recycled nature “Look at me! Look a me! I’m, recycled. I’m cool”; rather, it concentrates on being a good, well made, functional product.

That and the fact it reminded us of the wooden crates by Le Corbusier that Cassina relaunched at IMM 2011. Guess which one  we understand as being the more responsible use of available resources in an age of environmental and social instability…

Design braucht Täter 2012: Solo by Stefan Weiser

An honorary mention must also go to Solo, a shelving system by Stefan Weiser – a shelving system that folds flat for storage/transport. Or folds out to form a room divider. We’re not sure if having textile on the outside is the best option, again that may just be our misguided subjective opinion, but the concept is certainly something that for us is worth developing further. We can see a lot of potential. And not just in domestic situations.

And of course, yes Becherlicht was there. And still making us go queasy with delight.

If your in Cologne for IMM we can thoroughly recommend making the trip out to Design braucht Täter. Especially on the evening of Wednesday January 19th when they are hosting the belated Vernissage Party from 6pm – 11pm

And if you see something good that we haven’t mentioned. Do let us know.

Design braucht Täter 2012 runs in the Hochbunker Körnerstr. 101 50825 Köln until Sunday January 22nd

As tradition demands the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln (MAKK) have organised a furniture themed, special exhibition to coincide with the Cologne Furniture Fair.

Under the title “Von Aalto bis Zumthor: Architektenmöbel” (“From Aalto to Zumthor: Furniture by Architects”) the MAKK is presenting over 120 examples of furniture designed by professional architects.

Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln: From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects

As older readers will have long since accepted, the “Furniture Architect” is a pet subject of ours. Not just because the architects involved have created some truly fantastic works, often just out of a pure passion for their occupation and with little or no regard for any potential financial gain. But also because we believe that through understanding why “Furniture Architects” are important to the development of the furniture industry we can rediscover the basics of creating good furniture. And help improve the contemporary designer furniture industry.

In the press notes the MAKK state that many of the architects started making furniture for their projects because there was nothing suitable on the market.

We’re genuinely not in the habit of contradicting long established and respected design museums.

But.

We’d argue that while that may have been a factor in occasional cases, more important was the desire to control a whole project and to ensure a formal unity throughout. Inside and out.
We’ve got a nice quote somewhere, for example, about Egon Eiermann only agreeing to build a house in Berlin if he was also contracted to do the furniture.
And Arne Jacobsen made similar demands before accepting the commissions for the SAS Royal in Copenhagen and St Cahthrine’s College in Oxford.
And Le Corbusier certainly didn’t kit out his 1950s social housing with his own furniture designs just because IKEA had yet to be founded.

For us the distinction is important as it defines the motivation for creating the furniture and as such underlines the way the acteurs thought and worked.

What is beyond question is the importance of the works.

10 Unit System by Shigeru Ban. A modular, endless extendable, chair system

Using items from the museums own collection complemented by items borrowed from third parties, “From Aalto to Zumthor: Furniture by Architects” tells the story of a century of “Furniture Architects”. Starting with works by the likes of Hoffmann, Wagner or Emil Beutinger who is represented by the most delightful kitchen ensemble from 1903. An ensemble that includes a seat bank unit that could be straight out the Atelier Moormann Haute Couture collection.
Should they ever decide to produce such.

In comparison to the understated elegance of many of the early pieces, we couldn’t help feeling that a lot of the more modern pieces were simply screaming look at me. But in that far too obvious way we know from people whose attempt at finding personal gratification through the medium of “Celebrity” has failed to such an extent they feel compelled to go into an Australian jungle to eat kangaroo testicles on live television in the hope of being remembered for what they contributed to modern society.

We could just have written soulless and unattractive.

We must clarify not all modern pieces were such. Just some.

Sitting here writing this post we can’t think of any early pieces by the “Pioneer Furniture Architects” that would also fit into such a category.

One could argue the reason why a lot of pre-war furniture design is all so conservative and “normal” is that was how society was.

There hadn’t been any major, or indeed minor, attacks on accepted norms.

Post post-modernism, dadaism and punk we have that experience and, yes, it is valid to challenge conventions. Especially in the context of furniture created for a building that has been designed to meet modern challenges.

Which brings us back to the reason the architect designed the furniture….

However, we suspect that the architects placed by us in this category don’t want to be considered “Furniture Architects”. We suspect that they want to be considered artists. And the works as creations. Or even worse “statements”

Which could lead us to ask if they belong in the exhibition? Art, design and architecture are different disciplines that can and should freely intertwine and fuse. The question is always which part is dominant. In selecting works for such an exhibition we say design. Design created with the training, eye and understanding of an architect.

Which of course raises the further question of where is System USM Haller? A furniture concept extrapolated directly from an architectural concept.

Jean Prouvé and Alvar Aalto at "From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects"

“From Aalto to Zumthor: Furniture by Architects” is a nice enough exhibition. But for us the main problem is that it simply doesn’t explain enough. It simply shows.

And for a special exhibition in a specialist museum that is too little. You can get away with it in the permanent exhibition; but a special exhibition of this kind should offer more. You should leave with the impression that you have learned more about the subject.

We’re fairly well clued up and enjoyed the chance to examine the works at close quarters and compare pieces.

But most people aren’t. And can’t.

And although there were nicely conceived and delightfully illustrated notice boards for some exhibits. For the majority there was what resembled an archive data entry card with a name and a little bit of information.

And then of course the decision to place some chairs 5 metres above the ground, half hidden in boxes so that no one can see them.

Daft.

Despite the, for us, somewhat lacklustre exhibition concept the works remain important; and indeed the idea of the “Furniture Architects” remains central to the development of what we now understand as the designer furniture industry. And as we say important in understanding where the modern industry could improve

And so in that sense “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” is well worth a visit.  Especially during Cologne Furniture Week 2012 when entry is free.

“From Aalto to Zumthor: Furniture by Architects” runs at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln until April 22nd 2012

On Monday January 16th IMM Cologne, Germany’s largest furniture trade fair, opens it doors.

In the coming days we’ll bring you a series of interviews, reports and reviews from the Rhein, but ahead of the show we thought we’d look back at what Cologne 1962 had to offer.

On the one hand, because we think it’s interesting to look back on what the furniture industry had to offer 50 years ago; but also to help place IMM 2012 in context of its heritage.

IMM Cologne

The International Möbel Messe Köln started in 1949 and was initially a bi-annual event. A concept that not only really appeals to us, but also reminds us of the days when furniture producers didn’t release new products every couple of minutes.

Indeed in their preview of Cologne 1962 the industry newspaper of the day “Möbel Kultur” spoke of the “…creative pause …” since 1960.¹ Using creative pause in the positive sense of “chance to reflect on and improve your products.”

For as Nils Holger Moormann reminded us, “Furniture needs time. It must be refined and gradually perfected.”

Judging from the exhibitor list the furniture industry in 1962 was still dominated by wood products from small and medium sized carpentry businesses. The situation was however starting to change. For example, there appeared to have been a very controversial debate in Cologne over the use of this newfangled plastic material for surfaces, especially on kitchen units.

In the years immediately after the war, the principle requirement in Europe was for simple, cheap products to help people refurnish their homes; something we noted in our “Design for Use, USA” post. However, in their review of the Cologne Furniture Fairs up until 1962 Möbel Kultur postulate that despite the planners wishes many Germans, especially those refuges from Prussia, wanted – and bought – sturdier furniture to remind of them of their lives before the war.² As such the so-called “Gelsenkirchener Barock” was all the rage in 1950s Germany. Large, immobile objects created from tropical woods.

But as this generation aged and ceased to be such an important purchasing group, so too did their influence on the market wane.

Cologne 1962 indicated this generation change was well underway, and there is regular reference in the reviews to furniture in the, modern, “gute Form.” Today we’d probably just call it designer furniture.

But there are also indications that the furniture industry and the Cologne Fair were about to let this particular boat sail off into the future without them. And that, as today, the “gute Form” furniture may have been present. Was however an under-represented segment.

In his review of the event for Form magazine Karlheinz Krug, the magazine’s later much celebrated Editor in Chief, divides the furniture producers of Cologne 1962 into three groups; those who work with competent designers to create individual, innovative products; those who copy the basic form of the designer furniture and produce them cheaper; and those who re-create styles of old.³

An observation that shows that despite any preconceptions that Cologne 1962 must have been a world away from that we can expect to meet 50 years later. It wasn’t really.

Herr Krug, for example, goes on to regret the absence of many important producers, in particular those who through their design orientated approach can be considered shining examples of the modern furniture industry.

He lists Knoll International or Wilkhahn as examples. Fifty years later both are still missing. As are, for example, Magis, Freedom of Creation, Moormann or Vitra.

The last in the list were, somewhat ironically, present in 1962 as a small company taking their first, tentative steps in the global market.

Today the Vitra brand is so well established that one can safely say they don’t need a fair such as IMM.

And for us that remains one of the problems with IMM; too much focus on Karlheinz Krug’s “Group 2″ producers and not enough of those from Group 1.

In effect they are still focusing on providing furniture for those customers who want the familiarity of “Gelsenkirchener Barock”, customers who are prepared to pay over the odds for something that they believe confers a certain status upon them because it visually conforms to some perfunctory sense of “style”, “trend” or “luxury”. Rather than challenging the market to offer consumers real quality at a realistic price.

And that despite Herr Ordnung⁴ stating in 1962 that Gelsenkirchener Barock was in its death throes.

It may still be. But it is obviously just as profitable as ever.

Cologne Furniture Fair 1962 recorded some 65,400 visitors – almost 90% of them from Germany – who viewed products from 868 producers, ca. two thirds domestic, one third foreign.⁵

Cologne Furniture Fair 2011 recorded 138,000 visitors – with 39% coming from outwith the German borders – who viewed products from 1028 producers. Some 60% non-German.⁶

Figures that indicate not only a healthy event, but also one that has successfully transformed itself from an essentially domestic affair into an important regional trade fair. And that, despite our objections, there is a real demand for the products the majority of exhibitors sell.

We’ll probably never tire of trying to persuade the organisers to change their format and embrace more innovative high-end design. But we also have to accept that IMM is a commercial fair and must be judged in the first instance on economic results.

Such statistics obviously say nothing about the quality of the goods on offer then or now. Nor will we. Not here. That’s a subject for another post.

And one could be petty and compare the figures with those of Milan – 12,000 visitors and 328 producers at its first edition in 1961; 320,000 visitors and 1283 producers in 2011.⁷

But that would be really petty.

Reading the reports and reviews from Cologne 1962  – and we can thoroughly recommend them – one is stuck by a certain continuity in terms of themes, topics and opinions. We kept finding visitors from back then criticising or applauding things that mirror our experience and opinions. As such its clear to see that at such a fair it’s not just the furniture that repeats itself at regular intervals.

And in that respect, one thing that really caught our attention was the obvious the “trend” in 1962:  light, natural wood colours.

Something we should all bear in mind when we read the mass market press reviews of IMM Cologne 2012…..

1. “Was bringt Köln 1962?” Möbel Kultur, Februar 1962

2. “1949-1962. Die Möbelformen seit der ersten Kölner Messe” Möbel Kultur, Februar 1962

3. Krug, Karlheinz “International Möbelmesse Köln 1962″, Form, 17, 1962

4. Herr Alfred Ordnung, Chairman of the Furniture Sector in the German Retailer Association

5. “Die Möbelmesse statistisch gesehen” Möbel Kultur, Januar 1962

6. “Facts and Figures” IMM Website http://www.imm-cologne.com/en/imm/diemesse/daten_fakten/index.php. Accessed 09.01.2012

7. “Facts and Figures” Salone Internazionale del Mobile http://cosmit.it/tool/download.php?id=82945&idst=12535 Accessed 09.01.2012