Furnishing Cologne; Köln

What is the beautiful new Gandia Blasco sofa by Stefan Diez doing on the street outside Cologne’s Kolumba Museum? Are the people walking along the promenade of the Rheinau Harbour really allowed to settle down and make themselves comfortable on the latest upholstered furniture from Brühl? Have the little leaf-shaped tables on the riverbank always been there? And when did designer furniture like the FreiFrau barstools start hanging out in a Kölsch pub?

The international interior design fair imm cologne is bringing the next season’s new furniture launches to the Rhine. In January, Cologne will once again become the design capital of what is probably the most important furniture market in Central Europe. The organiser, koelnmesse GmbH, is expecting approx. 1,100 exhibitors from 54 countries to present their ranges and new products here. The city is preparing for the arrival of an international clientele from commerce, the contract business, the interior decoration sector and the press. And the city centre with its rich variety of supporting programmes such as the Passagen, museum exhibitions, college and media events is also a popular destination for the design clientele of interior designers, architects, designers and artists.

With such brisk business being done and all the hype surrounding designers, interior design trends and promising newcomers, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the imm cologne is about one thing more than anything else: new, market-ready objects for the home. To ensure that the new products are presented in the proper light despite the vast range of goods on show, koelnmesse has brought some of the industry’s highlights to the city in advance of the fair and had them photographed in locations with a typical Cologne flair – on Hohenzollern Bridge, on the banks of the Rhine, at the museum, in public places and in the city’s shops and pubs. The objects seemed largely unimpressed by their unusual surroundings: in the photographs, they look as nonchalant and at home as if they’d never been anywhere else.

And yet in winter the city is actually a rather cheerless place, and not even furniture feels particularly comfortable outdoors at this time of year. Most notably, the streets depicted are largely devoid of the people who otherwise populate the banks of the Rhine, the parks, the museum squares, the streets around the cathedral, the playgrounds, the beer gardens and the street cafés. They withdraw to the snug warmth of the pubs, to the cafés and shops – and of course to their own four walls.

And so the circle is complete, for the furniture they surround themselves with at home was first presented to the world right here in the trade fair city of Cologne. It is hard to think of any other fair that can match the Cologne interior design show’s broad spectrum of market segments – from basic to high-end design, from home textiles all the way to home entertainment. Cologne is a city for all styles and all situations in life. Perhaps that’s why the objects in the photographs look as if, in Cologne, they had found their natural surroundings. Because this is where the world of design is at home too.

Further information:

www.imm-cologne.com

imm cologne + LivingInteriors
16^th to 22^nd January 2012

9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
Public Days: 20^th to 22^nd January 2012