The whole world of interiors, at Imm Cologne

In January of the coming year, the industry@¬#s leading fair, Imm Cologne, will guarantee an energetic start to the 2017 furniture year. With around 1,200 companies from 50 countries expected, the dual trade fair of imm cologne and LivingKitchen 2017 presents itself as a diverse, versatile product exhibition and represents current interior design trends. Over 100,000 pieces of furniture and other furnishing items will be exhibited, around a third of which will be presented to the international market for the first time at the Cologne exhibition.

The first new products to arrive in Cologne demonstrate a general longing for classic forms, which are used without stylistic or spatial limitations. Thus, sofas are readily positioned on terraces, traditional rugs are showcased in contemporary settings, and workstations and chairs find truly mobile applications. Furniture and rugs tell stories – sometimes they conjure up a feeling of entering another, much-loved era (currently on-trend: the seventies), sometimes they recount tales of handicrafts or bear witness to the significance of traditional patterns. Old designs are created in new materials (such as Tencel), new designs take shape in old materials (such as wool, marble, wood and wickerwork), and modern mirrors reflect marbled surfaces through the perspective of a nostalgic haze, yet are completely lead-free.

The presentations by the first fair guests from different interiors segments are part of the Köln möbliert (Furnishing Cologne) campaign. For this project, photographs of products are taken in unusual locations in and around Cologne before they are introduced at the fair. For the campaign@¬#s sixth year, exhibitors are once again entrusting the press team from imm cologne with the presentation of their latest furniture and interior designs.

Cool Scandinavian design: perfect for hot-blooded owners
Representing Imm Cologne@¬#s Pure design segment, the premium brands Gloster, Cor, interlübke, Kymo, Pulpo, nanimarquina and Design House Stockholm made their new products available for this year@¬#s launch photo shoot. For the Swedish home-furnishings label Design House Stockholm, imm cologne 2017 will for the first time be the brand@¬#s chosen commercial platform for presenting its design-oriented products to an international audience. The label@¬#s new Wick Chair combines avant-garde and tradition in a unique way. Its two designers, Karl Malmvall and Jesper Ståhl, were inspired by a piece of Swedish craftsmanship: a classic basket woven from slivers of wood, the shape of which is evoked by their new chair – photographed here on the racecourse in Cologne. At the same time, the idea of a mesh construction provided an elegant solution to a practical problem, given that there are limits to the extent that wood can be bent. With its striking design, versatility and modular concept, the Wick Chair dispenses with the divisions between private and public spaces, which commonly apply to furniture. As such, the home office will be dominated in the next few years by cosiness and comfort – a trend that was already observed at the previous Imm Cologne.

Outdoor rendezvous: with weather-resistant styles and oblique reflections
The loveliest view of Cologne cathedral is perhaps no longer a secret: visitors to the Früh Lounge at the Früh brewery@¬#s popular public bar, get a close-up view. This room, which is flooded with light thanks to its extensive, floor to ceiling glazed facade, is located on the sixth floor overlooking the rooftops of Cologne and offers spectacular views of Cologne cathedral. On the terrace below Cologne cathedral@¬#s spires, the new outdoor sofa Grand Weave tempts the passer-by to while away the hours at Kölsch & Co. The use of modern, weather-resistant materials to create a finish in the style of traditional, rustic weaving techniques using switches of willow and hazel is typical of the natural charm of the new collection of modular, combinable upholstered and occasional furniture from Gloster (design: Henrik Pedersen).

The Humboldt penguins at Cologne Zoo had a unique encounter. In the mirror Miro from the trendy furnishing brand pulpo, the human world looks rather different, too. The mirror/coat stand combination from designer Meike Harde uses a textured mirror plate, which is mounted at an angle in a metal frame. Viewed aslant, the frame looks like a column. The framework@¬#s exposed bars can be used as a coat stand. Its understated graphic form has a particularly light appearance. Miro uses a marbled mirror produced according to eco-friendly standards without copper or lead.

Cologne shows its colours: innovative fabrics for decorative interior design ideas
At the imm cologne trade fair, design@¬#s big-name brands present their holistic philosophies for home living. The classic fair architecture of the Pure hall in particular offers them plenty of room to prepare the right ambience for their collections and present their comprehensive furnishing concepts. These also include style-defining products such as rugs, wallpaper and fabrics. For example, with Tres, the Spanish rug label nanimarquina presents a traditional Indian flat-weave dhurrie rug. In Cologne, we found a spot for it that can match its spectacular colour scheme – in front of the piranha tank in the aquarium at Cologne Zoo. The rug consists of three independent sections, which are each dominated by different fibres. Wool, felt and cotton in various proportions and combinations each have a different effect on the colour scheme and the weave, and thus bring the pattern to life – almost like a salon-style hanging, but on the floor. The fringed edges give an insight into how the rug is produced. Tres is available in two sizes and five colour variants: black, ochre, turquoise, sage and blue.

From subtle mint through strong grass and fine fir greens, to nuances of taupe and petrol blue, green tones are getting involved in the home in a big way. At imm cologne 2017, the industry@¬#s leading fabric brands will again be showcasing high-quality upholstery fabrics and exclusive textiles in the Pure Editions hall 3.2. Here, visitors will be inspired by attractively presented, fabric-filled interior fantasies. They will also encounter the German brand Nya Nordiska, whose fabric Janis FR celebrated its pre-launch in Cologne@¬#s glamorous Excelsior Hotel Ernst. For the special occasion, the flagpole facing Cologne cathedral was hung with the semi-transparent curtain fabric in green. The reversible curtain translates the play of colours in its wave-like jacquard pattern into sophisticated optical effects and plays with the incoming light in seven colour combinations – from white/white and grey/white to black/gold, red/white and green/purple to yellow/pink and olive/turquoise. Consequently, its bold woven pattern sometimes appears to be very subtle, sometimes more distinct, and – depending on the colouring – it looks classic, elegant or playfully simple. At a width of 325 cm, Janis FR opens up a range of possible applications for the home and the contract sector.

Don@¬#t forget: knots tied in your pillow mean it@¬#s time to head for Cologne
Photographer Karsten Jipp had just six minutes to get his photo of the star of the decor photo shoot – Knot cushion from Design House Stockholm – in the cable car with views of Cologne@¬#s skyline. Indeed, this is exactly how long it takes to ride across the skies of Cologne from the zoo to the Koelnmesse high-rise on the Deutz side of the Rhine. He took the trip with the Knot cushion – a knitted tube, several metres long, which is skilfully knotted to create an extraordinary cushion that is as elegant as it is comfortable. The Icelandic designer Ragnheiđur Ösp Sigurđardóttir loves things that are unique and has a passion for creating unpredictable products. As such, everyone@¬#s attention is drawn to Knot cushion – whether on the sofa at home, as a splash of colour in the office or as eye-catching object in Cologne@¬#s 60-year-old cable car, with a wonderful view of a winter sunset.

In Cologne@¬#s subterranean world: with classic design, you@¬#ll always be sitting pretty
And even the cathedral city@¬#s most unusual front room has been turned into a cosy space for Furnishing Cologne. With style-defining re-editions, Cor and interlübke transformed the historic Chandelier Hall seven metres beneath Cologne@¬#s cobbled streets into a very special living room.

From the outset, it has been possible to install the shelving design classic studimo from interlübke in any room and, since 1976, it has been continuously developed to become even more elegant and versatile – and, as a classic, it@¬#s right on trend. Here, a special edition of the shelving unit is displayed in the fashionable accent colour: red. With its solid construction, it is ideally suited to being extended at a later date or even to being relocated. Today, the shelving unit can be built as high and wide as you want; it can be perfectly integrated into existing architecture, used as a stand-alone piece of furniture, a room divider, lowboard or sideboard in the middle of a room or cling closely to a wall. And this year studimo celebrates its 40th anniversary: the initial design by team form ag dates back to 1976.

With the seating system Trio from Cor, just three basic elements can create countless favourite spots or whole seating arrangements. It transforms the Chandelier Hall into a comfortable living room with ease. Just as today, there was little demand for conventional ideas when the initial model (1972); was created by the designers from team form ag, since the high-quality sofa fits so beautifully in the unconventional ambience of the Chandelier Hall. The basic idea was so pioneering at the time of its conception that Cor took the design with the approximately metre-square basic elements as a model for the current updated range, and it also adopted characteristic details such as the double-stitched outer seam. But what would a cosy, subterranean living room be without a velvety soft rug, which reflects the surroundings in such a way that is equally classic and rustic? In this case, the gap is filled by the Glen hi land rug from Kymo, with its blend of traditional Scottish wool-effect tartan and modern Tencel material.

From sofas to cushions, fabrics to rugs, chairs to tables: all of the new objects for the 2017 furniture season are at home in Cologne.

* For further information: www.imm-cologne.com / www.livingkitchen-cologne.com