Patricia Urquiola, member of the imm cologne 2011 trend board. (photo: E15)
“Our task was to take a look at the various forms in which the trends are expressed,” says the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola concerning the work of the imm cologne 2011 Trend Board. She considers this a pioneering development. “We have to realize that today there are completely different perspectives on what people consider innovative,” she says. “Sometimes a new interpretation of something old or a particularly simple and intelligent production method is much more innovative than a new material or an innovative technology. The concept of innovation is changing. In my opinion, it’s closely connected with people’s needs and with the way we use objects.”
The trend board workshop also revealed the ubiquitous influence of sustainability concepts, which are closely connected with a sense of progress and innovation. Harald Gründl from EOOS is one of the drivers and critical observers of this development. “We have found that all four trends share a focus on a sustainable approach to design, but in some cases the approach comes from very different directions,” he says. “However, sustainable design doesn’t mean simply giving things a ‘green’ surface coating without restructuring them sustainably or thinking in revolutionary new terms.” Another topic considered at the Trend Board workshop was the challenges faced by designers in this area. In this regard, Harald Gründl emphasized that “in the future it will be increasingly necessary to think in terms of systems. And designers are certainly a very important interface in this process of creating systems.”
The four interior trends will take on shape for the public at imm cologne in January in the form of installations. These will be presented by the members of the Trend Board in four exhibition cubes that will be part of the still relatively new trade fair format Pure Village.
The Trend Board — a group of five or six influential designers, architects, materials specialists and trade journalists — was established by imm cologne seven years ago. The trend book, which is published every autumn, sums up the results of that year’s Trend Board workshop. It presents an interim report on the spring presentations and examines the developments that will make it to the first major interior design and ordering trade fair of the year, imm cologne, evaluating them in terms of their potential to become the interior design of the future. This standard reference work for the interior design sector, which is available for a nominal charge, provides a compact overview of current developments in the design sector and offers orientation for exhibitors, trade visitors and journalists.
