Der Content-Service der imm cologne zu Design und Wohnkultur The imm cologne's content service for design and interior lifestyle 09_en Business by Design

Contents 2 Editorial Big Business Number Games 4 Self-fulfilment through creative living 6 Filling a tall order 8 Buying furniture: the new man’s thing 10 Interview Designer Stefan Diez on the risks of being average and the unprofitability of ever-shorter development cycles 24 Making-of CH04 Houdini (e15): A chair with no snags 28 Market Facts and figures on the situation of the German furniture industry: Home styling is in – buying furniture too? 32 Company Walter Knoll: Seeking out gaps with designers 36 Interview Oliver Kleine on the LEONARDO brand’s commitment to interior design

40 Interview Dirk-Uwe Klaas, Association of the German Furniture Industry, on consumers’ changing mentality 46 Interview Leo Lübke, interlübke/COR, on why it pays to commit to quality and design 54 Market Green Design: Riding the green wave to sales growth 60 Interview Giovanni Gervasoni on his successful recipe for the German market 66 Pure Village (II) Pure Village clusters famous design brands and creative furnishing ideas in the heart of the imm cologne 70 The Fair imm cologne is Germany’s top international furniture platform 74 Online Content Service A note on our own behalf 76 Imprint/Credits

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Photo: Koelnmesse; Frank Erler (IMM10_BD0101_01)

Published by: Koelnmesse GmbH imm cologne Presse Markus Majerus Messeplatz 1 50679 Cologne, Germany Tel.: + 49 221 821-26 27 Fax: + 49 221 821-34 17 E-Mail [email protected] www.koelnmesse.com

Editorial I 3

Editorial Big Business

Far from merely meeting demand, the furniture industry makes its money by satisfying a host of very different needs – from modular sofas and eat-in kitchens all the way to home offices and wellness mattresses. Today design plays a crucial economic role in both the creation of needsbased products and the stimulation of demand. A closer look at the interaction between design and business, design trends and manufacturers’ ranges, designers and entrepreneurs is therefore indispensable. That is precisely what the materials and interesting ideas in this latest content folder are intended for. But designers also have their fingers in various other, less obvious pies such as brand development, the communication of material innovations to the industry and the debate about sustainability concepts for the production, transport and usage of our consumer goods. The public discourse about green design and organic concepts has thus led to some interesting niche markets and retail concepts, some of which are bursting not only with idealism but with future potential as well, as our survey of the green design business shows. Experience has shown that, more than anything else, the interaction between design and business depends on good relationships between creatives and entrepreneurs. Our numerous best-practice articles with statements by leading entrepreneurs provide some interesting insights. And the in-depth interview with Stefan Diez, one of the hottest German designers on the scene, vividly describes just how closely the interests of designers and companies are intertwined and pinpoints the opportunities and risks that such a more or less well-developed network can entail. The imm cologne doesn’t only see itself as a shop window for market-relevant design developments, but also as a communication platform for the exchange between designers, project developers, manufacturers and retailers. Last but not least, we are also interested in the feedback from the end customers who use the public days to get thousands of exciting ideas for their private worlds. At these interfaces, design and the market move closer together than anywhere else. Surprisingly, the subjective

mood right now is much better than the difficult market conditions would suggest. One thing is certain: more than ever before, doing a brisk business is essential. The imm cologne will point out which design concepts are suitable not only for putting on a good show but for generating sustainable sales as well. Consumers are looking for products that are durable and good-quality, products that have a story to tell or “carry hand luggage around with them,” as Stefan Diez puts it. His Houdini chair for German furniture label e15 is a perfect example. By the way: our making-of feature also shows how designers’ inventiveness and manufacturers’ innovativeness can produce an extremely useful side-effect: effective copy protection. As for us, we don’t mind being copied and quoted at all. Provided the source and copyrights are stated, all the texts and photo materials in this folder are available free of charge – for editorial purposes and purely journalistic publications only, of course. The layouted version is a service for the press – nothing more and nothing less. Because the visualisation of business-related themes can be something of a challenge, the content folder includes several unusual ideas. We would ask that you kindly inform us of any publication and, if applicable, send us some specimen copies. Best wishes from Cologne,

Markus Majerus P.S.: Our next content folder (due for publication in mid-November) will contain numerous professional assessments and concrete examples of the latest interior trends.

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Number Games Self-fulfilment through creative living In 2008, Germans invested an average of 680 euros in couches, cabinets and kitchens – thus investing far more money in bookshelves and the like than in their libraries, which were topped up with books worth 9.614 billion euros (total sales 2008). The Italians spent far less money on the dolce vita, investing an average of 559 euros on furnishing their homes.* The “smart” segment of the imm cologne 2010 is almost booked out, with close to 100 companies signed up to exhibit in Halls 7 and 8. Famous brands like CS Schmal, Tvilum-Scanbirk ApS, Welle Möbel, Wiemann and Parisot will be showing their innovative furnishing concepts under the Young Lifestyles label. imm cologne,19.-24.01.2010 Public days: 23. and 24.01.2010

* Sources: www.hdh-ev.de, Buch und Buchhandel in Zahlen 2008 (published by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels)

Number Games I 5

Photo: Koelnmesse, Karsten Jipp (IMM10_BD1301_01)

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Number Games Filling a tall order The Germans are getting taller. 43 percent of German men are over 1.80 metres tall, and even 2 percent of women attain the same lofty heights. When you’re as tall as that, a standard 2-metre bed can be a bit of a squeeze. But these days covers measuring 155 x 220 cm are no longer a rarity and specialist retailers are offering an increasingly wide selection of beds, mattresses and slatted frames in this comfort size.* The “sleep” segment in Hall 9 has also grown continuously over the last few years. A key component of this hall is again the presentation of the German Mattress Industry Association, which will be proclaiming its “Year of Good Sleep” at the imm cologne. imm cologne, 19.-24.01.2010 Public days: 23. and 24.01.2010

* Source: www.hdh-ev.de

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Photo: Koelnmesse, Karsten Jipp (IMM10_BD1301_02)

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Number Games Buying furniture: the new man’s thing Whilst you still might not encounter lone specimens of the male species in furniture shops all that often, their number is growing steadily. 10 percent of all men in Germany have purchased furniture alone at least once.* Although that’s partly due to the fact that Germany has a very high share of single men (more than 4.3 million households), it’s also because, having already ventured into the once female territories of “fashion” and “cosmetics”, men are now discovering the fascination of “house & home” as well. Slowly but surely, a purely masculine target group is emerging for the furniture sector, allowing it to home in on particularly design-savvy men. The most interesting international design developments that are poised to hit the market will be presented in an ideas show in Halls 3, 10 and 11 featuring such emotional brands as COR, interlübke, Ligne Roset, Walter Knoll, Domaniecki, de Sede, Kettnaker, Fraubrunnen, Girsberger, Team 7, Riva and Gervasoni. imm cologne, 19.-24.01.2010 Public days: 23. and 24.01.2010

Just plain genius Graphic designer Karsten Jipp works as an art director in a large corporate design agency. He lives and works in Berlin, where he discovered photography as an outlet for totally unencumbered creativity and soon attracted a large fan community with the snapshots and artistic scenographies he published on the photocase platform. His photos reveal the absurdity of the everyday and the poetry of little things; they symbolise joy and sadness, megalomania and vulnerability. But his pictures are always full of humour too – and never entirely without sympathy. The hallmark of his visual language: staging himself as a protagonist with (all too) human sensibilities. He slips into any role and doesn’t shrink from any manipulation to capture his surprisingly clear-sighted perspective of the world on camera. The staged-yet-spontaneous quality of his pictures, however, is entirely due to his working technique: the automatic shutter release gives him just ten seconds to put himself in the picture. * Source: www.hdh-ev.de

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Photo: Koelnmesse, Karsten Jipp (IMM10_BD1301_03)

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Stefan Diez is one of Germany’s most internationally acclaimed designers. His often very successful designs are a combination of classic elegance, perfect craftsmanship and an ambitious will to find the right form derived from the material – as he recently proved with his CH Houdini chair for the e15 label. Born in Freising near Munich in 1971, he completed an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker before studying industrial design at Stuttgart Art Academy. He worked briefly for Richard Sapper (USA) and, after graduating, spent two years with Konstantin Grcic (Munich) before founding his own design studio in Munich in 2003. Stefan Diez has received numerous design honours: the “Design Report Award” (2002) for the Big Bin storage system; the “Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany” (2006) for the Genio oven-to-table range he designed for Rosenthal-Thomas; the imm cologne’s “Material Innovation Award” (2007) for his UPON bench for Schönbuch and, this year, the iF gold award (2009) for Thonet’s 404F chair. In 2006, he caused a sensation at the imm cologne with his interpretation of the “ideal house” installation format. “In my ideal house, living takes place in a multiplicity of self-made worlds and conceptions, with furnishings being on the same level as our clothes, our cars, our music, or the cities in which we live in. My ideal house is therefore a house full of details and the opposite of stereotyped living concepts,” says Diez in his blog. He lives and works in Munich. As well as his projects in the furniture and tableware segments – for clients such as Authentics, Rosenthal, Thonet, Moroso, Schönbuch, Wilkhahn and e15 – Diez is also a prolific exhibition designer. He has been a professor of product design at Karlsruhe University of Art and Design since 2007. Further information: www.stefan-diez.de

Photo: Thonet; 404 H (IMM10_BD0201_12)

Interview Stefan Diez I 11

Interview Stefan Diez “In the end, the equation has to work out somehow.”

Photo: Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_01)

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Photo: Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_02)

Interview Stefan Diez I 13

Stefan Diez “All too often, manufacturers try to get out of inventing something new by focussing on their classics.”

Photo: Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_06)

 Mr. Diez, you might still be one of the “young” designers, but you’re also a very successful one. As you make your way through the halls of the furniture fairs, are you tingling with creative urges or do you stay pretty calm?  I don’t really know. Trade fairs actually tend to confuse me, and when they’re over I suffer from something I call a tradeshow hangover – regardless of which fair I’ve been to. And if it turns out to be a Vanity Fair, I feel really shattered afterwards because a lot of it suddenly seems so banal.

design. For some stupid reason, everyone crowds around furniture design, around a few chairs – which, at the end of the day, are totally overrated and reflect a totally distorted picture of design’s relevance for society. These days even students are honed for furniture design; they know how to play to the media and which blogs they have to get into if they want to overcome critical mass and get public attention in a globalised arena. When we were students, Richard Sapper didn’t tell us anything about furniture design. There was no focus on it at all. He much preferred to tell us about his projects with Shimano or IBM.

 Is design banal?  I just think it’s a shame that the public focuses so much on furniture design and industrial design gets much less attention – apart from the iF and Red Dot catalogues, of course. Nowhere near enough is written about industrial

 What leads to a designer being discovered?  The scene is very much influenced by the media. They pick up on what might be of interest to the public or what will make a good story. At the end of the day, it’s a question of the pictures too: Is it camera-friendly?

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Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_05)

Interview Stefan Diez I 15

Is the designer able to express himself or herself well? Anything that isn’t compatible in those terms is very difficult to find a slot for. In furniture design, it’s not unusual for the exact opposite to happen: a product that was designed for publication in the media can turn out to be far too visually dominant in reality. Then you end up feeling really appalled at the effect the five chairs have once they’re placed round the table.  But haven’t visual aspects been crucial to your success too?  Yes, of course. In the ideal house we did for the imm cologne 2006, for instance, my first priority was the way our products were presented. The “ideal house”, which is what it was actually supposed to be, ended up looking like a huge workshop because, at that time, a lot of things were still in the process of evolving and I hardly had any products on the market at all. Showing the interim steps and the environment made the products tangible and understandable, without having to make them the centre of attention or put them on a throne. My first suggestion for the ideal house didn’t actually include any furniture or products at all, but I couldn’t get away with it.  Did the ideal house project change anything for you?  It led to huge changes. A lot of people got an insight into our work and there was a lot of interest afterwards – Koelnmesse went to great expense and effort to promote the project. Although we were already in contact with Wilkhahn beforehand, the project led to other clients like Thonet. At the end of the day, even with the ideal house, the communication after the event was all about pictures. But the people who were actually there got a great deal more out of it. That was important to me. You just have to come to terms with it and develop new perspectives for dealing with it.  So if thinking in pictures plays such a crucial role nowadays, the very nature of industrial design means it has a pretty hard time of it: it’s just not as attractive and there are fewer media that cover it…  To begin with, nobody’s interested in industrial design. Nobody knows who made the vacuum cleaner

he uses. But it isn’t only the media and consumers who are to blame, of course: the companies are also at fault because, for far too long, they took a mainly marketingoriented approach. So the yardstick was always the average customer – who, far from having a pronounced opinion, is just a totally uninteresting, fabricated construct. That leads to everything being concentrated on achieving a compromise – even though marginal positions and radical opinions are a whole lot more exciting! And I’m convinced perfectly normal customers appreciate that kind of thing more as well.  But don’t companies have to define themselves in terms of their customers?  That only ought to be one aspect of it. I think the problem is that, for the last 30 years, most firms haven’t given any thought to their own DNA or their own attitude; they’ve only concentrated on getting as big a slice of the cake as possible – and ended up making themselves soft and pliable. That’s led to a lot of mediocrity. Braun is probably the most famous example. And yet the design of Dieter Rams and his colleagues, which is what the company owed its success to in the first place, definitely wasn’t marketing-driven – it was visionary, there was passion behind it. Apple is another good example. They didn’t ask customers what they’d like either – somebody had a good idea and that idea shaped the market. You used to find that kind of energy in a lot of German companies, but it’s fallen by the wayside in a lot of cases. Firms seem to believe they’ve got to make something for the market.  But there are plenty of daring design developments out there again right now…  Yes, but that scene is focusing too much on furniture design again, and that soon leads to overload in that particular segment. But I’m convinced there’ll be a U-turn and a lot of designers will see and want a future for themselves outside the furniture sector. We’re striving very hard for that right now ourselves.  

As in your collaboration with Merten? Yes, even though that collaboration unfortunately

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came to an end after 1 ½ years. But things seem to be moving again now. We’ll see.  Why did it come to a halt?  I assume it’s mainly because the firm is now part of the French Schneider Group and they’ve got their own marketing department and different strategies. After that kind of acquisition, the whole marketing approach and even the continuation of a brand are suddenly under the microscope. As a designer, you just can’t work properly if you get caught up in that kind of thing. Designers have a fundamental interest in establishing a long-term relationship with a client because it takes time to turn an idea into reality.  Is it still possible to find that kind of working relationship in Germany?  As far as design is concerned, there’s plenty to do in Germany. After all, most of these companies are all still there – they just have to be reinvented.  But as a rule, a brand that’s been bought out isn’t usually developed much further, because it’s precisely this fixed image that the buyer wants to sell.  That’s true, of course. And that brings us to the whole retro thing. It’s a real pain because manufacturers try to get out of inventing something new by focussing on their classics. That’s all right for a while, because the brand image survives even when the brand has long ceased to represent the things it’s associated with. In people’s minds, the brand is still intact. But even a brand like Rosenthal will eventually go to the wall – even without the added problems of an economic crisis – if it doesn’t manage to decide on a certain focus and thinks it can use its name to conquer the mass market. That won’t work forever.  But today’s consumers demand quality at an inexpensive price … 30 years ago people couldn’t consume as much as they do now because products were of much higher quality and, in relation to people’s incomes, much more expensive as well. There was a limit to the number of shavers

you could afford. Rosenthal was always a luxury item. But today it’s really cheap! As a niche manufacturer, it’s difficult to invest in the mass market and appeal to a clientele that’s not the slightest bit interested in the history associated with the product, a clientele that couldn’t care less about the product culture or the story, which has partly been created by journalism. Those customers have no interest at all in the hand luggage products carry around with them. Even a layman might realise the china is good quality, but even if the plate only costs 22 euros, it’s still ten times the price of something from Ikea. Like I said, when it comes to satisfying basic needs, the hand luggage is just unnecessary ballast, whereas for people who weigh their buying decisions up very carefully, it’s indispensable.  So the general trend seems to be that the gap between expensive, high-quality products and inexpensive mass-produced products is widening. But surely a phenomenon like limited edition design just wouldn’t be possible if that wasn’t the case?  That’s a whole different subject. Limited editions show just how much art and design are converging. A lot of the stuff being sold as art today is actually just a perfectly normal product that’s been given a history. The only thing that makes it so interesting is that it’s the only one of its kind in existence. Of course it’s elitist, but strictly speaking it’s still just a product. These days it’s extremely rare for art to be critical or arrive at astonishing results. It’s often nothing more than a synthetic product that somebody’s made. It’s not much different with industrial design, which is usually also about the content and emotion conveyed by the product. As often as not, the lot size is the only difference.  But that’s a pretty unusual way of looking at it. The connection is usually made the other way round, by claiming that design is becoming more and more like art because it’s becoming increasingly elitist.  In my opinion it’s exactly the opposite: I think art is becoming much too like design. For industry, the marketing thing is all part of it: We’ll give the product a history, even if it’s only a toothbrush, but we don’t expect any

Interview Stefan Diez I 17

Photo: Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_03)

more from it than you’d expect from any toothbrush, i.e. it should fulfil its function in a certain way. And in that respect, art isn’t all that different from design any more.

i.e. abandoning the firms that produce the majority of consumer goods and make it possible for these things to reach perfectly normal people.

 Are you a critic of limited edition design?  Not necessarily. I just think cutting corners by selling the stuff via galleries could potentially lead to a short circuit. It excludes one of the factors in the equation: the producer, manufacturer or publisher who makes the design process so complex and difficult. A designer who knows his client, i.e. the gallery owner, works in a totally different way to somebody who designs for a big market and therefore needs the producer as an agent and sales partner, because he always has to adopt the brand’s perspective. So the question isn’t whether or not a designer should do something like that – because some of the stuff it leads to is really fantastic – but whether he will start taking this short-cut all the time because the other option requires too much effort. But that would mean leaving companies behind when you embark on this journey –

 What is Germany like as a design location in that respect?  Even if Germany isn’t directly associated with furniture design, it actually ought to be a very attractive place for designers – especially if they take industrial design seriously. Because in contrast to many other countries, Germany still has the industry that’s needed if their ideas are to go into production. And we don’t call ourselves industrial designers for nothing: it’s pretty obvious we’re interested in collaborating. It’s just that we need to establish a new dialogue with these companies. But perhaps the lack of exchange is partly due to the fact that big companies just don’t have an interface for external ideas any more.

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Photo: Thonet; 404 F (IMM10_BD0201_13)

Photo: Wilkhahn; Chassis (IMM10_BD0201_10)

Photo: e15; CH04 Houdini (IMM10_BD0201_11)

Interview Stefan Diez I 19

Photo: Koelnmesse; ideal house, imm cologne 2006 (IMM10_BD0201_14)

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Photo: Koelnmesse, Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_07)

Interview Stefan Diez I 21

 Maybe there’s a lack of suitable platforms too. At least furniture designers have got the Salone Satellite in Milan or the D3 design talents forum at the imm cologne.  I really like the design talents show at the imm cologne. It’s great that the Cologne fair has it curated and doesn’t just set up one design shop after the other as they’re increasingly fond of doing in Milan. It’s so confusing and usually a real disappointment as far as the presentation is concerned – so much so that I didn’t even go and look at it this year. I assume a lot of people have to get into horrible debt to pay for being there, and then they want attention at any price.  So it’s important that the general set-up in Cologne is a bit more relaxed?  I thought the calibre of what Koelnmesse did was really good – and with 30 or 40 presentations, it was a manageable size too. I think I’m right in saying that, as an exhibitor, you even get your hotel paid for. I know that because a former employee of mine was lucky enough to take part. I thought that was a much better way of going about things.  You’re right, the design talents show is sponsored by the fair, which of course makes it a lot more authentic because they don’t have to make money on it. But if the industrial infrastructure for furniture design is more interesting in other countries, aren’t you tempted to go abroad after all?  Definitely not. What, move away from Munich? No, joking apart, I really don’t think Germany is a bad country to be in at all right now, and compared to the rest of Europe it’s actually in a pretty good position. The federal structure also has its advantages, especially for cities: housing is affordable, there’s no property bubble and there’s plenty of greenery, even in the centre of town: I can be swimming in the Isar within five minutes of leaving the office. Because of the high fixed costs, a metropolis like London is a totally different kettle of fish.  But I don’t suppose you can complain that you haven’t got enough work?

No, it’s not that. But the financing is always an issue – not only for designers who are just starting out. These days you’ve got to have a lot of products on the market if you want to live on the royalties. The starting fee is actually no more than start-up financing, a kind of consolation prize, if you like, because it only actually covers a small part of the costs.  So a designer can’t really afford to work for an ailing client, because he’s compelled to be successful?  That’s right, there’s no other way. The projects we’re now famous for have cost us a lot of time and money in the past. Sometimes it’s pure coincidence whether a project takes off or not.  What do you mean?  As a designer, you always hit a point where you no longer have any control over the way your product is portrayed or how it’s marketed. I also happen to think it’s a mistake to give the sales division a stake by paying them commission. That’s how Rosenthal ended up spending years selling pasta plates rather than its new collections. For the sales division, explaining a new and perhaps not entirely simple product is a lot harder and a lot less attractive – especially if the margin is lower. They prefer to fall back on the classics, on proven, simple products that sell all by themselves.  And media publications naturally play a role in that… Of course, and that’s why tableware like New Wave from Villeroy & Boch is so successful, because it’s so obviously different than anything that’s gone before it: a new shape, camera-friendly china. After all, the problem the flatware industry faces is that a flat white plate just doesn’t stand out against a white background. So of course having the backing of the media makes it a lot easier for the sales division to accept something new.  You’d think a famous designer could exert a certain amount of pressure on the company, right?  No, pressure is the wrong word. Influence is a better expression for the positive effect of a long-term collaboration. Of course I’m interested in how for instance

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Wilkhahn develops. The company is strongly influenced by its own attitude to design, an attitude that was developed in the 1980s. The only way to tackle the task of supporting the development of a brand like that is to take a long-term approach and come up with plenty of new products.  And what does that kind of approach lead to? We’re currently working on a new product concept with Wilkhahn. It will probably be a few years before it hits the market, but you have to give it time. If you exert too much pressure and don’t give a company the space it needs to adapt to new ideas, you end up achieving the opposite of what you set out to do, a kind of allergic reaction. And it’s not just the executives who have to understand the idea – it has to seep through the management all the way down to the sales department. It takes years for the people there to hear what the people at the top are saying.  In view of accelerating innovation cycles, isn’t a bit risky to take such a leisurely approach? Maybe, but the time will come when nobody earns enough on the really new stuff any more, and then I think the intervals will automatically get longer. First of all, short development cycles mean entrepreneurs and designers earn less because the product simply doesn’t sell as often in such a short period. Secondly, for the manufacturer, more products mean more investments. Last but not least, the product quality deteriorates as well. At the end of the day, it’s just a case of distributing your resources differently. In the end, the equation has to work out somehow. Text and interview: Claudia Wanninger Photos: Andreas Körner

Interview Stefan Diez I 23

Photo: Koelnmesse; Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_04)

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Photo: e15; CH04 Houdini; Design: Stefan Diez (IMM10_BD0202_01)

Making-of I 25

Making-of: CH04 Houdini (e15) A Chair with No Snags

It looks different somehow, the new chair from e15. That in itself is quite a feat, for nothing seems to fascinate product designers more than this primordial piece of furniture. “Houdini” looks strangely familiar and nevertheless modern. But the combination of old and new is more than skin-deep. Even though you can’t really tell by looking at it, the core of the all-wood chair was designed and manufactured using state-of-the-art technology – and is the ingenious creation of designer Stefan Diez. Stefan Diez has already shown he has a knack for chairs with his designs for Thonet and Wilkhahn. Then German furniture brand e15 asked the Munich designer to create a whole family of chairs. The first question he asked himself was what a chair would have to look like in order to harmonise with e15’s archetypal tables. The first few models in the same vein didn’t help. “We realised we needed something with totally different forms, something that was the exact opposite of e15’s language, otherwise the two things would just cancel each other out,” says Stefan Diez of his approach. As we talk, the rain beats a constant, monotonous rhythm on the skylight of his studio. But not even the June downpour can detract from the sense of concentration evoked by the dry-as-sawdust workshop character of his office. Models are stacked one on top the other and the visitor lives in constant fear of mistakenly sitting down on a not entirely steady prototype. So it was to be light and somehow gently curved, the chair to go with the linear tables. Rustic in a classic way, but modern as well. There were also mandatory requirements to be considered: e15’s philosophy of simplicity and the choice of material: wood. The second question was how a concept based on stringent forms with the quasi-rustic lightness that Diez had in mind could be achieved without having to build moulds or use plastic. In the end, the idea came from the observation that the paper models frequently used by Diez have a very special aesthetic quality to them. The process involves notching individual strips of paper and stapling them together to create more complex seat forms.

Craftsmanship and high-tech And so Diez built a chair out of strips. Each and every part of the chair started out flat. The volume of the shell results from bending the just 4-mm-thick, oak-veneered plywood. With its construction, Diez stretched the bounds of feasibility. He took his cues from a technique for bending planks over frames otherwise used in shipbuilding or glider construction. In Houdini’s case, the thin plywood boards are stretched over a wood core by hand, glued and fastened into place. It took a lot of experimentation and dozens of models to find a shape that the wood could withstand despite the high degree of strain. The slope of the backrest and seat frame is dictated by a ring of solid wood that forms the basis of the seat; a slanted guide is milled into it, the angle of which changes continuously around the entire circumference. This ring is nothing short of built-in copy protection: it is based on complicated calculations and can only be made using CNC milling technology. The surfaces stretched around it balance one another out and describe a very individual line that can never be entirely predicted by the design software. Diez compares the balanced, very naturallooking tension of these surfaces with “a virgin sheet of paper that you fold for the first time.” The graphics created by the lamellar structure became the decisive design language of the CH40 Houdini family, which currently consists of one chair with and one chair without armrests. The scale-like assembly is the most apparent in the version without armrests. It is precisely the bulky details that Diez relishes in – even if, as he says, you have to learn to understand them before you can appreciate them. The first, black-lacquered wooden model is very similar to the final product but makes a slightly smoother, less filigree impression. Nevertheless, it took Diez six months to transfer the qualities of the initial design to the final prototypes. The crucial difference is no doubt the extent to which the backrest overlaps the frame that mediates between it and the seat and is turned down like a hat brim at the front. In the comfortable armrest chair, this transition looks softer and the emphasis given to the construction method by bending the “brim” of the simple “kitchen

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Illustration: Stefan Diez (IMM10_BD0202_02)

chair” variant is abandoned in favour of a high, protective shell. The more striking silhouette of the version without armrests has a dynamic quality that reinforces the lightness of the chair’s appearance. There were of course technical reasons for making the backrest overlap the frame as well – if the wooden parts were glued together at the edges, the backrest would break off. But for Diez, it was playing with this technical problem that represented such an attractive challenge. “In the end, it’s precisely these tricky areas that become important, because they determine whether or not a design will endure when the novelty wears off. It’s the same with music,” says Diez. For him, it’s not so much about the individual piece of furniture as finding a language of form that gives his client sufficient scope for further developments. With Houdini, e15 isn’t only getting the repertoire for an entire product family, but also the very specialised knowledge required to translate the formal principle into reality. For his current brief – the development of a lower variant for the lounge segment – Diez simply modified the formula by continuing the surrounding edge (which, in the chair, marks the front, downward-pointing edge of the seat) at an upward angle. This “strip” will later hold the cushion in place. Again, not a single screw will be used to assemble the chair. The elegant absence of any such disruptive elements accounts for much of Houdini’s fascination, even if it makes the chair all the more challenging from a technical perspective. “You always keep

Illustration: Stefan Diez (IMM10_BD0202_03)

looking for snags,” says Diez, “and it’s only when you don’t find any that you really feel satisfied.” Further information: www.e15.com www.stefan-diez.com

Making-of I 27

Photo: Koelnmesse, Andreas Körner (IMM10_BD0201_09)

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The topic of “home decor” ranks way up on the trend barometer in this autumn’s issue of H&M Magazine. According to the Swedish fashion company, people aren’t so much rejoicing in their daily outfit as in their daily furnishings. And if you feel like clicking your way through the tag clouds surrounding “Furniture” and “Living” on global photo database Flickr, you’ll find plenty of confirmation for this theory: not just inviting product shots from shrewd furniture dealers, but an abundance of private photos from some of the coolest rooms in the world as well. Text: Karin Henjes

Market: Facts and figures I 29

Facts and figures on the situation of the German furniture industry Home styling is in – buying furniture too?

For Dirk-Uwe Klaas, CEO of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM) in Bad Honnef, it’s obvious why home styling has finally been discovered as the latest hot topic: “People spend approx. 340 days a year in their own home. That’s why an increasing number of people are coming to see home as a place for self-fulfilment. Nowhere else can you indulge your own tastes as freely as in your own four walls.” Cars instead of sofas – a lean period for German furniture manufacturers But even if home styling has become a cult – is it actually still possible to make money with furniture in the face of shrinking private budgets and the massively subsidised bargains available on the automotive market right now? At first glance, the German furniture industry’s half-yearly figures indicate a resounding “no”. With sales of 7.6 billion euros, German furniture manufacturers were an alarming 13.8 percent or 1.2 billion euros down on the previous year’s figure. However, in view of the unique economic situation right now, any serious answer to the profitability question must take account of figures from earlier years as well. Back in 2008, for instance, the results painted a very different picture: furniture producers ended the year with growth of 1.6 percent. Although there was a slight decline in domestic sales, this was more than offset by export growth of 4.3 percent as compared to the previous year. “Destination Germany” – furniture exchange for the world Furniture “made in Germany” is particularly popular with French, Dutch and German dealers. At least in the first half of 2009, these three countries were the main sales markets for German furniture manufacturers. However, Germany itself is also one of the most popular sales markets in the international arena. Andreas Bogdanski, CEO of the Steinhoff Europe Upholstery Group from Westerstede: “Compared to the rest of the world, Germany is still the most important furniture market – albeit the most difficult as well. The global furniture industry focuses on Germany for two reasons: it is equally important as both a sales market and a trend platform.”

For almost 60 years now, the crystallisation point for this exchange of goods and inspiration has been the international furniture fair imm cologne. Every January, manufacturers and dealers from all over the world gather for a few days in Cologne, at the heart of central Europe, and determine the course the coming year will take. The latest figures for the furniture year 2008 to be published by the Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL) in Milan offer convincing proof of why Germany occupies such a key position within Europe. Only one other country in the world imports as much furniture as Germany – the USA. In 2008, the United States imported furniture with a total value of approx. 16.3 billion euros. According to VDM statistics, Germany’s import volume was around half that figure: 7.8 billion euros. However, if the populations of the two countries are included in the equation, the Germans can confidently call themselves the world’s ultimate furnishing champions. Autumn is furniture season – retailers are optimistic And so it is only logical that, in the land of the most loyal Ikea customers in the world, the furniture retail sector should continue to expand its sales area. The most dazzling performance was staged this summer, when smart furniture retailer XXXLutz opened a new store in Aschheim, Bavaria. The Austrian furniture giant – the third-biggest furniture retailer after Ikea and Höffner – thus added an upmarket furnishing palace boasting 49,000 square metres of sales place and a “green” power generation system to its increasingly dense network of retail outlets. Just three days earlier, Ikea had demonstrated its own investment strength: Germany’s 45th Ikea branch opened its doors in Würzburg on June 29th. Not wanting to miss out on this game of furniture poker, the Berlin-based Höffner chain presented a completely modernised branch in Leipzig on August 5th. All three players have plans to open yet more stores in cities like Lübeck, Hamburg or Berlin. Come to think of it, rarely has the mood amongst German furniture manufacturers contrasted so sharply with the atmosphere in the retail sector. Whereas the industry suffered a double-digit decline in sales in the first half of the year (see above), Germany’s furniture retailers are sitting relatively pretty. In its June 2009 furniture in-

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Dirk-Uwe Klaas (IMM10_BD0701_01)

Andreas Bogdanski (IMM10_BD0701_03)

Market: Facts and figures I 31

furniture season. And the greater the competition in retail and manufacturing, the more the royal couple, King and Queen Customer, stand to benefit.

Hans Strothoff (IMM10_BD0701_02)

dex, BBE Handelsberatung München reported slight sales growth of 0.3 % as compared to the first half of 2008. Hans Strothoff, president of the Federal Association of the German Furniture, Kitchen and Furnishings Industry (Bundesverband der deutschen Möbelindustrie, BVDM) in Cologne and CEO of MHK, a service and marketing association for showhouse kitchens, is cautiously optimistic about the situation in specialised retail: “In times like these certainty is a rare thing, so it’s hardly surprising that people’s homes are becoming increasingly important to them. Retailers are sensing this – which is why they would be wise to ensure their range and service are consistent with this trend.” And what’s still selling in furniture retail right now? According to the latest furniture index for the months January to August, kitchen dealers are reporting a 0.3% increase – convincing proof that, no matter how difficult times might be, Germans set great store by their kitchens. In contrast, discount furniture retailers are falling slightly behind with a 0.1% decline. Nevertheless, it is still too early – even for the German furniture industry – to start lamenting or rejoicing. For it is now, at this very moment, that the furniture business in Germany is about to reach its annual peak: autumn is

Flamboyant colours, high-tech, home trials – furniture dealers are pulling out all the stops This autumn furniture fans can look forward to a host of attractive services if they buy from specialist retailers. They can put their sofa groups together however they like. The choice of cover fabrics now includes flamboyant shades like Aubergine or Bordeaux, intelligent materials with a totally natural look or the ingredients for an individual mix of colours and patterns within a single sofa. Kitchens are being fitted with bespoke accuracy, with fashionably coloured high-gloss fronts and interior lighting on demand – plus a host of other high-tech solutions for the man in the kitchen. Mattress specialists aren’t just offering expert advice on how to get a good night’s sleep and ensure a healthy home, they’re even letting customers take the mattress home and try it out – preferably accompanied by plenty of information material for in-depth study. Faced with increasing pressure from other countries, online dealers and the outlet business, German furniture manufacturers and specialist retailers are offering increasingly sophisticated products and services in other product categories too. 340 days a year are a long time – a time when people want to feel protected yet indulge themselves by letting off some creative steam. In order to turn their home into a cocoon that shields them from an unpredictable outside world and prepare it to handle a threat of unknown magnitude and form, many people are again turning to furnishings that promise permanence and quality. That, at least, is the assessment of the international Trendboard that identifies the interior trends for the coming year on behalf of the imm cologne. And a glance at the product of this collaboration between designers, architects and material experts – the Trend Book published in September – reveals that many a family living room is being designed to be warm, colourful and snug, with forms reminiscent of cakes and sumptuous upholstery – in short, a solid, stable world. And so perhaps, at the end of the day, it is precisely people’s desire for durability and dependability in design that will nurture the solidity of the sector.

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Photo: H.G.Esch, Walter Knoll Stand imm cologne 2008; Living Landscape; Design: EOOS (IMM10_BD0801_07)

Company I 33

Company: Walter Knoll Seeking out gaps with designers

another good example. Created by Amsterdam architectural firm UNStudio, for whom co-founder Ben van Berkel also designs furniture, it unfolds its effect like a sculpture in space. Impressive from all angles, the lounge chair presents a variety of changing faces. Slanting sections alternate with rounded and straight areas. The upholstery sculpts convex and concave forms. Intense colours create dynamic duets. All the models are enhanced with lavish details such as hand-sewn seams of parallel stitching or fine piping and channelling. The Herrenberg company sees its furniture as inviting and prestigious, likable and distinctive. It is meant to embody perfect craftsmanship with top quality materials and outstanding design. The company’s success bears this philosophy out: today Walter Knoll products can be found at Hearst Tower in New York, the Reichstag in Berlin, the Tate Gallery, the Commercial Bank in Dubai or the lounges of international airports. Photo: Markus Benz; Walter Knoll (IMM10_BD0801_01)

Walter Knoll, one of Germany’s oldest manufacturers of upholstered furniture, cultivates a close partnership with designers and architects – an approach that is key to the company’s success. “New products evolve out of thorough communication, immersing yourself in processes and clarifying ideas. We seek out gaps together, looking for the right opening for something that has never been done before,” says CEO Markus Benz.

From a 1930s Dornier aircraft to the most modern university on the Red Sea Despite the global economic and financial crisis, the company has every reason to be optimistic about the future. Sales for the first half of 2009 were up on the previous year. This success is partly due to some important major contracts in recent months, but also – and in no small measure – to the high design quality of the products. Not without reason has Walter Knoll won the renowned Red Dot Design Award no fewer than five times this year alone.

Benz, head of the Herrenberg-based company since 1993, sets great store by communication. It is a recurring theme that is also reflected in the company’s products. Take the Ameo lounge chairs by Austrian design team EOOS, for instance: they are ideal for relaxing with friends and putting the world to rights. The island-like swivel chairs can be turned to face one another for a conversation or away from the crowd for a moment of reflection, open to new perspectives. Or Living Landscape – another EOOS design. The sides and back turn with the seat and change their position. The result is a new angle on things, a new spatial impression. What never changes is the clear form, the solidity, stability and top-quality workmanship. MYchair is

The ground for this positive development was prepared in 2008, a successful year that ended with growth of seven percent. Like so many other brand-name companies that have created a permanent home for themselves in the premium design segment, the firm is internationally positioned. Sales of Walter Knoll AG & Co. KG, including those of its Australian subsidiary and its licensed partner in the USA, amounted to 63 million euros. Exports of Walter Knoll products accounted for 54 percent of sales. Major projects in Germany and abroad have safeguarded the company’s success even in difficult times and include the lobby seating for the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi

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Photo: Walter Knoll; MYchair; Design: Ben van Berkel (IMM10_BD0801_03)

Arabia – with a volume of 1.5 million euros, the biggest contract in the company’s history to date. One of the most modern universities in the world was erected on a site covering 36 square kilometres on the shores of the Red Sea. The quality of the seating is an apt expression of the university’s striving for excellence. More than anything else, however, Walter Knoll regards assertive product development as absolutely crucial to its long-term success – a policy that has been sustaining the brand for years and ensures it is perfectly positioned for the future. “The only way for us to safeguard our success is to defend our position as an innovation leader,” says Markus Benz. The company, which looks back on a 140-year history, produces upholstered furniture, executive office furniture and conference room ranges for use in both residential and commercial settings. At Walter Knoll, innovative products are created in close collaboration with successful designers and architects – including Norman Foster from Great Britain, EOOS from Austria, Ben van Berkel from the Netherlands or Kengo Kuma from Japan. The designs

Photo: Walter Knoll; Foster510; Design: Foster+Partners (IMM10_BD0801_04)

strive to achieve an aesthetic reconciliation between private spaces and public scenographies. Walter Knoll has been cultivating this special partnership with designers and architects ever since the company was founded in 1865: Germany’s oldest upholstered furniture brand has been creating furniture classics for six generations. Passengers who boarded the first wide-bodied Dornier aircraft DO X in the 1930s used Walter Knoll furniture, as did the inhabitants of the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart. Vostra, a beech armchair, became the first major seating line of the post-war period. Design quality pays – especially in times of crisis When the firm was taken over by the Benz family in 1993 Markus Benz, Rolf Benz’ eldest son, turned Walter Knoll into a modern, international company. He pulled off the difficult balancing act of reconciling commitment to the brand with the demands made of contemporary furniture. Both brand and design are intended to formulate and convey the aesthetic culture of modernism and the entrepreneurial values of a medium-sized company. Design and architecture serve as the starting point and driving

Company I 35

Photo: Walter Knoll; George Lounge; Design: EOOS. (IMM10_BD0801_05)

force behind new developments – Walter Knoll aims to influence the way we live with intelligent design. Markus Benz sees communication and carefully nurtured relationships as the secret to his success. The right partners and long-term collaboration pave the way for new solutions – a process, he believes, that draws its strength from the synergy between marketing, product development and design. “A shared ability to sit down and analyse things together is one of the keys to our success,” says Markus Benz. Right now, during the global crisis, Walter Knoll is reaping the benefits of its product quality and internationally acclaimed, award-winning design more than ever before. Customers are looking for products that promise enduring quality. Durability means taking an ecological approach right from the outset – especially when it comes to design. “If something lasts and is liked for a long time, it doesn’t generate much waste and thus fosters an economic approach to natural resources,” says Markus Benz. Further information: www.walterknoll.de

Markus Benz, shareholder and CEO of Walter Knoll AG & Co. KG, has been head of the company since 1993. He cultivates close partnerships with designers and architects. MYchair: With its lively forms, the avant-garde lounge chair looks like a sculpture in space. Intense colours pair up to create dynamic duets. The combination of convex and concave forms results in a host of different faces – from any perspective. Foster 510: Minimal form, maximum comfort – with a nostalgic hint of the classic English club armchair. The volumes are defined by fine piping and channelling. Hundreds of pocket springs provide the perfect support for sophisticated sitting. George: The cantilever chair George is meticulously crafted and offers a host of lovingly executed details such as hand-sewn seams of parallel stitching. Text: Sybille Hilgert

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Photo: LEONARDO; LEO living (IMM10_BD0601_03)

Photo: LEONARDO; LEO kitchen (IMM10_BD0601_04)

Interview Oliver Kleine I 37

Oliver Kleine, Leonardo How malleable is a brand?

Photo: Oliver Kleine; LEONARDO (IMM10_BD0601_01)

In recent years, the brand with the white clouds in its emblem has evolved from a glass and giftware provider into a modern lifestyle brand. Today around 80 percent of the German population know LEONARDO, the 1972registered lifestyle brand of the Glaskoch company from Bad Driburg where, since its opening in May 2007, the LEONARDO glass cube has been giving the brand a constructed architectural face. This year CEO Oliver Kleine celebrated the company’s 150th anniversary. LEONARDO originally conveyed an Italian attitude to life. In the 1980s, its design language was characterised by the Bauhaus style with a dash of Memphis – dreams in glass that were affordable, decorative and attractively designed. The brand aims for modern design and innovation in both its products and its architecture. By collaborating with designers such as Ron Arad (who created LEONARDO’s cuboid “Half a Dozen” eggcups), Phoenix Design (responsible for the “Nanna” glass jug) or Ross Lovegrove (who designed a futuristic-looking carafe with a nondrip cover and glasses), LEONARDO has been steadily moving away from the harmless cloud image which, as a trademark, has adorned many a gift over the years.

One classic LEONARDO product is the “Swing” glass, a 1998-design by Ingrid Bergér, whose works have been influencing LEONARDO’s design language ever since the brand was founded. Other names that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a birthday gift for your godmother include Alessandro Mendini, Annette Lang, Michael Graves, Ulf Moritz and Karim Rashid. At the imm cologne 2009, LEONARDO premiered its first collection of living room, bathroom and kitchen furniture. It too has to do with glass, explains Oliver Kleine, head of the family company since 2005.

Photo: LEONARDO; class cube (IMM10_BD0601_02)

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Photo: Oliver Kleine; LEONARDO (IMM10_BD0601_07)

How do you define the term “design”? The LEONARDO design philosophy has its roots in Bauhaus, the principles of which dictate that a product should be attractive, provide the appropriate quality and be sold at a good price: you could call it the democratisation of design. How does your collaboration with designers like Ora Ito, Sebastian Conran or Karim Rashid fit into the picture? Can you really earn money with products like that – some of which are, to say the least, rather unusual. Yes, I’m convinced you can. I want to break the rule that says products that win a Red Dot award in the “Tableware” category just don’t sell. There are plenty of good design products out there that do sell well. We’re extremely pleased with the sales figures for the “iCon” series by Sebastian Conran, for instance. This development also brings us sophisticated new customers – and that’s good. In January you presented the new furniture brand LEONARDO living at the imm cologne. How has it panned out?

Photo: LEONARDO; LEO bath (IMM10_BD0601_05)

We set off for Cologne feeling really optimistic, but it actually even exceeded our expectations. We were surprised at the tremendously positive response to our furniture collection from clients and consumers. The people who visited our fair stand soon realised why we had decided to take LEONARDO down this path. They found our living concept very convincing. It’s a further step towards becoming a lifestyle brand. In the current economic climate, most management consultants would advise you to “stick to your core business”. That’s what we’re doing. Everything hinges on glass. We have 150 years of experience in dealing with glass. No other company in the world has taken such a conceptual approach to this fascinating material as we have. We know all the relevant glass manufacturers on the planet. We have our products produced under licence all over the world. We’re an enterprise that designs all its products itself and offers them to its partners as a concept.

Interview Oliver Kleine I 39

Photo: LEONARDO; LEO living (IMM10_BD0601_06)

You give me the impression you’ve got a very clear vision. Where will that vision take you? You’re right, I have. I’d like us to evolve from a glass provider into a lifestyle brand. We want to translate the glass experience in such a way that it can be experienced in the retail sector, and that’s what we have to achieve in our LEONARDO shops. LEONARDO wants people to experience glass with all their senses: glass for decorating, glass for furnishing, glass with a fragrance, glass you can wear... It’s a fantastic material with a tremendous history and great potential. On top of that, we want to join forces with certain institutions to develop glass in such a way that we can take glass production in a whole new direction. But it’s a vision that could well take years to realise. And what might it look like in concrete terms? The question we ask ourselves is this: What could LEONARDO be? What can you do with glass if you want to offer people something worthwhile? We’ve already got the right answers and products for a lot of those questions. More than 60 percent of Germans have the LEONARDO brand in their homes. I bet you do too.

Maybe, but I always scratch the sticky labels off ... You won’t be able to do that with the labels featuring our newly designed logo (laughs). Further information: www.leonardo.de Text and interview: Frank A. Reinhardt

LEONARDO living is a furniture brand for the upper mid-price segment. The furniture aims to convince with a classically straightforward design and high-quality ‘made-in-Germany’ workmanship. The practical furniture is based on a modular concept. The consumer can choose between various alternatives featuring wood, high-grade finishings and glass. The modular system permits individual constellations to suit personal needs, thus allowing the customer to create and enlarge on his own agenda.

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Dirk-Uwe Klaas, born 1958, has been CEO of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (Verband der Deutschen Möbelindustrie, VDM) since 1995. The VDM is the biggest trade organisation under the umbrella of the Association of the German Woodworking and Plastic Industries (Hauptverband der Deutschen Holz und Kunststoffe verarbeitenden Industrie und verwandter Industriezweige, HDH). Wood is the connecting thread running through this major lobby that consists of no fewer than 23 member associations from an extremely complex sector covering pretty much the entire spectrum of the furnishing world: furniture manufacturers and shopfitters, interior finishing including parquet, the window industry and even the prefab house segment. Within the HDH, the VDM represents sectors such as the kitchen and upholstered furniture industries as well as the furniture industry’s quality certification organisation DGM (Deutsche Gütegemeinschaft Möbel). The VDM is particularly committed to identifying and communicating furnishing trends and ideas and publishes them on a special website (www.wohninformation.de). The VDM recently published the economic data for the first half of 2009 – not a particularly pleasing interim balance for what is evidently a difficult year. In the first six months of 2009, the German furniture industry recorded sales of 7.6 billion euros – representing a decline of 13.8 percent (or 1.2 billion euros) as compared to the previous year. Even so, the number of employees remained relatively stable, only dropping by 2.6 percent within the same period. With a work force of over 91,800, that means roughly 2,500 fewer jobs in the industry than one year previously. The number of firms dropped from 558 to 553 (a decline of 0.9%). In its sales forecast for the year as a whole, the VDM anticipates a drop of 10 percent. At the same time, it expects the second half of the year to bring positive impetus from abroad and greater stability in the domestic market. Further information: www.wohninformation.de www.hdh-ev.de

Interview Dirk-Uwe Klaas I 41

Dirk-Uwe Klaas “We’re living in a time when people are refraining from quick consumption again so yes, you could say people have started to change their mentality.”

Photo: Dirk-Uwe Klaas; CEO of the Association of the German Furniture Industry/VDM (IMM10_BD07_01)

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Total Sales of the German Furniture Industry 1995 - 2008 in € bn. 20.4

20

20.1

19.5

20.2

20.1

20.3

19.7

19.5

20.3

18.4 17.3 16.7

16.9

2003

2004

17.2

15

10

5

Source: HDH; www.hdh-ev.de

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2005

2006

2007

2008

German Furniture Exports in the first half of 2009 Top 10 target countries Export value in € bn. 600 509.4 500 441.9 400

382.2

382.2

300 230.2

227.9

200 131.7

123.9

123.6

100

105.9

Po la nd

Sp ai n

U SA

ly Ita

in rit a tB re a G

Be lg iu m

Sw itz er la nd

ria st Au

Fr

an

ce N et he rla nd s

Source: HDH

Interview Dirk-Uwe Klaas I 43

 The average German only replaces his sofa with a new one every 8-12 years. Don’t you sometimes wish there was a scrapping incentive for furniture too?  We in the furniture industry aren’t calling for subsidies – we just want equal treatment for all sectors. Instead of getting people to scrap their cars, the politicians ought to be scrapping taxes for normal citizens and SMEs so they’ve got more money left in their pockets and budgets at the end of the month – money they can use however they see fit.  The imm cologne’s Trendboard is anticipating a return to more quality consciousness as a response to the economic crisis. Is “real” quality actually still affordable these days?  We’re living in a time when people are refraining from quick consumption again so yes, you could say people have started to change their mentality. They’re becoming more sensitive to how we use the world’s resources and looking for things that promise value and durability again. That’s why there’s an increasing demand for sustainability and value in our industry too. For earlier generations it was normal not to follow every furniture or clothing fashion or go along with every new style that came out. Then there was a period of rapid and changing consumption. The pleasure was often short-lived and the products interchangeable. Today a growing number of people are realising how crazy that is. In the face of globalisation and its obvious result, i.e. a further four billion people who are aspiring to our western standard of living, people are beginning to question the familiar throw-away mentality. In the furniture sector, we’re seeing a definite increase in the demand not only for lasting quality but for good design as well, enduring design that will stand the test of time. Personally, I agree with what my grandfather used to say: “We’re too poor to buy cheap furniture.”  But does quality really still pay nowadays? And is there really a connection between a product’s durability and its design?  Quality always pays. More and more people are starting to understand the connection between quality of

life and product quality. Our markets offer high-quality products at good prices in all the consumer goods sectors. We see design as a holistic concept, almost a process. Of course it includes the way something looks and feels, but it’s also about eco-friendly manufacturing, resource conservation, good ergonomics and of course the durability and later recyclability of the materials. If you interpret design like that, it’s automatically linked with product longevity. But unfortunately, design is often misunderstood. Instead of being overwhelmed by the way something looks, consumers ought to be asking what’s behind it.  Why are you so committed to ensuring German designers get professional training?  Now that design has established itself as a scientific subject in research and higher education – and nowhere else will you find such a high density as in Germany – the conditions for our young professionals are good. Considering how crucial innovations are in the furniture market these days, that’s extremely important. Furniture development is a process of evolution, not only because of buyers’ growing expectations but also in order to set yourself apart from dangerous low-price competitors. That means furniture doesn’t just have to be new, it has to be better than what came before it. Without a design strategy, that’s virtually impossible. That’s why more and more companies in the industry are collaborating with external designers who specialise in furniture. At the end of the day, it all comes down to defending your position in the top league.  Will the trend towards quality and sustainability, towards Green Design – something that designers are also advocating right now – be reflected in the broad spectrum of furniture production as well? How are producers and retailers responding to these ideas?  We have to give ourselves distinct profiles and not engage in a price war with competitors. We have to develop products that create their own market. In the long term, that’s the only way the German furniture industry can survive global competition. In view of people’s growing health awareness and environmental

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consciousness and the growing global demand, it’s obvious that Green Design will play a major role in all this. Even today, we’re seeing a growing demand for green line furniture in the German and European markets. People are asking about the production process, they’re asking about the materials used and their separability, about the product’s life cycle. Future researchers call this new clientele LOHAS, i.e. consumers who aspire to a “lifestyle of health and sustainability”. In the food sector, for instance, this group is already clearly distinguishable because the search for healthy products transcends all price segments.  What about the eco-compatibility of the raw materials your industry uses?  We’re lucky in that respect because our main material really is a renewable resource. Wood has a balanced ecological footprint, it’s cosy and sensuous and stands for nature. On top of that, the new resourcefriendly materials that designers and material developers are bringing into the picture are far more than mere experiments. That’s how the lightweight building board was born, or wood-plastic composites (WPC) made of waste wood and plastic. It’s players from the industry who set that kind of trend in motion. But it’s the retail sector that ensures they spread quickly, which is why the retail trade carries such a lot of responsibility. After all, at the end of the day, the average consumer bases his decision on what’s available.  So how will the market for a young and designsavvy but nevertheless price-sensitive public develop?  From the 1980s on, consumers in the western hemisphere started to adopt a more critical attitude; that led to a polarisation in the prices of both durable and non-durable consumer goods. Ever since, the midprice segment has been steadily collapsing in favour of premium and bargain-priced manufacturers. There’s also been an interesting change in the way Stiftung Warentest, the German equivalent of Consumer Reports, reviews products. It’s been surveying product families ever since it was founded. To start with, it always reviewed products within a certain price category and the winner was pronounced “best in class”. But today – and

this is crucial – the entire product family is compared. These days the consumer is fully aware that the price category is not the most important differentiating factor. On the one hand he expects inexpensive products to be good quality, on the other hand he no longer takes it for granted that expensive products are automatically better. It’s exactly the same thing with design. Again, there are parallels with the discount food sector. There’s nothing rubbishy, cheap or unfashionable about the products on the shelves any more. The discount stores might save on presentation, but not on the product itself. That’s what people expect from all consumer goods: at the end of the day, even if purses come in all shapes and sizes, their owners want the same things.  Will the gap between top-quality premium design and popular mass-market products continue to widen?  That’s what it looks like. At the end of the day, it’s a question of priorities and therefore also of individual conscience. Some future researchers are observing a phenomenon they call strategic consumption. The aim behind this particular form of consumption is to influence manufacturers and retailers with regard to production conditions, ingredients and transport distances. There are a lot of pointers that this is a growing trend, but to start with it will probably be largely restricted to the mature markets. A lot of the new national economies haven’t reached saturation point yet, so I’m pretty pessimistic in that respect: a lot of generations will have to experience surplus before people in those countries start changing the way they think too.  Germans love Gemütlichkeit more than anything else – which is probably why their word for this particular feeling has been adopted the world over. In Germany, is Gemütlichkeit still – or again – a more important purchase criterion than modern aesthetics or a certain design philosophy?  You’re right. People in our culture spend most of their time at home – and they’re quite happy to do so. Home is something they love and cherish, especially the Germans. Gemütlichkeit is derived from Gemüt, which

Interview Dirk-Uwe Klaas I 45

means something like a person’s soul or disposition. There’s a slightly antiquated sound to it, but there’s still nothing else like it – the very word melts in your mouth. And furnishing your own four walls to be gemütlich literally satisfies the soul. Home is where we take time out, where we feel secure. Individualisation is not compatible with a single, universally valid design philosophy or “the” modern look. But because our Gemüt, the way we think and feel, usually changes in the course of our lives, our understanding of Gemütlichkeit changes as well. Nevertheless, it will probably remain the most important single criterion when it comes to buying furniture and home accessories. A lot of people even find a sober style gemütlich.  Do you still have any of your parents’ or grandparents’ furniture at home?  I’ve got my grandmother’s hope chest from the 16th century – I love it.  The supply industry has learned a lot in recent years and made a huge contribution to the design quality of furniture. This spring the supply industry trade fair interzum provided plenty of new impetus – will we be seeing new applications for those ideas and convincing results at the imm cologne?  Yes, that’s the way it works. Thanks to the innovativeness of our suppliers, the ingredients for the furniture are getting better and better. Our sector doesn’t take an additive approach or pursue an end-of-pipe strategy. Our starting point is what the suppliers have to offer. That’s why we’re expecting to see a lot of progress at the imm cologne 2010, especially in terms of surface optimisation, lighting and electrotechnology. After all, good design feels good, LED light is great for creating atmosphere and electric motors can open drawers as if by magic. But let’s wait and see – there are plenty of world firsts out there that aren’t definite yet. Text and interview: Frank A. Reinhardt

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Photo: Interlübke (IMM10_BD0501_02)

Photo: COR (IMM10_BD0501_04)

Leo Lübke is the third generation of his family to steer the fate of interlübke and the second generation to take the helm of its younger sister COR. He is often cited as a prime example of how an owner-run family company can be managed successfully. Cohesion and strong identification with the corporate philosophy have certainly kept the brands on course over the years, even in difficult times. In the 1960s, the interlübke furniture company founded by the Lübke brothers in 1937 as a “special factory for polished bedrooms” made history with its white, infinitely extendible wall unit S07 (still sold under the original name today) and timelessly modern shelving systems. The brand has stood for quality, design and understatement in premium living room and bedroom furniture ever since. It is equally at home in the Chancellor’s Office in Berlin,

Photo: Interlübke (IMM10_BD0501_03)

elegant hotels and normal private homes. Leo Lübke took over as CEO of COR, the upholstered furniture factory founded in 1954, back in 1994. COR’s exquisite sofas, armchairs and upholstered furniture systems are widely regarded as character actors that manage to combine timelessness with an expressive design profile. Both companies are based in the town of RhedaWiedenbrück, East Westphalia, where the COR and interlübke House, comprising 5,000 m² of exhibition and office space as well as a training centre, opened its doors in 2008. The business of the internationally marketed firms is kept strictly separate. Last year interlübke’s sales totalled 43.2 million euros, COR’s 34.5 million euros. COR and interlübke are a compelling example of how quality craftsmanship and exclusive use of domestically produced components can help firms located in Germany survive despite high manufacturing costs. Stringent brand management and an unmistakable design language also play a key role. Leo Lübke, himself a design connoisseur, has been working with designers like Peter Maly for years and also collaborates with younger design teams such as Studio Vertijet or Jehs & Laub. He has good reason for sticking to a corporate philosophy based on design and quality. Further information: www.interluebke.de, www.cor.de

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Leo Lübke “It’s always better to put your money on quality.”

Photo: Leo Lübke; interlübke (IMM10_BD0501_01)

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Photo: interlübke; 40S; Design: Rolf Heide, Peter Kräling/COR; Lava; Design: Studio Vertijet (IMM10_BD0501_05)

Interview Leo Lübke I 49

 Will the gap between top-quality premium design and popular mass-market products continue to widen?  If society drifts apart, the difference between premium and consumption will get bigger as well. Let’s hope society moves closer together again. Then the gap between premium and mass market will automatically shrink.  How important is the combination of “quality” and “design” to you?  For COR and interlübke, quality and design are the two pillars that shape our brand core. For us, they are two values that indisputably belong together. They are mutually dependent. Good quality is conveyed and made visible by design. The reverse is also true: good design needs high-quality manufacturing in order to show off the product features to full advantage. In our experience, it’s always the most sophisticated designs that present the biggest challenges for manufacturing.  The imm cologne’s Trendboard is anticipating a return to more quality consciousness as a response to the economic crisis. Is “real” quality actually still affordable these days?  The durability principle is part of our corporate philosophy. In our experience, it’s always better to put your money on quality. The product’s long useful life more than makes up for the high purchase price. Products with a long life cycle conserve resources; by virtue of their very concept, they are the best contribution we can make to environmental protection.  But does quality really still pay nowadays? And is there really a connection between a product’s durability and its design?  Of course. The production of high-quality products is what justifies our existence on the market. Longevity and design quality belong inseparably together. At the end of the day, durability doesn’t just mean highquality workmanship, it also means a design that won’t go out of fashion a few years down the line.

 Does anyone who produces in Germany inevitably land in the luxury segment?  I wouldn’t say so. There are some companies in Germany that are extremely successful in the mass market too. A sector’s degree of technisation is really the decisive factor. The more that’s done by hand, the harder it is to be a cost leader. That’s why, for instance, upholstered furniture – which still involves a great deal of skilled craftsmanship – can pretty much only be produced for the high-end segment in Germany. With kitchens and pedestal units, which are manufactured very industrially, it’s a totally different story.  In the 2009 luxury ranking of German brands, COR Sitzmöbel achieved an excellent 11th place, with interlübke again occupying 15th place as the top brand for living room and bedroom furniture. What constitutes luxury and which groups of consumers dictate the parameters?  I must admit I have a problem with the word “luxury”: of course our products are meant to satisfy the very highest standards, but they’re not luxurious in the sense of “extravagant”. They’re not suitable for showing off! Our customers are very cultivated, self-confident people with excellent taste and an above-average level of education. They’re willing to spend a lot of money on good furniture that reflects their outlook on life and has a high utility benefit.  But COR is evidently associated with luxury…  Besides the product and design quality, service quality is another important area that certainly plays a major role as well. Communications in the form of ads, catalogues and an online presence also play a crucial part in image building. A very different but no less important aspect is the nature of the marketing: premium products call for equally high-quality presentation in the stores and trained staff who are enthusiastic about what they do. That’s why, at the end of our day, our good ranking is also a compliment to our extremely competent specialist retailers.

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Photo: interlübke; cube; Design: Werner Aisslinger (IMM10_BD0501_06)

Photo: interlübke; duo plus; Design: Peter Maly (IMM10_BD0501_08)

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Photo: COR; Couvert; Design: Jehs + Laub (IMM10_BD0501_07)

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 These days you never develop new products without getting a designer on board. Besides the labour, material and production costs, surely the designer represents another cost driver? What is it that makes design so expensive?  It’s a prejudice that design is always a cost driver. Good designers are generalists who bring together the knowledge of a host of specialists and try to simplify processes and/or products. Good design pays. That’s also why, in principle, all products are created by designers nowadays.  Will the trend towards quality and sustainability, towards Green Design, be reflected in the broad spectrum of furniture production as well? Have you got a vision as far as this subject is concerned?  Human history is the history of constant technical improvements. That’s why I’m optimistic that all manufacturers actually want to continue to improve themselves and move up to the next level of quality.  What’s actually more important when it comes to choosing a designer: creativity or profitability?  We always try to reconcile these apparent opposites and achieve a synthesis. Creative design isn’t necessarily uneconomical. There’s certainly a greater risk of failure, but apart from our “compulsory” projects we always work on “freestyle” projects too, projects where innovation is uppermost rather than convention.  So what is it that constitutes the success of your collaboration with Studio Vertijet if sales aren’t the only decisive factor?  We want to be successful with our Studio Vertijet designs too. But because the designs are very progressive, it takes these models longer to establish themselves on the market. The Vertijet designs are definitely niche models that have a smaller market. Studio Vertijet also has a kind of “icebreaker” function for us. The designs are more extreme than others and encourage people to question conventions and the way they see things. Because of Vertijet, COR is also perceived as more modern.

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“If society moves closer together again, the gap between premium and mass market will shrink as well.” Leo Lübke

 So the decision in favour of or against a new designer or team of designers is hugely important for a medium-sized company?  Yes, because it’s crucial for the designers to be a good fit with the brand: they’re essential factors in its development.  Your website talks about “family affairs”, but you yourself don’t actually put in an appearance as head of the company. Is that part of the new brand strategy?  The way I manage the company and the direction I take it in is far more important than any photo. So indirectly, I certainly do appear. That’s never been any different at COR and interlübke, by the way.  How important is it to communicate the brand values or the design quality through all communication channels, including your trade fair presence?  We have to take advantage of every opportunity available to us for giving our customers – as well as our Photo: COR; Kelp (IMM10_BD0501_09)

staff – an idea or feeling of what COR and interlübke stand for.  You invest a lot of love and money in your stands at the imm cologne. The stand for the imm cologne 2008 made you feel as if real people lived there. Is that the interlübke brand “rubbing shoulders” with the public?  Fair stands always “rub shoulders” with people. The concept is different every year because we show new products every year, and they need a suitable form of presentation.  Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from interlübke and COR at the imm cologne 2010?  A mix of established, improved and new ideas. Wait and see! Text and interview: Frank A. Reinhardt

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Market: Green Design I 55

Market Big business with Green Design Riding the green wave to sales growth

Photo: Koelnmesse; Composite Lounge; Stephen Burks (IMM10_BD0901_01)

Even in such a “green” country as Germany, the organic furniture of past decades remained a niche market usually characterised by dowdy design or idealistic recycling concepts. In future, however, the segment is set to become a lucrative branch of the furniture industry. Now that the debate about sustainable behaviour and economic activity is well underway and high-tech is joining forces with fresh, top-quality design to revamp the “eco” idea, the colour green is coming back into fashion with a vengeance. The concepts range from an original chest constructed out of recycled drawers and furniture consisting of recovered paper all the way to sensual feel-good furniture made of old wood. The retail sector is on its toes too, adopting new business models to ensure it is perfectly poised to make the most of this future market. In the food industry, the organic mindset has long since become the norm. Years before the advent of analogue cheese, consumers started paying scrupulous attention to the ingredients used and demanding natural products. And even if the scrapping incentive is being sold as a flash of

ecological inspiration, the trend amongst car buyers has been moving towards lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions – and thus towards ecological compatibility – for a long time now. Concepts between pragmatism and idealism However, whereas the food industry introduced binding quality seals long ago, furniture manufacturers and dealers – even if undoubtedly driven by good intentions and commitment – have yet to establish uniform standards. No wonder – the terms “organic”, “green line furniture” and “green design” refer to a whole series of criteria relating not only to the product itself but to its manufacture and origins as well. There are both recycled and recyclable products (the latter can be broken down into monomaterials), solid wood furnishings from PEFC-certified sources and their relatives made of multi-layer lightweight boards. Solvent and formaldehyde-free varnishes vie with the natural waxes of the “organic” camp and the model of carbon-neutral transport is weighed against the even worthier cause of local production and consumption –

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Photo: Zweitsinn; Fair stand imm cologne 2009 (IMM10_BD0901_02)

the “cradle-to-cradle” approach. Not to mention criteria like environmentally neutral production conditions and fair trade. And then of course there’s the aspect of durability. At the end of the day, so this irrefutable argument goes, the most sustainable furniture is furniture that will last a lifetime and can even be passed down to the next generation without losing any of its design and quality appeal. Economic aspects of ecological furniture The furniture industry is increasingly being confronted with phenomena that have long been the norm in other sectors: here too, consumers are becoming more critical, asking about ingredients and going for renewable raw materials. “People are becoming more sensitive to how we use the world’s resources and looking for things that promise value and durability again. That’s why there’s an increasing demand for sustainability and value in our industry too,” says Dirk-Uwe Klaas, CEO of the Association of the German Furniture Industry. Unimpressed by the multitude of criteria for eco-compatible furniture, the consumer has long since made up his own mind as to what truly constitutes organic furniture: wood. Besides being the most obvious component of furniture and criteria lists, this particular raw material also happens to be thoroughly likable. Wood is warm, conciliatory, beautiful and durable – and it grows in our own back yards. Which is why, in order to give customers what

they want, the industry is focusing on wood from sustainably managed German forests. That means more trees are being planted than are used, and the forests are considered a secure source of raw materials. Don’t throw anything away! Even so, raw materials aren’t the only thing that count when it comes to sustainability. According to estimates by the Technical University of Dortmund’s Institute of Environmental Research (INFU) based on data from 2008 (which has remained virtually unchanged since), around 7 million tons of furniture are discarded in Germany every year; 90% of it ends up as skip refuse at incineration plants or refuse dumps. That means only 10% is recycled or used again. And yet, even though more and more of granny’s old kitchen cupboards are being integrated into modern kitchens and the vintage furniture trade is booming at flea markets and in small second-hand furniture stores, there is still a lack of the professional trading structures that are imperative if this trend of wasting furniture is to be turned around. But second-hand dealers aren’t the only ones contributing to the recycling idea: the waste management sector can play an important role as well. A sometimes premium raw material is available to the market in the form of old

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furniture. The “Zweitsinn” platform – the name translates as Second Sense – has taken up the cause of expanding this niche market. The project initiated by INFU collaborates with the waste management industry and designs new furniture out of valuable recycled materials. As well as selling recycled furniture, Zweitsinn has been promoting greater awareness of the value of old furniture amongst the younger generation since 2007. Supported by professional designers, Zweitsinn confers an annual Recycling Designer Award and holds a design competition for schools. It is meant to introduce pupils of all school systems to the ecology issue and give them a chance to try their hand at modern design. Some of the winning entries can even look forward to a career as serially manufactured products – although there is one major difference between the serial production of recycled furniture and classic machine production. The scratches, marks and other signs of wear and tear on the “raw materials” used to make the “new” furniture mean every single piece, although serially produced, tells a story of its own and is thus a one-off. The project, which is sponsored by the German Environmental Foundation (DBU), aims to achieve far more than accommodate the “LOHAS” trend (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability), which is largely a middle and upperclass phenomenon. For besides economy and ecology, the social aspect also plays an important role in making sustainable products acceptable and affordable for broad sections of society. And so, with its designer pieces and hip furniture bursting with trash chic, Zweitsinn is trying to win over a clientele with money to spend so it can use the profits to design a “cross-subsidised” section of the range for people with lower incomes. At last year’s imm cologne, the Zweitsinn project made its mark with a 10-metre-long and 2.5-metre high paper container painted a garish orange and presented as living space – furnished entirely with recycled furniture. Creative concepts from the flea market and design lab Discarded furniture isn’t the only thing that can be recycled, however. Car headrests, for instance, can be given a new lease of life as chair backs, and the classic yellow telephone box that has meanwhile vanished from German cities is turning up again as a shower cabin for the private bathroom. Industrial waste is also excellently suited to secondary uses. Remnants of fabric, wood and

plastic, for instance, can be used to make chairs, armchairs and other products. And because the waste is generated continuously, there’s no need to worry about where new supplies will come from. Meanwhile the aesthetics of a pieced-together world are no longer only popular with DIY enthusiasts but are influencing the experimental design scene as well, which prefers objects with an imperfect, hand-crafted character over the slickness of industrial mass production. Many such products are being launched independently or under labels like Postfossil and Craft Punk. Designers have been showing a particular fondness for the recycling idea and creating new furniture out of “recovered materials”. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be wood to be of ecological value, as two products presented at the imm cologne 2009 go to show. Dutch designer Sander Bokkinga even found a use for old garden hoses, which he used as the material for his bok. hosepipe collection of floor lamps and armchairs. And for its “mobile” Wannabe table, Berlin design group llot llov simply folds a piece of 1.5-mm-thick, easy- to-recycle sheet steel with the silhouette of turned table legs over a standard packing case. Other designers are looking for applications for new, resource-conserving materials. A collaboration between Mehrwerk Designlabor and the Fraunhofer Institute IWM in Halle, for instance, resulted in the Extruso shelving system made of WPC (wood-plastic composites), a material consisting of waste wood and plastic. Also at the last imm cologne, New York designer Stephen Burks turned a pile of Cappellini furniture – including the tables and stools he designed out of shredded paper for the Italian cult brand’s Cappellini Love series – into an installation of artfully trussed heaps of rubble, thus calling into question the ecological and economic sense of making industrially mass-produced furniture. Certified naturalness The struggle to come up with ecologically compatible and sustainable concepts is thus very much an issue for the pioneers of the international design scene as well. Their answers, however, are rarely simple, nor are they always easy to understand. That probably explains why, as far as consumers are concerned, the plain-and-simple “organic” concept is still trumps when it comes to furniture. But what is organic furniture, exactly? Since there is no legal definition of the term, it is virtually impossible to make

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Photo: Koelnmesse; Pulpoproducts/llot llor; Wannabe (IMM10_BD0901_03)

a clear product statement. There is, however, no shortage of attempts to establish quality standards for organically produced furniture, especially on the part of the retail sector. The institutions concerned include the Europäische Verband ökologischer Einrichtungshäuser e.V. which, with its subsidiary ÖkoControl, Gesellschaft für Qualitätsstandards ökologischer Einrichtungshäuser mbH, has launched a quality seal that proposes strict criteria: ecological furniture should be made of renewable raw materials – ideally solid wood – from domestic, sustainable sources. What’s more, the surfaces should be treated with natural-based varnish, wax or oil. Besides conserving energy during the manufacturing process, this has the added advantage of giving the furniture an open-pored surface, allowing it to contribute to a good indoor climate by helping regulate humidity and acting as a pollution filter. Another criterion listed by ÖkoControl – exclusive use of non-magnetising metals for e.g. fittings, legs or slatted frames so as not to affect the natural terrestrial magnetic field – indicates that there’s a whole lot more to “organic” than down-to-earth environmental awareness. Consumers aren’t just interested in the forests and breathing good air, they’re concerned about their own health too. And that’s something that isn’t only affected by obvious pollutants but can be positively or negatively influenced by subjective factors too. Home health

Photo: Sander Bokkinga; bok.hosepipe (IMM10_BD0901_04)

is the buzzword for a consumer attitude that associates far more with furniture and furnishings than merely avoiding harmful environmental influences: organic furniture is meant to promote physical fitness and enhance mental wellbeing. Anything forests and high-tech can come up with to achieve this end is in great demand – from mattresses that improve the sleeping climate all the way to air-purifying fibre-reinforced plaster boards for interior finishing. Consumers are giving “organic” concepts credit – with good returns The retail trade in organic products also follows its own rules, as the example of Cologne retailer Johannes Genske goes to show. He has been successfully selling sustainable and ecologically benign furniture under the Biomöbel Genske brand for the last 23 years. In 2003, however, his business faltered when he had to close down an unprofitable branch. Bank accounts were cancelled and loans refused, despite the detailed business plans he had drawn up. Genske decided on an unusual solution: he asked his regular customers to support him by becoming sleeping partners. In return for a loan of 10,000 euros he not only offered his backers a hurdle rate of 4 percent and a share of the profits, but control rights for management measures as well. The finance deal with a “clear conscience” thrown

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Photo: Team 7; Atelier desk (IMM10_BD0901_06)

in was a hit: 13 regular customers took him up on it, investing a total of 130,000 euros. Genske was ready for action again. And not only that: in sharp contrast to the average development of the sector as a whole, Biomöbel Genske achieved double-digit sales growth in the first half of this year. That means he can pay his partners a return of more than 10% for 2008 (average return over the last 5 years: 6.17%). Johannes Genske has always had faith in his concept of ecological and sustainable products and has enabled others to profit from it as well. The idea could certainly be transferred to other sectors and young start-ups. But Genske isn’t the only one who owes his success to an ecological concept. Otto Bauer, CEO of ÖkoControl GmbH, the association of 55 ecologically committed furniture dealers to which Biomöbel Genske also belongs, reports that some of his members have even achieved growth of 25 percent – and that at a time when the furniture sector is experiencing a general drop in sales of almost 14 percent. Long live eco! Organic, it would seem, isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for business too. But a piece of furniture can only claim to be truly ecological if it’s used for a long time. That’s a criterion even children’s furniture can meet: the segment

Photo: Pure Position; Growing Table (IMM10_BD0901_05)

is now presenting long-lasting concepts such as the Growing Table by Pure Position. Thanks to additional screw-on leg elements, the table grows in ten-centimetre stages and can thus accompany the kids for a considerable part of their lives. Furnishings shouldn’t be subject to short-lived fashion trends and treated like throwaway products. Timeless design and lasting quality are called for if couches and cabinets are to remain attractive and functional for years. And even if ecological furniture is a little more expensive, it usually pays for itself financially speaking – and definitely as far as the environment is concerned. Text: Claudia Wanninger, Lars Mörs Further information: www.zweitsinn.de www.biomoebel-genske.de www.oekocontrol.com www.dbu.de

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Gervasoni is a family firm from Udine, Italy, that was founded in 1882 and initially had its core expertise in the manufacture of high-quality rattan furniture before expanding its production activities to a wider range of furniture. The firm steadily increased its sales by manufacturing furniture on an OEM basis. The arrival of Paola Navone as designer and, shortly afterwards, Art Director, marked what was probably the most important step in the company’s evolution towards an independent design brand. Gervasoni entered the international arena with premium design items.

Photo: Giovanni and Michele Gervasoni (IMM10_BD1101_01)

Today the label with the elegant, casual charm of the Italian way of life is a regular at all the major design fairs. Giovanni Gervasoni, who studied in Germany and runs the business together with his brother Michele, realised the German market’s importance for the company at an early stage. Thanks to a continuous market presence and a network of sales agents, the Italian firm is now firmly established in Germany. In fact, its trade in furniture that hinges on design as a competitive factor is doing particularly well on the northern side of the Alps. The generations-old company philosophy of producing furniture with a natural quality and charisma runs through the new collections like a leitmotiv, making Gervasoni’s current claim to combine ecology with modern design seem entirely consistent. Furter information: www.gervasoni1882.com

Interview Giovanni Gervasoni I 61

Giovanni Gervasoni “The German public is particularly design-oriented.”

Photo: Gervasoni; Gray; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_02)

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Photo: Gervasoni; Sweet; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_05)

Photo: Gervasoni; Sweet; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_03)

Interview Giovanni Gervasoni I 63

Photo: Gervasoni; Sweet; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_04)

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Photo: Gervasoni; Gray; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_07)

Photo: Gervasoni; Gray; Design: Paola Navone (IMM10_BD1101_08)

Interview Giovanni Gervasoni I 65

In recent years the Gervasoni furniture company has undergone a huge change, from furniture supplier and OEM manufacturer to an independent design brand with its own showroom in Milan. What was the most important driving force in this process? Our belief in design and quality had been the driving force behind our production activities since the 1960s, partly due to the contribution made by international designers. Thanks to the collaboration with Paola Navone, who has been working for us as a designer and Art Director since 1998, we were able to sustain and expand on this tendency. How important is the combination of “nature” and “design”? Gervasoni has been producing wicker furniture from natural materials since 1882. Today, our production has evolved to include new materials and models. That’s why it’s a particularly important theme for the company – which, by the way, has chosen to adopt ISO 14000 certification as a way of concretising its commitment to ecology. With Paola Navone, you opted for somebody whose designs have an extremely sensual character. How do you decide which designer is a good fit with your brand? The fortunate decision to collaborate with Paola Navone enabled us to work with a very far-sighted and extremely capable person. Pressing forward in the design world with her means being confronted with a very strong artistic character whose taste, culture and competence we hold in very high esteem. Since 1998 she has also been Art Director at Gervasoni. The marriage between her genius and our know-how and experience has led to an abundance of collections and products with a style and character that meet with international acclaim. You’re a regular at the imm cologne. How important is this participation for you and what’s special about the German furniture market? Germany is one of our most important export markets because the German public is particularly designoriented and looks out for the “made in Italy” label. Design and quality are very important to German customers and we always strive to achieve the highest-possible level of quality. For us the Cologne fair is particularly important

as a way of presenting our new products to the German market. Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from Gervasoni at the imm cologne 2010? We’re working really hard on a new outdoor range but I’d rather not say any more than that until the collection is finished. Text and interview: Frank A. Reinhardt

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Pure Village I 67

Pure Village Pure Village clusters famous design brands and creative furnishing ideas in the heart of the imm cologne Innovative exhibition format meets with good reception from famous design brands Clustering of product and interior design trends in Hall 3.2

Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD_1001_01)

An entire brand world captured in essence. A single product towering above the flood of impressions like a lighthouse. A space staged on the basis of an innovative idea without having to take marketing and sales aspects into account. Furnishing worlds that merge together and pass before the public’s eyes. All this and more is offered by Pure Village, the new exhibition format at the international furniture and interior design fair imm cologne. At the coming imm cologne, the Pure Village will be set up near the new Entrance South, precisely at the crossroads between the traditional “design halls” of the “pure” segment (Hall 11) and the D³ Design Talents forum that is so highly regarded in designer circles (Hall 3.1). Koelnmesse hopes this new format will provide important long-term impetus for the attractiveness and topicality of the imm cologne in both specialist circles and the public

eye. With an unusual, co-ordinated exhibition architecture and a concept that aims to create diversity via a structure based on small units and generate inspiration via exciting juxtapositions, the goal is to initiate a new hub for clustering product and interior design trends. The imm cologne’s integrative concept seems to have struck a chord with the furnishing and interior design sector: the offering is meeting with great interest from all sides. With four months still to go until the fair, brands such as Vorwerk, Deltalight, Oligo or Authentics have already agreed to take part. It also looks as if there will be a strong contingent of brand-name manufacturers from the sanitaryware sector – with fittings specialist Dornbracht leading the way – who want to give expression to the way living space is merging with the bathroom and lay claim to their rightful place within the

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Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD1001_03)

Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD1001_04)

context of high-quality furniture and innovative interior concepts. The flexibility of the Pure Village format means it not only provides a suitable framework for unconventional brand and product scenographies but for presentations by other Cologne-based event organisers too. Design Post is the first such organisation to sign up for Pure Village. Its participating clients will include Arco, Arper, Desalto, Kvadrat, Linteloo, Matteo Grassi, Montis, Moroso and Nya Nordiska. “Last year we launched the Cologne Design Week initiative together with Koelnmesse and the Spichernhöfe to ensure Cologne remains a strong and interesting location during the fair and can reinforce its position ever further,” says Volker Streckel, manager of Design Post in Cologne, of the shared objectives pursued by Koelnmesse and showroom organisers. “We are convinced that the Pure Village concept is a good direction for the fair to take. It will be very exciting for Design Post and its exhibitors to have a presence within this context,” adds Streckel.

Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD1001_05)

Pure Village gives the interior design sector a new and attractive platform in the middle of one of the biggest furniture shows in the world. In an attractive atmosphere, visitors can enjoy a unique concentration of exclusive design – the ideal way to understand and compare the current trends. Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD1001_06)

Further information: www.purevillage.de

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Illustration: Koelnmesse; Spierenburg Designers (IMM10_BD1001_02)

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The Fair I 71

The Fair: imm cologne 2010 imm cologne is Germany’s top international furniture platform It’s big business in Cologne from 19 to 24 January 2010

Photo: Koelnmesse; imm cologne 2009 (IMM10_BD0301_01)

Things are looking good for the imm cologne: according to the European Consumption Barometer 2009, a study by Dresdner-Cetelem Kreditbank, Germany remains Europe’s biggest sub-market for the furniture industry with an estimated market volume of 27 billion euros. Whilst sales have decreased slightly in Europe as a whole, they have stagnated at the same level as the previous financial year in Germany. Planned purchases remain fairly stable and are way above the European average – another positive signal for the current year.

like. British households came second with an average of 663 euros, far outstripping the Italians who, with average expenditure of 559 euros, invested far less money in furnishing their homes.

Overall, Germany is Europe’s biggest sub-market for furnishings, with the British and Italian markets following some distance behind in terms of market volume. As this development suggests, Germans also had the biggest furnishing budget per household for the year 2008, investing an average of 680 euros in sofas, kitchen tables and the

“The changes in the German trade fair calendar mean the imm cologne is the only opportunity companies have to present themselves and their products at a trade fair in Germany until spring 2010,” adds Udo Traeger, director of Koelnmesse’s Furniture, Interior Design and Textiles division.

“Anyone that wants to make money with furniture simply can’t afford to ignore Germany – or the imm cologne, the biggest event in this market. It’s trade fairs like the imm cologne that set the future course for their economic success,” says Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse.

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Photo: Koelnmesse; Gerald Böse (IMM10_BD0301_02)

For German and international manufacturers, the imm cologne is also the ideal platform for launching innovations to an audience of specialist retailers, more than 2500 media representatives and approx. 30,000 consumers eager to purchase. Purchasing associations and buying and marketing groups also stress the imm cologne’s significance as the most important furniture platform in Europe. Buying and marketing groups consider it absolutely essential to send their buyers to the imm cologne. If their affiliated members are to adjust and fine-tune their product portfolios appropriately, it is crucial for all German and international companies that play a role in shaping the market to participate in the trade fair. This is the only way for buyers to get a comparative overview of what is, without question, an extremely broad product offering. “Both the buying and marketing groups and we as trade fair organisers agree that it isn’t the size of an exhibitor’s stand that’s important but the presence of large numbers of manufacturers,” says Udo Traeger of this clear declaration of confidence in Cologne.

Photo: Koelnmesse; Udo Traeger (IMM10_BD0301_03)

The imm cologne provides the industry with the opportunity to meet more than 80,000 German and international dealers who, unlike at similar events, are extremely interested in placing concrete orders. In addition, the event provides an excellent setting for direct dialogue between the manufacturing sector and distributing commercial agencies – which is why the imm cologne offers distributors and sales agents the opportunity to submit representation requests free of charge. During the fair, these requests are made available to interested companies at the stand of the National Association of German Commercial Agencies and Distribution (CDH). In the run-up to the event, this exchange will take place in virtual form on the imm cologne’s homepage. Further information: www.imm-cologne.com

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Photo: Koelnmesse; imm cologne 2009 (IMM10_BD0301_04)

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All texts, photo materials and updates: We’ll inform you when they go online. (E-mail to [email protected])

Photo: Koelnmesse (IMM10_BD1401_01)

Online Content Service I 75

Der Content-Service der imm cologne zu Design und Wohnkultur The imm cologne's content service for design and interior lifestyle

www.imm-content-service.de Nur für Journalisten! www.imm-content-service.com For journalists only! Coming soon...

Imprint/Credits I 76

Der Content-Service der imm cologne zu Design und Wohnkultur The imm cologne‘s content service for design and interior lifestyle Imprint/Credits

imm cologne 2010 19.-24.01.2010

Idea: Markus Majerus

www.imm-cologne.com

Concept: FAR_consulting Communication, design management, trend research Frank A. Reinhardt Dillenburger Str. 83 51105 Cologne, Germany Tel.: + 49-2 21-620 18 02 Fax: + 49-2 21-962 45 39 [email protected] www.far-consulting.de

Your contact for enquiries: Markus Majerus Tel.: + 49 221 821-2627 Fax: + 49 221 821-3417 E-Mail [email protected] Koelnmesse GmbH Messeplatz 1 50679 Cologne Postfach 21 07 60 50532 Cologne Germany Tel.: +49 221 821-0 Fax: +49 221 821-2574 [email protected] www.koelnmesse.de Management: Gerald Böse (Chief Executive Officer) Herbert Marner Oliver P. Kuhrt Dr. Gerd Weber Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Fritz Schramma, Lord Mayor of the City of Cologne Place of business and (legal) domicile: Cologne - Amtsgericht Köln, HRB 952

Editorial team: Frank A. Reinhardt, Claudia Wanninger Editorial assistant: Lars Mörs Translation: Alison Du Bovis, Jork Layout: Karsten Jipp, Berlin Photos: Karsten Jipp, Berlin; Andreas Körner, Stuttgart Signed articles represent the opinion of the author, not necessarily that of the editorial team. All contributions are protected by copyright and are for press use only. Journalists can use all articles and photos free of charge on condition that they provide two specimen copies of the corresponding publication. It is not obligatory to name the authors. Image copyrights are held by the originators and by Koelnmesse as tagged. We thank the photographers and manufacturers for kindly providing the pictures and request that they be credited accordingly. The place of performance and jurisdiction is Cologne.