As a result, manufacturers open up to innovation and quality of design and increase opportunities for young designers. By Maria Cristina Tommasini
As economic exchange decreases, opportunities for debate and contemplation increase. The major trade fairs connected to the world of design – recently both drawn to a close the Salon du Meuble de Paris, 8-12 January and IMM Colgone, the international furniture fair in Cologne, 19-25 January – are becoming exercise grounds for ideas providing a stage for the debut of young talent.
The goods are available everywhere in thousands of versions, much less so the ideas, and that is what everyone is hungry for.
In Paris, Metropole - the part of the Salon du Meuble dedicated to design housed in the new pavilion 5 designed by architects Valode and Pistre - included as usual a series of parallel exhibitions and initiatives.
On entering, the visitor was greeted by the display Sièges de Collection: an enormous metal structure containing around 200 chairs and sofas chosen from the collections at the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (FNAC), set up in 1981. Immediately behind the great structure, the unusual stand dedicated to the winner of the Prix du Créateur de l’Année: Hella Jongerius. The Dutch designer decided to bring together her own work inside an openable van, similar to those used by travelling salesmen, resolving in one go the problem of transport and display. The Nombre d’Or for 2004 was awarded to Konstantin Grcic and ClassiCon: an exemplary collaboration between designer and manufacturer that has brought about some very interesting results such as the Chaos chair and the small Diana tables.
The catalogue Repères 2004 (Futur?), curated again this year by Brigitte Fitoussi and Christophe Pillet, photographs current models and identifies trends in contemporary living, with images chosen by a pool of experts. Light Show, Earth/Wind/Fire, Micro Univers and Mass Market are the themes developed by the book and connecting exhibition.
Amongst the new creations presented as part of Les Aides à la Création, organised by the VIA (Valorisation de l’Innovation dans l’Ameublement) to discover new talents, those that deserve a mention are the table by Saleem Bhatri, chair/stool by Alexandre Naoun and Eric Jourdan and the light by Frédéric Sofia, illustrated alongside all the participating designs in a beautiful catalogue. Just as interesting was Design & Prix, directed by Christine Colin and published by Industries françaises de l’Ameublement / Seuil, for the Design & series. The new book analyses the subject of price, often considered something of a taboo.
The crisis that has hit the German furniture market was still clearly visible on visiting IMM Cologne, the international furniture fair in Cologne that ended Sunday 25 January. Already last year the lack of exhibitors exposed the balcony structure of some of the pavilions, revealing spaces normally taken up by stands. ‘Voids’ that the fair organisers had filled with Ideal Houses, projects for the ideal house by two different designers.
In 2003 the protagonists were Konstantin Grcic and Karim Rashid, this year two teams of brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana, Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec.
The house by the Campanas, permeated by the smell of wood, natural fibres and vegetables arranged on a long table, was a sensual return to one’s origins; the house by the Bouroullecs, divided by walls created with large clips of translucent coloured plastic, a refined exercise in style and simplicity.
“Plastik contra Natur”, summed up the fair in its publicity. Amongst the prototypes presented by young designers taking part in “Inspired by Cologne” there was no shortage of really good ideas, such as the rapid prototyping lights by Axel Gabriel and Willeke Evenhuis, the radiator designed by Joris Laarmann – two of the four winning projects in the “Inspired by Cologne” category reserved for young designers in the Interior Innovation Award Cologne 2004.
From the designs in production, the same jury selected five “Best of the Best” one for each category: best product, best system, best detail, innovation in materials, innovation applied to an object of classical taste.
This flowering of initiatives brings one to presume that even the fairs have understood that when business is slow, good design and innovation can provide manufacturers with a way of overcoming economic crisis. And young designers with a real chance to work.
