imm cologne Spring Edition 2023: a new concept for exhibiting design

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve been travelling non-stop lately. 

The physical constraints necessitated by Covid-19 have, it’s safe to say, evaporated, replaced by an impetus to connect again in the analogue world. It’s business as usual once more, say some. Others describe it as a kind of madness, an overcompensation for the dearth of human contact we were forced to endure during the pandemic. (One internationally renowned architect I was speaking to recently confessed that, for him at least, post-Corona life is 'even more crazy, last-minute and demanding' than before.) 

Not being subjected to endless online webinars and events anymore is something last year’s AW Designer of the Year Stefan Diez is unequivocally happy about. 'It was crazy and interesting in the first weeks,' he told me in an interview a few months ago on the changing landscape of the physical trade fair, 'but then we had it up to here. The platform at this stage is so huge… you can pack totally unfiltered shit on it, and that is, for the audience, really unpleasant.'

Currently being in the thick of a densely-packed spring-fair calendar, I can attest to the fact that it’s all gone very analogue very quickly. The next big date in the diary is imm cologne. Or should I say small. Or, rather, smaller. The pleasantly named “Spring Edition” of the long-established design exhibition opens its doors to an intrigued professionals-only public on Sunday 4 June. It’s all part of the fair organiser Koelnmesse’s strategy to evolve. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. 

'There’s so much information out there on products, on collections, on things that are innovative or inspiring,' says imm cologne creative director Dick Spierenburg, 'that the future of the fair has to be something different. A new kind of value, new formats. It can’t just be about polishing images, about showing new products. We were already working on a new concept [before Covid].' Words that dovetail with Peter Ippolito’s thinking on the changing purpose of fairs, as expressed to me by the German architect in an exclusive interview recently: 'Fairs have to become a broker of information or a content creator. They could be much more the driver about the conversation in the field. Or conversations, as there are plenty.'

At the heart of this special edition of imm cologne will be a new-concept hall called Pure Galleries, whose emphasis on transparency and integration will provide a more intimate, more personable experience for visitors. Gone are the monolithic, closed mega-stands, which often serve to shut out the curious gaze. Taking a cue from art fairs, exhibitors will present their collections in a series of open, modular architectural frames, meaning greater opportunities for chance discovery and a greater flow of visual information. 

But it’ll be as much about people as it will products. About connecting professionals. At the heart of the space will be The Circle – a specially designed lounge-cum-bar area for close encounters of the human kind, either planned or spontaneous, which will also incorporate Speakers’ Corner. This is where DAAily platforms comes in. Rather than having, as Ippolito puts it, 'a 200-square-metre spot in the last fair hall where you have a podium', Spierenburg has created an altogether more embedded space for Architonic’s Editor-in-Chief (that would be me) to deliver a short programme of informal, and hopefully entertaining, interviews with some of the greatest and the goodest of the A&D world. Live content that’s, well, lively. So, I’m very much looking forward to seeing some of you there. If you see me, do say hello. 

The imm cologne Spring Edition 2023 may be somewhat smaller than what we’ve experienced in previous years – and, in a sense, it serves to provide a bridge to the next, probably larger exhibition that’s scheduled to take place in January, the fair’s usual timing – but, importantly, it signposts the direction the event, and indeed many shows are going in. A perhaps more regional, more conversational, more knowledge-sharing fair where there’s true added value. More space and time for inspiration and business.

We’ll see. 

© Architonic

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