The urban fabric: Techtextil 2019

Mid-may's biennial Techtextil trade fair in Frankfurt will be of considerable interest to innovation enthusiasts. Here, visitors will have the opportunity to learn all about technical textiles and textile technologies. Not only will the most varied, and perhaps unexpected, application possibilities of textiles be on display, but also the entire spectrum from high-tech fibres to smart textiles.


Challenges of urban life

Developments in the industry go hand in hand with the trends that engage and affect people in the present and will do so increasingly in the future. Great challenges await, which intelligent textiles can be skilfully employed to help meet – in steadily growing urban areas, for example, in which two-thirds of the world’s population will reside by mid-century.

In view of this mammoth task and the strenuous test the cities will be put to, Techtextil and its simultaneous partner fair, Texprocess, have selected this year’s focus topic, ‘Urban Living – City of the Future’, for an extraordinary special exhibition, which will be held in the foyer of Hall 4.2. Together with Creative #olland, an initiative of the Dutch creative industries which was acquired as a partner for this special project, the exhibition will shed light on various aspects of a possible future role for technical textiles. It will present ideas, concepts and graspable visions around the central question of how textiles can best be utilised and deployed.

Don’t shy away

Why the Netherlands? ‘For one thing, textiles are firmly fixed in the Netherlands’ history and national DNA,’ says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles and Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt. ‘For another, the entire country can be seen as one great metropolitan region. The design orientation of the Dutch creative industries and the innovative, forward-looking, sustainable ingenuity that distinguishes our north-western neighbour are a perfect match with the positioning of Techtextil and Texprocess.’

The show, curated by Stijlinstituut Amsterdam and designed by the Dutch architectural office Refunc, will give visitors a visual and palpable sense of the Netherlands’ competence in taking on societal and global challenges and continually grappling with them in fundamental terms – with openness and transparency, boldness and originality, inclusiveness and cross-disciplinary collaboration.


Thinking tomorrow today

The sources of the pioneering solutions shown in the 500-square-metre exhibition space include the upcycling enterprise DenimX, research organisations like the Hyperloop teams at the TU Delft and Next Nature Network, and independent representatives of the Dutch creative scene such as architectural designer Samira Boon. The selected innovations will be presented in a disruptive architectoniclandscape. Whether in the area of clothing, medicine or architecture, the aim is to demonstrate that textile products hold the potential to decisively improve our quality of life today.

The exhibition will be accompanied by the Material Gallery, which will show, along with best-practice examples, the winning entries in the student competition held under the motto ‘Textile Structures for New Building’. In their proposals, the students were invited to freely address the topic ‘urbanised society’ with textile-based solutions for architecture, apparel, living and health.


Material of the future

Exciting views of new and ongoing developments in textiles are afforded by the selected projects, both from exhibitors and non-exhibitors, submitted for the 15th Techtextil Innovation Award. The award ceremony will be held on the first day of the fair and the best submissions, as chosen by an international expert jury, will be shown in a separate special exhibition. To additionally facilitate the efforts of young, dynamic German companies to realise their fresh and promising ideas, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy supports the worldwide marketing of the visionary textile products and technology.

Visualisation and networking, after all, constitute one of the most important factors in the industry’s success – the recognition of which gave rise to the Techtextil Forum, for an interactive exchange between researchers, developers and users, as well as exhibitors and trade visitors. From May 2019, all who are interested can participate in professional discussions in various formats and benefit from top-flight expert talks.

Techtextil is thus a complete, all-around package, filled with forward-thinking approaches, inspiring ideas and sound specialised knowledge relating to textiles, which will be an ever more integral part of the human journey.


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