On tour at Heimtextil 2020

Around 3,000 exhibitors flock to Heimtextil every year to present their products and materials for the textile furnishing market. It is the world's leading trade fair for home and contract textiles. Around 370 of the exhibitors from the contract sector provide targeted solutions aimed specifically at interior designers, architects and hospitality experts. The unique product range is supported by a varied programme of specialist lectures given by internationally renowned experts, as well as themed trade fair tours and many more special events. At the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LECTURES, internationally renowned architects, interior designers and hotel experts present their projects and discuss issues relevant to building culture, interior design and design. The lectures are curated and organised by prestigious partners such as AIT-Dialog and hotelforum.

Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LECTURES
DIVERSITY is the overarching theme of the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LECTURES. The specialist programme thus addresses the current most pressing social and cultural challenges. The various event formats deal specifically with diversity at different levels, namely architecture, interior design and urban planning. Each day of the trade fair has a different focus.

DIVERSITY: Libraries as places of knowledge and social interaction (7 January 2020)
The development of the cultural and media landscape in the digital age, when almost any item of information is readily available anytime and anywhere, means that libraries must reinvent themselves – conceptually and strategically as well as architecturally. But what exactly are the implications of this change for architecture and interior design? What expectations do users have and what new concepts are perhaps already waiting in the wings – maybe even across national borders? These are the questions that will be addressed in the lectures organised by AIT Dialog on the afternoon of the first day of the trade fair, in the lecture area in Hall 4.2.

Innovative technologies and their application in interior design will be the subject of the ‘Printed Interior Decorations Lectures’, which will take up most of the morning on the Tuesday of the trade fair. In the lectures, specialists in the field will discuss the opportunities afforded by digital inkjet printing for using one’s own designs to create personalised wall and floor coverings, as well as decorative fabrics for contract furnishings. The lectures will be held in collaboration with ESMA (European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association), an association of European manufacturers in the industrial printing sector, and Thomas Pötz, an internationally recognised expert on inkjet printing and an experienced consultant on strategic issues.

DIVERSITY: Changing nature of urban dwellings (8 January 2020)
Whether people live alone or with others, whether they flat-share or house-share or live together in dwellings that house several generations, whether they live in some kind of mixture of partly rented and partly privately owned accommodation, or in collectively funded vertical stacks of partially prefabricated flats (sometimes referred to as ‘residential shelving’) - new forms of dwelling develop almost automatically from people’s needs and wishes, are then transformed by professionals into practical concepts and finally interpreted in architectural form. On the second day of the trade fair, the AIT Dialog lectures will open the door on a host of exciting approaches. The crucial question is: ‘What direction will these various types of home take in the future?’ (Lectures, Hall 4.2)

A trend seminar and workshop, run by the Association of German Interior Architects / Designers (Bund deutscher Innenarchitekten - bdia) on 8 January, will, under the heading ‘A Common Reality’, deal with the potential of interior-design textiles to foster moments of social interaction and conviviality. In this workshop, textile designers Felix Diener and Astrid Schaal, in collaboration with design journalist, Martina Metzner, will work with the participants not only to identify trends, but also to discuss the various functions of contract textiles. Those wishing to participate in this one-day seminar, which will attract an additional charge, should register at www.bdia.de.

DIVERSITY: Space to live and socialise long-term (9 January 2020)
There is now a host of different types of temporary and affordable longer-term accommodation, ranging from budget hotels, private homes and platforms such as ‘Couchsurfing’ and ‘Airbnb’ to ‘micro-apartments’ and ‘serviced apartments’. Architecture and interior design face an exciting task that throws into question the whole issue of frequent travel - not least with reference to the climate debate. (Lectures, Hall 4.2)

TALENTS: Stimuli and perspectives for the developers of tomorrow (10 January 2020)
Young architects always seek inspiration from both the unusual and the familiar, they think holistically, globally and with the future in mind, they test themselves, while always keeping the human being in the centre of the picture. Diversity and the wish for change is what the younger generation and their work is all about, whilst, in spite of all these efforts, they continue to respect the achievements of their chosen role-models – the established architects that have gone before. (Lectures, Hall 4.2)

The Interior.Architecture.Hospitality TALENTS session, on the Friday, is aimed principally at students, new graduates and recent entrants to the profession. They are invited to attend lectures by distinguished architects and interior designers, to make contact with both experienced experts and newcomers to the profession and to present their own visions for the future. In return, up-and-coming talents are often able to enrich the sector with fresh ideas, new perspectives and unconventional approaches to problems.

Interior.Architecture.Hospitality TOURS
One of the highlights is also the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality TOURS. On guided tours of the trade fair, interior designers and architects will introduce visitors to their favourites and to some innovative textile solutions in the contract sector. The tours will have a variety of emphases and will be overseen and organised by AHGZ/hoteldesign, AIT-Dialog, arcade, architektur international, the Association of German Interior Architects / Designers (bdia) and World-Architects. They specifically target interior designers, architects and experts from the hospitality sector.

On the last day of the trade fair, the bdia will be issuing a special invitation to students, to join them on a tour of Heimtextil, to visit selected suppliers of contract textiles. The tour forms part of the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality TALENTS, an initiative for the up-coming generation in the architecture and interior design segment, who will be the centre of focus on the last day, both for the tours and the lectures.

It will generally be necessary to register in advance to take part in these tours. More detailed information on this is available from the Heimtextil Events Calendar at www.events.messefrankfurt.com/2020/heimtextil. All Interior.Architecture.Hospitality TOURS begin at the Tour Counter in Hall 4.2.

And even more valuable tools
Additional Interior.Architecture.Hospitality highlights include the DIRECTORY (previously: Contract Guide) listing all the exhibitors at Heimtextil that offer contract textiles and furnishing solutions for the contract sector and the LIBRARY, a textile materials library, as well as the exclusive platform EXPO in hall 4.2 with companies such as MP S.p.a (Italy), Rahmig + Partner GmbH (Germany), coverdec.one (Austria), Verseidag-Indutex GmbH (Germany), Marzotto Lab Srl – Div. Redaelli (Italy) and Feline B.V. (Netherlands). Visitors can also look forward to the established Heimtextil Trendscouting by AIT in 2020.

The Heimtextil event calendar offers a practical overview of all events for Interior.Architecture.Hospitality by Heimtextil:

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Heimtextil 7-10 January 2020 in Frankfurt