04 Dec 2019 • Spaces
What does the house of the future look like? A trade fair and young designers have an idea
In recent years, much of the design world has begun to anticipate a particular seven days each January, when international furniture and interiors fair IMM Cologne presents Das Haus – Interiors on Stage. Koelnmesse, the event's organizer, invites a different designer or studio each year to build-out a house that embodies their vision of how we might live in the future.
'Half portrait of the designer, half model home', it combines architecture, interior design, furniture and products with every detail down to colour scheme and materials to lighting and accessories determined by the designer. For the coming fair, Spanish design studio MUT was selected to express its vision. Established in Valencia in 2010 by Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón, MUT are part of a 'new wave' in Spanish design. The studio creates everything from furniture, carpets, tiles and lighting to hotels and exhibition spaces, often characterized by simple, soft, circular shapes.
Their work for Das Haus 2020 specifically will explore the ways in which architecture and interior design can merge indoor and outdoor living. From 13 - 19 January, visitors to the installation's ninth edition will be able to find the fully furnished, 180-sq-m house in the Pure Editions area, Hall 3.1.
To explore the future of residential living, Das Haus began with Doshi Levien in 2012. Now in its ninth edition, the house of the future will be imagined by multidisciplinary Spanish studio MUT.
MUT was chosen because of how of the practice departs from classical design, demonstrating a combination of product design, creative direction, graphic design, interior design and curation. The team's work is an ongoing response to the changed, and changing, market that presents big challenges to designers who must constantly adapt.
The Das Haus project is in line with these values. 'It gives designers a unique opportunity to create something that’s totally independent of production and market conditions,' says the fair's creative director Dick Spierenburg, 'While simultaneously understanding and rediscovering their designs in terms of how they impact space.'
Get your ticket for IMM Cologne 2020 here.