– Top designers Stefan Diez and Roberto Palomba to head guided tours featuring innovations selected by the Innovations@DOMOTEX jury
Hannover. From 17 to 20 January, DOMOTEX 2015 will be showcasing an extensive array of innovations that will be of particular interest to architects and designers. On all four days of the trade show, experts from the fields of architecture, design and interior design will be heading guided tours that take in specific exhibitors’ stands and highlight innovations selected by the Innovations@DOMOTEX jury. The guided tours are free of charge and registration is now open at www.world-architects.com/en/pages/domotex15
Internationally renowned architects and designers such as Roberto Palomba and Stefan Diez will enhance the guided tours with their personal touch and expert knowledge. Palomba is guiding the afternoon tour on the first day of the show, Saturday, 17 January 2015, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. One of the leading lights of the Italian design scene, Roberto Palomba and his wife Ludovica Serafini are the co-founders of Palomba Serafini Associati in Milan. The husband-and-wife duo have teamed up with international brands such as Foscarini, Laufen, Samsung and Zanotta to collaborate on interior, industrial and exhibition design and work on architecture projects worldwide. While they focus on designing furniture, bathroom fittings and lighting, they also create tiles, mosaics and carpets. Underlining the importance of floor coverings in architecture, Palomba says: “Architecture is a three-dimensional box and we’re standing with our feet on its floor. This makes the floor a crucial part of the box. In fact, floors used to be covered with richly decorated carpets – such as Persian rugs – to emphasize their importance. There is no predominant style today; flooring can convey any and every type of interior design.”
Stefan Diez is a member of the jury and tour guide at Innovations@DOMOTEX for the second time. A winner of numerous awards, the product and industrial designer will be leading the tour on Sunday, 18 January from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Munich-based Diez works in a variety of design fields ranging from furniture, porcelain and cutlery to industrial and exhibition design for companies such as Authentics, Bree, Buderus, e15, Established & Sons, Gandia Blasco, Hay, Moroso, Rosenthal, Thonet and Wilkhahn. He and his team work intensively with materials and techniques to explore and extend their limits, developing precise and simple products that are tailored to the requirements of their users. With regard to Innovations@DOMOTEX, Diez says: “We asked ourselves what the term ‘innovation’ actually means nowadays. It relates to new things, but also to clear improvements in the details and to practical solutions and ideas. What’s interesting for me as a designer is the insight provided into the complex workmanship involved and how design is linked to issues of laying and finishing floors – in other words, the interface to practical applications.”
Overview of further dates and tour guides
Berlin-based architect Andre Schmidt will be leading the first tour on Saturday, 17 January, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. His designs for the Innovations@DOMOTEX Areas 2015 are set to provide a creative backdrop for the innovations and trends selected by the jury. Before founding the architecture firm Matter in 2014, Schmidt managed international construction projects and was a visiting professor at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
Award-winning interior designer Monika Lepel will be in charge of the tour on Sunday, 18 January, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Her holistic room concepts are based on the theme of “building relationships”, with her work focusing on corporate interiors and brand architecture.
The tour guides for the first tour on Monday, 19 January, will be interior designers Susanne Brandherm and Sabine Krumrey from Brandherm + Krumrey Interior Architecture in Cologne, winner of the INsider Award in 2013. Monday afternoon’s tour of the innovations will be led by Karsten Schmidt-Heonsdorf, an architect whose firm focuses on interior architecture and design.
Silvia Leydecker will be guiding the morning tour on Tuesday, 20 January. The interior designer has her own company and develops innovative concepts in the areas of health care, office, product and exhibition design. She is also Vice-President of the BDIA (Association of German Interior Architects and Designers).
The meeting point for all guided tours is Stand F30 in the Innovations@DOMOTEX Area in Hall 6. For detailed information on the guided tours, registration and tour guides, visit www.world-architects.com/en/pages/domotex15
