IMM Cologne: New Classics

Schöner Wohnen present their Neue Klassiker at IMM Cologne - for some it's all just a blur....

To celebrate their 50th birthday the German furnishings magazine “Schöner Wohnen” have produced a small book entitled “Das Buch der Klassiker“ (“The book of classics”) in which the magazine present their 400 furniture and accessory classics.

And an exhibition of the selected items forms the basis of the Schöner Wohnen stand here in Cologne.

Aside from familiar faces such as Vegetal by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec from Vitra or the Castore lamp by Huub Ubbens und Michele De Lucchi for Artemide, the exhibition also presents some items which genuinely don’t get the attention they deserve.

Split by Meike Russler together with the Thonet A 660

Split by Meike Rüssler for Ligne Roset, for example, is just a wonderful piece of desk design.

If you like a nice organised organised desk.

So not for us.

But for everyone else, perfect.

Not only the in-built letter trays, nor the concealed storage, not even the wonderful 360 degree lamp make Split so good. Also the fact that the “back” can also be a “top” i.e. it can either be positioned vertically as a back or horizontally to give a two-tier desk. Then there is the wonderful retro-veneer that always makes our hearts skip a little faster.

Here in Cologne the Schöner Wohnen team have wonderfully married Split with James Irvine’s A 660 office chair for Thonet. Featuring the classic Thonet Bentwood technology, Irvine’s chair offers a delightful, modern interpretation of the traditional Thonet style. And a very comfortable seat.

The A 660 isn’t a chair you’ d want to spend 8 hours sitting at a desk in; but for regular shorter periods or, for example, as a visitor chair in an office it is perfect.

Vegetal from Vitra by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Having far to much time on our hands we’ve counted and as far we can see among the top producers in the list are Cassina and Vitra and among the best represented designers Antonio Citterio and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.
And so (smow) must be doing something right…..

“Das Buch der Klassiker“ is available with the February issue of Schöner Wohnen – and all featured articles are, obviously,  available via smow.com