International interiors event imm cologne attracts suppliers and decision-makers from all over the globe, presenting both market-ready new launches and the furnishing trends set to shape the future.

Nowhere is imm cologne’s trend focus better reflected than in Das Haus – Interiors on Stage, an installation which simulates a residential house. Each year, a new designer is nominated to design and curate the exhibit, across approximately 240 sqm in the Pure Village hall (2.2) of Cologne's Koelnmesse.

The furniture, colors, materials, lighting and accessories are also selected by the designer, rendering the finished house an individual configuration of interior design – future oriented, practical, workable, and, above all, authentic.

The first Das Haus installation was in 2012, when the Indian-British designer team Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien were nominated to introduce the new format. The following year, Italian designer Luca Nichetto introduced the installation, while in 2014, Danish designer Louise Campbell turned Das Haus into a low-tech place of calm within the bustle of the fair.

For the next edition, imm cologne sought a view from outside Europe, and has invited Chinese architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu – the people behind the influential Neri&Hu Design and Research Office – to be the guests of honor.

In Lyndon and Rossana’s work, there is less traditional Eastern flair and more of a pronounced modern and international style. However, their interior design, and design objects – mainly furniture and accessories – speak of an aesthetic that is totally their own, a result of the Western principle of reduction being applied to the huge diversity of Chinese form. Neri&Hu is regarded as one of the most progressive architecture studios in China, and enjoys international success in the areas of design and interior design.

Dick Spierenburg, creative director of imm cologne, comments: “With Neri&Hu, we have found a pair of architects who have long been experimenting with giving the buildings they design their own characteristic inner dimension, by filling them with furniture and fixtures they design themselves.

“And it’s in a way which we find really inspiring – atmospheric and pared down at the same time, with refined details and twists. With Das Haus, they are free to develop their own experience even further and discover new directions. We have reason to hope that something extremely exciting might develop from this.”