IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living reports that it will be held from 7-9 November at Tokyo Big Sight East halls 4, 5 and 6. The show is fully booked and has expanded its size by 9% welcoming a record-breaking 450 exhibitors (Domestic: 370, Overseas: 80) from 14 countries/regions.

There will be three major pavilions from Asahikawa in Hokkaido prefecture, Okawa from Fukuoka prefecture and Hida in Gifu prefecture, as well as products from Shizuoka, Tokushima and Hiroshima.

'2016 Corp.’ showcases a new series of Arita pottery, one of Japan’s established traditional crafts with a 400-year history, designed by various international designers. ‘molo’, a Canadian design and manufacturing production group, will be presenting their space partition and light products. The products will appear at the 12 characteristic zones including: THE HOTEL, KITCHEN LIFE, EVERYDAY, HOME, ACCENT, GLOBAL, CREATIVE RESOURCE, JAPAN STYLE, MOVEMENT, TALENTS, NEXT and FOODIST.

At the GLOBAL zone, Finland has organised an extensive pavilion with a diverse range of Finnish design products. It is part of their promotion as a country celebrating its 100th anniversary of its independence.

Highlights at a glance

THE HOTEL

The third edition of "THE HOTEL" focuses on customer experiences. The collaboration director is Smiles Co., Ltd., which has a vision to raise excitement in everyday lives and runs concept restaurants and apparel shops. They have opened “Lemon Hotel”in the Setouchi region this year; a conceptual hotel receiving each day a group of 2-6 guests in a single traditional Japanese shared sleeping space. With their creative background, “THE HOTEL” will be communicating new ideas through exhibitor products and special presentations.

CREATIVE RESOURCE

“CREATIVE RESOURCE” will also be responding to the demands for interior products for hotels, catering and other commercial facilities. This zone will communicate ideas for renovation, featuring the finest interior decoration parts and materials. The director and architect, Keiji Ashizawa, will be preparing a special presentation area that will be displaying Do-It-Yourself items made by architects from around the world using products of DOIT, one of the largest home improvement stores in Japan.

NEXT, TALENTS and IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living Awards

NEXT and TALENTS are zones for young, talented designers and entrepreneurs to obtain business opportunities through networking. These two areas were developed from Ambiente, the world’s most important consumer goods fair held in Frankfurt Germany every February. NEXT provides young entrepreneurs a platform to increase their business by discovering new partners and collaborative projects. TALENTS matches manufacturers with young designers to flourish in the market. Exhibitors at TALENTS have a chance to be chosen for the Young Designer Award, to receive the opportunity to exhibit at Ambiente 2017 and to make a leap forward overseas. The award juror will be the Vice President of Ambiente, Nicolette Naumann. The winner will be announced prior to the Ambiente 2017 press conference, held on the 7 November from 13:30 at the talk show stage located in Hall 6.

Along with the Young Designer Award, the winner of the Best Buyer’s Choice 2016 will also be announced. The award will be given to the best potential must-buy product of the fair. The grantor is Toru Oshige, Executive Officer Marketing General Manager at a popular interior shop ACTUS Corp. The awarded product should become a benchmark for the coming seasons.

HEIMTEXTIL THEME PARK

Based on Heimtextil Trends 2017/2018, IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living offers a preview of the new Trends “Exploration” at Heimtextil Theme Park. This showcase at IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living is directed by Dan Namura (design studio Dan Project), one of the members of the Trendtable Contributors at Heimtextil. This instalment will enable the visitors to interactively experience the coming trends. The full display of the Theme Park will be revealed at Heimtextil in January 2017.

LIFESTYLE SALON 2016

LIFESTYLE SALON 2016 will include lecturers from various parts of the world this year. Professor Janice Kirkpatrick, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Graven and designer of the partner country presentation United Kingdom at Ambiente 2017, will be speaking on the 7 November about her design projects. Ms Sophia Jansson, President of Moomin Character Ltd, also the niece of Tove Jansson, will appear and present the Finnish lifestyle on the 8 November. She will be onstage together with Ms Jonna Wibelius (Director, Lifestyle Growth Program, FINPRO) and Mr Masahiro Kimura (Senior Commercial Officer, Embassy of Finland). Designer Richard Hutten will introduce Dutch design together with Mr Joe Suzuki (Creative Director) on the 9 November.

Nov 7th 3:00pm – 4:00pm
“Graven : transforming places into brands”
Speaker: Prof Janice Kirkpatrick

Nov 8th 3:00pm – 4:00pm
“A design born of Finnish lifestyle”
Speaker: Ms Jonna Wibelius / Mr Masahiro Kimura /
Ms Sophia Jansson

Nov 9th 3:00pm – 4:00pm
“Designer’s interview: Richard Hutten talks about the secret of Dutch design”
Speaker: Mr Richard Hutten / Mr Joe Suzuki

With the exception of the seminars introduced above and the Ambiente 2017 Press Conference, all the program events will be held in Japanese only.

(Source: furninfo.com)