The upcoming edition of international furniture and interiors fair imm cologne – taking place at Germany's Koelnmesse from 13-19th January, 2020 – will see Spanish design duo Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón (MUT) curate the Das Haus centrepiece installation.
Das Haus aims to present a suggestion of how we might live in future. Constructed from scratch and visited by thousands, the simulated interior combines architecture, interior design and furnishings, and gives a different designer or design team the opportunity to make their own personal statement on contemporary living each year.
Koelnmesse has nominated young Spanish design team MUT as its guest of honour for the ninth edition of Das Haus.
“A project like Das Haus gives a designer a unique opportunity to create something that’s totally independent of production and market conditions while simultaneously understanding and rediscovering their designs in terms of how they impact the space,” comments MUT. “In our design, we want to go one step further and explore the potential architecture and interior design have for opening the space up to the outdoors.”
As a result, the architectural dimension of Das Haus is particularly significant this time. “Mediterranean life is synonymous with outdoor living,” states MUT of the inspiration the team draws from its traditional culture. “Our houses have always integrated a little bit of nature into their interiors.”
Founded in 2010 by Alberto and Eduardo, the design studio is one of the most successful examples of the new wave of Spanish design. In its native Valencia, MUT creates furniture, carpets, tiles and lamps for the interiors sector, as well as designing hotels and exhibitions. The studio's work is characterised by a tendency towards simple, soft, circular shapes, and its creations – which have won major accolades such as the Red Dot award – present forms with a vaguely unfamiliar quality, or translate familiar shapes into a modern design.
The name MUT comes from Valencian (a variant of Catalan) and translates roughly as “quiet!” But the designers can also identify with the German meaning of “mut” – courage.
“It rounds off the way we see ourselves perfectly, because nowadays it takes a lot of courage to stand up for your own principles instead of going with the flow dictated by trends,” comments the Spanish team – indeed, emotionality and an expressive design language are the most outstanding characteristics of MUT's work.
With MUT, Das Haus is deliberately remaining within the sphere of European design, while selecting a decidedly progressive team with a contemporary profile.
Dick Spierenburg, imm cologne's creative director, says: "MUT isn’t so much a classic design team as the kind of multidisciplinary community of like-minded people that exists in all sorts of constellations nowadays – modern, flexible and creative. They work in a surprisingly diverse range of fields – they’re product designers, creative directors, graphic designers, interior designers and curators, all rolled into one. As a result, they stand for a new generation of design studios that’s responding to a changed market landscape in which huge demands are made of designers’ adaptability and inventiveness.”
Visitors to imm cologne 2020 will find Das Haus in the Pure Editions area, Hall 3.1.
Pictured: MUT's Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón, photo courtesy of Koelnmesse
