Function wanted!

Whether it is the transformation of working environments, the booming hospitality sector or new retail concepts: A lot is happening at the moment in the contract business for architects and planners. All the greater is the demand for specifically suitable materials and equipment. Heimtextil faced up to these challenges two years ago when it launched the special format Interior.Architecture.Hospitality EXPO. The area is devoted in particular to textiles, floor and wall coverings for public spaces. For the upcoming event, the trade fair for home and contract textiles has expanded the format and structured it more clearly to include the following features: Expo, Tours, Library, Lectures, Directory, Talents and Trend Scouting.

At the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality EXPO in Hall 4.2, products suitable for use in the contract sector, such as textiles with acoustic or special abrasion properties, through to solar protection and innovative wall coverings, are on display. The Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LIBRARY features a selection of textiles with the functional properties flame-retardant, sound-absorbing, abrasion-proof and water-repellent. Each product is labelled with the manufacturer's name and stand number.

During the trade fair, the popular tours for professionals are again be available: Experts take participants on a tour to their personal highlights and present innovative textile solutions. The tours have different key themes and are organized by World-Architects, AIT-Dialog, bdia and AHGZ/hoteldesign.

World-Architects offers a total of six tours – three in German and three in English. The tour guides are textile engineer Astrid Schaal, designer Jutta Werner, interior designer Sylvia Leydecker, architect Marc Mir from the Stuttgart-based office Lee+Mir, Peter Joehnk from JOI Design and interior designer Julius Reimann from Hamburg. If you'd like to get some information from a textile specialist, we recommend the tour by Astrid Schaal, who worked for Christian Fischbacher for many years and subsequently for Nya Nordiska. Under the motto ‘Guter Stoff! Abseits des Wellenbandes’ (7.1.2020, 11.00-12.30) Schaal discusses interesting and "sensual" functional textiles and explain that "only fabric can change the character – and even the technical properties – of rooms in such a varied and comparatively inexpensive way and thus directly influence our well-being".

Find out more about the guides, their topics and dates, and register right away – because places are limited. All tours start at the Information Counter of World-Architects: Guided Tours org. by World-Architects.

At the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LECTURES, experts provide information on various material and application topics. One of the highlights is The Future of Furniture Fabrics Design Dialogue, which takes place on the second day of the trade fair (8.1.2020, 12.00).

Visitors should not miss two events on the second day of the fair: In the late afternoon, the winners of Heimtextil Trendscouting by AIT are announced. Afterwards, Heimtextil invites all exhibitors and visitors to its 50th anniversary party Heimtextil @ Night in Hall 11.1.

The Interior.Architecture.Hospitality DIRECTORY – the former Contract Guide – helps you find your way around the trade fair. It lists 370 of the 3,000 exhibitors at Heimtextil who offer contract textiles. The DIRECTORY is available both online and in print at the trade fair.

In the meantime, Heimtextil's Trend Space has developed into a real Mecca for designers and architects: Renowned trend experts take turns to design an area in Hall 3.0 and take a look at the future of textile design with their unusual presentations. For Heimtextil 2020, Dutch designer Annemarie Commandeur has proclaimed the motto Where I belong – the five trend worlds deal with questions of identity.

The Sleep! Forum in the Foyer North of Hall 11.0 might also be interesting for planners in the hospitality segment. Exhibitors for bedding and sleeping systems are located in Halls 11.0, 12.0 and 12.1. The lectures at the Sleep! Forum focus on sustainability. This focus, which Heimtextil has chosen for many years, is complemented by formats such as the Green Village and the Green Tours expert tours. The Green Directory lists exhibitors of sustainably manufactured products.

Sustainability is in particularly great demand in the hospitality business, reports Jana Vonofakos, interior designer at VRAI in Frankfurt. Frequent travelers simply expect sustainability – but hotel managers often do not know how to implement it. They are increasingly seeking advice from designers and architects. Then they discuss: What is the hotel's overall balance like? Should only sustainably manufactured products and materials as well as energy-saving processes be considered or also a design that is durable and therefore sustainable as such? 

Jana Vonofakos uses Landhaus Wachtelhof in Rotenburg, a small town in northern Germany, designed by her office, as an example of sustainable hotel design for which VRAI chose fabrics made from recycled materials. "Flame retardancy can now be reconciled with sustainable requirements, as there are flame-retardant filament yarns, which are partly made from recycled PET bottles," says Vonofakos. However, sustainability also means choosing a fabric that is as durable and easy to clean as possible – and does not go out of fashion so quickly.

Those who would like to learn more about the project will find additional information in the Interior.Architecture.Hospitality LIBRARY and in the profile of VRAI interior architecture at the World-Architects website.