Interzum sets design student-industry collaboration

MaterialTransformation – a new platform is the perfect way to bring companies and universities together. interzum launches platform for promoting young design

Yet another service for interzum exhibitors to take advantage of: with the MaterialTransformation concept, Koelnmesse is offering a networking platform where companies and industrial design students can find as suitable a match as possible in a quicker, more efficient manner. Interzum 2015 -to be held 5-8 May- will present the results of these collaborations at various interiors trade fairs. ORGATEC 2014, took place in October, has been the first event, presenting insights into the collaboration between GERA Leuchten (GERA Lighting) and the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. Pure functionality is not good enough: whether it’s fittings or machinery, industrial design is becoming more and more important for suppliers of the furniture industry. MaterialTransformation, the new platform established by Koelnmesse, now allows universities for industrial design and interzum exhibitors to come into contact in a more efficient and above all, simpler way, with an emphasis on the know-how-transfer going both ways. Inspiration for the Initiative: For an individual company, the effort required to embark upon a project with a university is often relatively intensive. Gathering the basic information alone is difficult: who is the contact at the university, which education centers have the appropriate training goals, how is the actual collaboration organized and what are the legal terms and conditions? Now, with the MaterialTransformation platform, interzum will take on the role of intermediary, where requested. This special service improves the prospects of a mutually rewarding collaboration – and for exhibitors at the world’s leading fair, the service is completely free! Industrial design is an extremely important topic for the furniture supplier industry. “Industrial designers are trained in many different sectors, have their own perspective on products and materials and can transfer these skills into other areas very well,” says Iris Laubstein, project manager of MaterialTransformation. “Therefore, collaborating with industrial designers is really worthwhile for furniture suppliers. And even more so with the next generation of design, who have even more completely new ideas and fresh approaches. Sometimes we see long-term project work developing out of these early collaborations.”

At ORGATEC, the first results of this type of collaboration were presented at the “interior of innovation” area, a special “piazza” for architects and designers. Visitors to the fair received information on a project currently taking place, “Lichtkörper” (lighting fixtures) run by GERA Leuchten (GERA Lighting) and the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. Over a period of six months, eighteen design students gained an insight into product development and production at GERA Leuchten and were then invited to turn their own design visions into product ideas, presented at the fair. “With this collaboration, we are offering many young talented people a wonderful opportunity to get a feel for the real business world early on,” says Henning Pölitz, managing partner of the lighting specialists from Sankt Gangloff/Thüringen. “And we gain just as much from the collaboration. Because every student approaches our products and potential future scenarios of lighting, furniture and rooms with a completely open mind and comes up with solutions that we – completely caught up in the operational side of the business – would not think of associating with them.” Contact partners represented other universities open to such collaborations at ORGATEC, in October 2014. The industrial design department of the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, UWID University of Wuppertal Industrial Design and the HTW, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin presented product design samples and presentations giving an insight into their work. After ORGATEC, the new networking platform MaterialTransformation will be presented at interzum in May 2015 with yet more projects. In addition, a website will be launched which will regularly publish information on on-going projects and will also serve as a contact forum.