The floor connects us

When in January activities once again gather momentum after the restful days, the Domotex trade fair in Hannover is at the top of the list. From January 11 to 14, the trade show opens its doors to friends and fans of floor design. For its first edition in 2018, the trade fair had been courageously restructured according to the ideas of Schmidhuber from Munich. Exhibitors were thus offered the opportunity to explore new avenues due to a new hall layout, while visitors could enjoy a refreshing clarity and order. This successful new approach adopted by Deutsche Messe AG will be continued this year, based on the same concept, but with new content.

In other words: Hall 9 remains to be the organizational and content hub. Here, visitors will find the "Framing Trends" as the first and most important contact point for their visit to the trade fair, which is this year dedicated to the keynote theme "Create'n'Connect". The concept thus takes up current social developments by illuminating the "megatrend of connectivity" from three directions: via the organization in digital networks and their influence on our social interaction, via the connection formed between different cultures as well as via the connectedness through emotional experiences. Here the central theme becomes almost philosophical: "Rapidly increasing connectivity is influencing all aspects of life. It is disrupting existing communication structures, creating new connections beyond cultural and social boundaries, and allowing an unprecedented insight into companies and organizations. At the same time, there is an increased desire for new forms of connectedness and feelings of security in a world of virtually unlimited opportunities." Floors play a special role in this, because they support, inspire, guide, and connect us. With the central theme "Create'n'Connect", Domotex wants to stand for the interplay of traditional production techniques and modern designs, for the multifunctional design of living spaces and for intelligent flooring solutions.

Art, innovation, and presentation — Framing Trends
This year, the special area "Framing Trends" is divided into three modules that promise plenty of inspiration: At the "Flooring Spaces", companies from the flooring industry present their creative ideas on the basis of the current keynote theme. At the "NuThinkers", students show their innovative concepts relating to the megatrend of connectivity. The "Art & Interaction" module features installations from the fields of art and design, which playfully elaborate on the keynote theme and make it a tangible experience. In order to prevent all this from becoming arbitrary, an expert committee has again decided on which productions may be shown. The jury consisted of Peter Ippolito (IF Group, Stuttgart, jury chairman), Dr. Susanne Schmidhuber (Schmidhuber, Munich), Dr. Susanne Kaufmann (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart), and Thomas Hundt (jangled nerves and Professor for Media + Space at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences).

Community in a limitless world
Peter Ippolito regards the new keynote theme of "Create'n'Connect" as an attractive counterpoint to last year's theme of individuality. It is noticeable "that in today's society, people are seeking community and cohesion. They are looking for values and, indeed, for boundaries in a world that has become so boundless". The connectivity theme – in other words: The question of what connects us to which standards of value? – is very exciting when translated into three-dimensional space, says Ippolito. "From an interior design point of view, the floor is always a medium that can create, connect and expand space. That is our fundamental assumption." That arouses curiosity! We at World-Architects are definitely looking forward to the second round in the new basic framework and are eager to see how the actors on the special area Framing Trends will approach the lead theme "Create'n'Connect".

Guided Tours by World-Architects
The Guided Tours prepared by the World-Architects team, which will again take place on each day of this year’s trade fair, are a dear tradition and an important contact point for architects, interior designers, designers, and planners. The tours will be guided by experts from the industry and accompanied by editorial content from the World-Architects team.
Guided Tours: daily from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 15:15 to 17:15. Meeting point: Hall 9, special area "Framing Trends".

Tour 1 (German): January 11 – Friday – 10:00-12:00
Susanne Schmidhuber, SCHMIDHUBER

Tour 2 (English): January 11 – Friday – 15:15-17:15
Hendrik Müller, einszu33

Tour 3 (English): January 12 – Saturday – 10:00-12:00
Prof. Peter Greenberg , ester bruzkus architekten

Tour 4 (German): January 12 – Saturday – 15:15-17:15
Dr. Marina-Elena Wachs, Marina-Elena Wachs - Material & Design

Tour 5 (English): January 13 – Sunday – 10:00-12:00
Martina Metzner, abaut - editorial office for design and architecture

Tour 6 (German): January 13 – Sunday – 15:15-17:15
Roland Bondzio & Petra Wollenberg, behet bondzio lin architekten, lwa Leyk Wollenberg Architekten

Tour 7 (German): January 14 – Monday – 10:00-12:00
Polina Goldberg, Tchoban Voss Architekten

Tour 8 (German): January 14 – Monday – 15:15-17:15
NuThinkers, young designers

All Guided Tours are accompanied on the editorial level by Thomas Geuder, freelance architecture journalist with his own architecture gallery from Stuttgart and member of the editorial staff of the German-Architects Magazine.

The meeting point for each Guided Tour is at the special area "Framing Trends" in Hall 9.
Registration at: https://www.domotex.de/en/events/guided-tours/
Multiple registrations are, of course, possible!

Inspiring talks
Another feature that visitors to Domotex have grown fond of during the last Domotex trade fair: On all four days, visitors will find plenty of inspiration during the “Talks” on the main stage at the special area "Framing Trends" in Hall 9, which are organized and conducted by the Berlin-based communications agency Einateam. Nine renowned architects, interior designers, and designers will talk about their work under the keynote theme "Create'n'Connect". The topics include "Deconstruction", "Inspiring Limits", "Concrete Poetry", and "Change of Perspective". On the fourth day of the fair, this stage will be reserved for the NuThinkers, who will present their young ideas. Please register at: https://www.domotex.de/en/events/talks/

Carpet Design Awards
One of the trade fair highlights is the presentation of the Carpet Design Awards, the world's most important international distinction for modern handmade carpets. This year, the jury was almost completely reassigned. The jury is now chaired by Michael Mandapati, carpet expert and President of Warp & Weft, New York. The 24 carpets in the final round are presented to the general public in Hall 9 during Domotex. The jury will then select one winner in each category from the shortlisted carpets in January. The awards will be presented to the winners in a festive ceremony at the Carpet Design Awards stand in Hall 9 on Saturday, January 12, 2019. A date not to be missed.

The building trades event “Treffpunkt Handwerk”
Without skilled trades, you can't build a building! That's why this year's Domotex will once again include a special event for this occupational group in Hall 13 (Stand C59). At this meeting point, interior furnishers, parquet and floor layers, painters and varnishers will find the right place to exchange ideas with colleagues, try out innovative products, and get to know new application and installation techniques. But that's not it: on each day of the trade fair, lectures will provide competent information on current topics and solutions from the floor-laying trade as well as the screed and parquet laying trade. A demonstration area provides the opportunity to test selected tools and equipment on site.

Prospects
With this year's keynote theme "Create'n'Connect", the Domotex trade fair once again has the finger on the pulse of our time, in which the arbitrariness of design appears increasingly overwhelming, while networking is omnipresent and emotional experience is becoming an increasingly central issue. Finding a way out of this is not necessarily the responsibility of the flooring industry or architecture, but of society and thus of each individual. The floor, as the part of architecture with which people are almost always connected, is the basis for the path to be taken. The days of the trade fair will show how this is implemented both at the Domotex special area "Framing Trends" and by the exhibitors themselves. We at World-Architects are looking forward to four inspiring days!

DOMOTEX 2019 - CREATE’N’CONNECT (Domotex / Deutsche Messe, duration: 0:55 min.) ​​