Das Haus

With the invitation to be guest of honour at the annual furniture fair Imm Cologne followed the challenge of designing Das Haus 2014. Six months preparation time and free hands were given to create an ideal house within a budget and a given space measuring 12 x 20 meters, max height 5.5 meters.

Working title: ’0-100, made to measure’

A home should be a place, which smoothly accommodates frequent rapid changes of pace, from highly active to completely calm.

This home is one large open space, but is also a distinct fusion of two identically sized houses. A masculine and a feminine. Each constructed to clearly accommodate the masculine and feminine needs within all of us. The masculine half is for activity, is full of measuring instruments, here anything can be prepared, built, cooked, fixed. Everything in here is rational, and in its place. The feminine half is for relaxation. A 32 square meter bed lines the side, and is intended for use not just for sleeping, but for all sorts of restful moments. The atmosphere here is soft, gentle and warm, surfaces are decorative. In between the two is the mutual space, for gathering any one for any occasion at a long wooden table.

As an antidote to the speed of everything at present, this house is low-tech. Not critically, but encouragingly. Aiming at reminding us that we have these wonderful bodies, capable of so much, if we let them. I would like to think that the inhabitants tend to their house as they would tend to their garden. Patiently, passionately, happily.

  • Installation: Das Haus
  • Guest of Honour, IMM Cologne
  • Year: 2014