Design trends & smart solutions at Ambiente

Romance, attitude, innocence and modernity are back — and under one roof. For 2012, these are the trends that style makers and trendsetters at Ambiente, the world’s biggest consumer-goods show, are forecasting, plus a move toward sustainable design and manufacturing processes.

Yes, our homes are becoming more colorful again, literally, and in a green way.

Organized by Messe Frankfurt, Ambiente puts together the best ideas and the most creative people together for a show that has the home sector jumping with life.

This year, Messe Frankfurt, that massive exhibition space in the heart of Frankfurt, divided its halls into three categories: Dining, Giving and Living for over 4,500 exhibitors from around the world.

In the Living section, about 50 Filipino manufacturing companies participated in this year’s show, with products ranging from Christmas décor to home accessories that have the most unlikely inspirations — from Spanish painter Velasquez’s “Las Meninas” to the more quotidian recycled paper turned into exquisite wall treatments.

Vibrant colors, traditional handicrafts: The designer team Bora.Herke.Palmisano Stillbüro developed the Ambiente trend statements based on analyzing international trends in fashion, architecture and design. One of the settings features a recycled paper wall décor by Wataru Sacuma of Masa Eco.

The Philippine exporters for this show, organized locally by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), all said that despite the slowdown due to the economic crisis, Ambiente 2012 sales are terrific. The competition may be stiff (87 countries are represented by the exhibitors), but Ambiente always delivers the buyers.

The Philippines this year also got special exhibition space, thanks to Smart Cebu, a project implemented by a consortium of European and Philippine organizations in Cebu aimed to increase the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises by promoting clean production, developing eco-friendly products and entering the green markets of Europe and Asia.

Four Trends

The designer team Bora.Herke.Palmisano Stillbüro — composed of Annette Palmisano, Claudia Herke and Cem Bora — developed the Ambiente trend statements based on analyzing international trends in fashion, architecture and design.

During the Ambiente show, their style studio also conducted lectures on the four design trends.

Electric Romance is all about folklore, traditional and old handicraft techniques. They are carefree with touches of humor: natural and recycling materials are presented in lush summer colors like grass-green, cornflower blue or vermillion in designs using flowers, checks, twig-and-leaf patterns and bird motifs, as well as rustic embroidery.

Indigenous materials, new attitudes toward sustainability: Smart Cebu designer-consultant Mark Braun

Dark Attitude, called the diva among the Ambiente trends, is the combination of casual and glamour to create a look that is nonchalant and fitting for everyday use but with a touch of extravagance: fine woods are combined with shimmering metals and grainy jeans fabrics; sculptural forms abound with the use of very strong colors. The palette is navy-blue, chestnut, smoke-gray and graphite black.

Light Innocence has a subtle, softer and puristic feel. As the main theme, light creates an almost ethereal ambience in powdery pastel shades. Glass, porcelain, and delicate ceramics are combined with organic forms to show a restraint of a style utterly devoid of anything bold or striking. Here, less is truly more.

In contrast, Radiant Modernity is characterized by an eye-catching color scheme consisting of designs in jazzy colors and shapes of the ‘70s and ‘80s. This daring trend revives the jazzy colors and shapes of the ‘70s and ‘80s. —radiant yellow, dark aubergine, and bright fuchsia are used in the forms of graphic patterns.

Sustainable Design: From Denmark To Cebu

Ambiente’s nod to sustainability was emphasized by having a partner country for the first time: Denmark, a leader in groundbreaking design for the past centuries and, today, a leader in sustainable design.

C’est Cebu!: Smart Cebu designer-consultant Ingrid Haufe with ECCP branch manager Roselu Paloma and trade promotions manager (Fairs and More) Joan Monina Zabala

Ambiente vice president Nicolette Naumann, says, “When it comes to design, the Danes have, for years now, played a leading role. We are especially delighted to have been able to persuade Denmark to come on board as the first partner country of Ambiente.”

Denmark presented the special exhibition “10+Design Forecast Denmark — Future Living” in collaboration with the Danish Design Center. Ten designers showcased ways in which innovative approaches to sustainability and aesthetics can be assimilated into the design of new types of products.

Lene Tangtøj, project manager of the Danish Design Center, says, “What factors will decide what counts as good design — today and in the future? What will top-quality design look like in the 21st century?”

The Danish exhibit at Galleria 1 answered that. If the products there were any indication of the future, the answer is that design of the future will still be beautiful and practical — and sustainable. They included an “active house,” which produces more electricity than it uses, thanks to wind turbines one can put in the backyard; 100-pecent recyclable chairs made out of PET; children’s rainwear made from used plastic bottles; and a space-saving sofabed with enough futons for the extended families that folded when used as sofa   and unfurled when used as a bed.

Future of design: Ambiente’s nod to sustainability was emphasized by having a partner country for the first time: Denmark, a leader in groundbreaking design for the past centuries and, today, a leader in sustainable design. These chairs are made out of recycled PET bottles.

Over at the Smart Cebu staging, products ranged from vases made of recycled newspapers and magazines to containers made of raffia, and lamps made of capiz shell. Twelve companies under the aegis of Smart Cebu participated, including Catalina Embroideries, 33 Point 3, AH Designs, Arden, Art ‘N’ Nature, Bon-Ace Fashion Tools, Capiz Shell Philippines, Enpekei, Finali, Nature’s Legacy, Regalos and Wire Works.

The Eco Design Training Program with German designer Mark Braun helped the companies realize the significance of shaping an identity: emphasizing the importance of thinking beyond one’s needs in fusing creativity and sustainability. The materials used in the Smart Cebu project are indigenous and renewable materials like bamboo, rattan, up-cycled production waste materials or recyclable mono material strategy in metal.

Braun conducted workshops, as well as one-on-one consultancy. Braun revealed at the end of Ambiente that one of the interested buyers of Smart Cebu’s products (specifically a pendant lamp) was the upmarket home store Habitat by Terence Conran in London.

Braun has done some excellent designs with the companies. Capiz-shell lamps, Baroque-inspired wire chairs, and raffia lamps. “Sometimes, it’s about finding different shapes and putting them in a different context. In this case, I have chosen onion lamps made of capiz shells, which are a sustainable resource.”

What used to be byproducts — like cracked shells — have found another life as embellishment in concrete vases. “Here you can see how to deal with your leftovers. Instead of throwing them away you get to develop new material.”

Electrify: This personal transportation from the 10+Design Forecast Denmark exhibit runs on electricity.

Braun says that Cebu is a mine of different materials, fibers and skilled workers. “The challenge was to do away, with resin, which is harmful for the worker. We offered them some new resins that are not harmful when workers are creating the products. Smart Cebu is not just about design but also about the health and well-being of workers.”

Another Filipino company that puts the workers first is the CCAP Fairtrade for Development Inc., which was established in 1973 by a group of NGO workers and church-based groups and individual advocates for alternative trading to provide market access to marginalized producers in communities. Today CCAP exports to countries such as Japan, Canada, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

If there is a trend that we will be seeing more of in future Ambiente shows, it is design with a consciousness — toward a green future where beautiful things need not come at such a high price to the environment.

East meets west: Asian motifs are mixed with western sensibility.