News
ZOW Specials 2009
The architectural lounge – THE meeting place
Bigger and more informative than ever before in 2009
The a-lounge partners were the BDIA Association of German Interior Designers, the International Forum Design Hanover (iF), the architecture trade magazine Detail and Material ConneXion Cologne. www.bdia.de – www.ifdesign.de – www.detail.de – www.materialconnexion.de
Universal design
The top topic in the architectural lounge
The “a-select” exhibition in the architectural lounge focused on a hot topic of the future: universal design. Universal design means that products can be used by as many people as possible regardless of age. They aren’t designed for one particular age group like “50 plus”. The concept takes into account the changes that people experience during their lives and is oriented towards both young and old, big and small, handicapped and able-bodied. The topic of universal design will have considerable impact on future product trends. The “a-select” exhibition clearly showed how the universal design criteria apply to the products showcased by the ZOW exhibitors and to various everyday objects. Frido Jacobs, formerly Head of Design at Miele, and Thomas Bade, Managing Director of Universal Design GmbH from Hanover, will be supervising the presentation. www.ud-germany.de
Lightness leads to new furniture ideas
Lightweight construction exhibition from and with “igeL”
Lightweight construction is THE hot topic. With a high-class exhibition located very near the architectural lounge, this innovative and exciting topic set the scene at ZOW. The igeL community of interests of lightweight construction organised this interesting exhibition. 26 member companies of “igeL” presented their latest solutions from lightweight construction, which will revolutionise the furniture and interiors world, in an area of around 500 m² at ZOW. As well as simple handling, it’s primarily the lower transport, energy and packaging costs which make lightweight construction so interesting for the furniture and interiors industry, trade fair construction and retail design. www.igel-ev.net
MaterialZ
Innovative materials for design and architecture
The first ever special “materialZ – innovative materials for design and architecture” show took place at ZOW in Bad Salzuflen, curated by Material ConneXion Cologne. At the heart of the exhibition lied a presentation of material innovations in free-standing containers, featuring integrated lighting to show off the very best of the exhibits. On an area of around 400 m², right at the southern entrance in Hall 23.2, MaterialZ opens up an emotionally appealing design world to visitors, inviting them to feel and examine the materials on show. The material experts from the exhibiting companies looked to enter into dialogue with the ZOW visitors, to communicate the specific material characteristics to them and discuss new applications for the products of tomorrow. With its transparent stand architecture and open atmosphere, MaterialZ was the ideal place to cultivate proven contacts and establish new business relations. www.materialconnexion.de
ZOW Mediapoint: Plug & live!
Why furniture and the media must grow together
It’s not just offices that have made themselves comfortable amongst an array of computers, telephones and networks. In our private lives too, we can barely imagine surviving without digital music, videos, photos, the Internet and multimedia networks. Yet it seems that household furniture and modern entertainment electronics are not designed to be used together. How else do you explain why industry is still designing furniture to go with CRT TVs when they have long disappeared from the market, or that the end customer still has to drill fist-sized holes in supporting elements for cable feedthroughs? The Mediapoint at ZOW proved that this no longer has to be the case. This exclusive presentation used real room setups to show how living rooms, work rooms, kitchens and bathrooms can be designed and equipped in a media-compatible manner and how they can be networked with one another.
RFID factory
How to save time and money
Barcodes are yesterday’s news, but RFID is the technology of tomorrow. Löhne-based software and technology company “abaco Informationssysteme” showed visitors to ZOW 2009 how they can save time and money with this innovative wireless technology. abaco’s Managing Director Horst Koitka and his partners demonstrated in the RFID factory how a piece of furniture travels all the way through the supply chain (just 30 metres in this case) from the supplier through industry to the trade, including transport by a haulage company. The demonstration featured various charge carriers which have to be detected in so-called gates (control points) using RFID technology. The presentation was aimed primarily at visitors from management, production, technology, logistics and sales. www.abaco.de
Logistics campus
How processes can be optimised
The IWT Institute of Business Management and Technological Corporate Management of the East Westphalian University of Applied Sciences warmly invited visitors to the logistics campus during ZOW. In terms of topics, the presentation includes procurement logistics, production logistics and distribution logistics, all illustrated in the supply chain. The topics were made transparent for visitors through the use of interactive models and descriptive diagrams. Visitors were invited to an IWT workshop, which took place once or twice a day and demonstrated how production principles can have a positive impact on e.g. the pulling system (pull principle), on space, stock, processing times and last but not least productivity. During the workshop, processes were simulated, analysed and optimised using an assembly line for cardboard boxes. www.iwt-institut.de
“iFurn” celebrated its birthday
The sector portal for designers and planners
“iFurn“, the online database for the day-to-day work of designers and planers in the furniture and interiors industry, celebrated its birthday. One year after its premiere at ZOW 2008, the “iFurn community” came together at ZOW 2009 for this precise reason. Virtual communication through exchanging data was turned into a physical meeting place to exchange experiences. And this all happened at the very place where “iFurn” was launched: at ZOW, THE supplier fair for the furniture and interiors industry. The “iFurn” sector portal outlined what there will be to see in the exhibition hall online. www.ifurn.de