|
contents | news | |||||||||
| 2005 Material Vision with ten percent increase in visitor attendance Material Vision, the interdisciplinary conference and specialist trade fair for new materials, was held for the third time this year, recording a rise in visitor attendance in the region of ten percent. All in all, some 1, 950 visitors from a total of 22 countries (2003: 1, 800 visitors) made their way to Frankfurt to view new materials and to meet with researchers and developers. The conference talks were attended by an average of 130 visitors, including many designers, architects and material scouts. Among this year’s highlights were speeches by Dr. Peter Eibeck of BASF AG and London-based designer Tom Dixon. Parallel to this, the exhibition focused on all aspects of innovative materials – whereas some visitors were interested in customised materials, others were on the look-out for innovations for product design. The spectrum of trade visitors ranged from industrial designers, architects and up-and-coming designers to material scouts and product developers from the automotive, consumer goods and furniture sectors. In terms of visitor figures, the top five countries represented at Material Vision were Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Finland and the Netherlands. Further Western European visitors came from Belgium, Denmark, France, UK, Greece, Sweden and Spain. Eastern European visitors came predominantly from Hungary and the Czech Republic. Material experts also came from as far away as Israel, Iran, China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, New Zealand and the USA. Accordingly, the degree of international participation rose from almost two percent in 2003 to just under eight percent in 2005. The vast majority of the 80 exhibiting companies, stemming from a total of eight countries, presented their products and services on an exhibition area measuring 2, 500 square metres (35 percent more than in 2003). A total of 210 different products from manufacturers in 17 countries were submitted to the Design Plus prize, which, for the very first time, was organised by the German Design Council to coincide with the Material Vision trade fair. The panel of judges finally selected 31 products for the Design Plus prize. The prize-winning products were showcased in a specially designed display area. In addition, Rotterdam-based materials agency Materia presented part of its own exhibition, entitled “Material Skills, Evolution of Materials”. The next Material Vision is scheduled to take place in Frankfurt in November 2007. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |