Germany-based international interior design fair, imm cologne, has historically invited European and Asian designers to create its Das Haus installation – a completely new model residential house that is showcased at the centre of the exhibition hall. Most often, Das Haus is a fusion of the candidate’s aesthetic sensibilities and the design trends of the moment. For this edition, the discerning team at imm cologne selected an American designer for the first time: Todd Bracher.

While he might be an unfamiliar name to some, the brands he has worked with over the years definitely aren’t; he has collaborated with the likes of Fritz Hansen, Georg Jensen, and Cappellini. For the past decade, he lived and worked across Europe – Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and London – before returning to his home country and opening his own studio in Brooklyn. We met with the designer at the fair’s opening to discuss the installation in-depth.

How did you get the idea for the project?

I started with just a very simple question: Why do we choose to live in a certain way? Who decides what we have to put in every single room of our house? And then I started to think that the focus of this Das Haus should be to investigate the real values on which we base the idea of home, and to figure out which ones are truly important to our daily way of life.

Could you walk us through the installation itself?

It has a large common room, a small alcove with a roof that is open to the sky, an outdoor shower and no partition walls. It’s revolutionary and unsettling in its design concept, but at the same time pleasant and friendly when you are inside it. It basically eradicates the classical division of space, starting from a re-evaluation of the traditional dwelling concept. Normally – small or large – the houses where we live are structured with the classic division of internal spaces: the kitchen, the dining room, the bedroom, the bathroom. But I always thought that the space in which we live should be designed with an eye on the true needs of our daily lives, instead.

And how does Das Haus accomplish this?

The main hall has a long table in the centre with many stools as a symbol of conviviality. In this space, the four walls of the room are lined with wooden shelves with the objects for daily life: utensils for cooking and eating, books to read, games for the children. Then there is a much smaller room, totally covered with painted black wood, in which I want to stay when I need to meditate, sleep and dream. In room the furnishings have been reduced to the essentials, and the roof opens to a symbolic full moon as an invitation to have more contact with the surrounding nature. I wanted the bathroom outdoors, so you can enjoy the view of the nature around you. And to better highlight this need to break down barriers, I chose a symbolically thin cover, so you can feel always free and in harmony with the outside world.

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