DesignBoom has a photo report of the Cologne Furniture Fair which ended on January 23. As it is often the case in those huge design fairs, off site events seem to provide most of the fun.

Let’s start with something for Italian food lovers:
In passagen, Wurstteppiche (sausage carpets) showed rugs available in delicate patterns such as salami or mortadella (as I am vegetarian I’d rather have Isabelle Leijn “SunnySideUp” carpet.)

Elsewhere in Cologne, seven postgraduates of Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague (The Netherlands) showed “Design for seniors, design for all“, a series of works invented especially for the eldrely.

Robert van den crommenacker adopted a rebellious approach. His “protest” devices are stripped of their medical associations, ridding their users of the pitifulness that needing to use an IV drip, walking stick or wheelchair involves. He even made accessories for the elderly such as a colourful work bag for carrying spray can, gloves and stencil

Endry van Zwam‘s Whispering Cushion is a cushion with two speakers in it for people who are not ready to use a hearing aid.

When the user connects a sender onto his hifi (or TV) s/he can listen to the music in a radius of 80 meters. To turn the speaker on or off and control the sound of the speaker, just use the buttons in the fabric.

Full snapshot report and more picures in designvormgeving (via dezain).