With a huge party Rheindesign was opened on Wednesday night at the KAP Forum in Cologne. More than 1.000 guests joined the program. Surely such an attention makes Managing Director Andreas Grosz very happy: »First we had expected only 400 people – it’s unbelievable that there are so many people here right now that we hardly know how to handle it!« said Grosz.

After the glamourous opening, Rheindesign will now have to prove that its program can transport the focus (that is on the relation between design and society) to a broader audience. Till Sunday there are more than 40 events to be experienced in various parts of the city. An example for the enthusiasm that is happening around Rheindesign is the official program: From the 45 events there are only 35 listed as the organizers were just afloated by registrations even in the last minute that they just couldn’t manage it.

Rheindesign as a non-commerical cultural event is a good chance for Cologne to sharpen its profile and strengthen the position as an international design center – apart from the superiority of interior design that is caused by the annual furniture fair. Indeed there was also a cultural event – the »Passagen« – surrounding the fair that in the beginning had a lot of delighting design events outside the fairgrounds with conceptual and experimenting projects. But in the last years it developed just to another fair outside the fair: with lots of slick showrooms that don’t really offer something new for the Passagen.

Hopefully Rheindesign will be able to maintain its cultural demand that also Passagen had in the beginning, but that was sucked by the ecomomic potential that wanted to be fully tapped. But that’s another difficult topic – let’s get Rheindesign started and couriosly experience the many events that are happening in the next days!