One of the most original, and entertaining, exhibitions at Vienna Design Week 2011 was kidsroomZOOM.
Curated by Paola Noè from Gallery Unduetrestella Milan and Thomas Maitz from Austrian kids furniture producer Perludi, kidsroomZOOM was a delightful, turn of the century, downtown Vienna flat furnished especially for kids.
Adults were allowed in; but hadn't been considered in the planning of the exhibition.
Featuring works by producers and designers as varied as Thorsten van Elten, Rijada or Nonah, kidsroomZOOM provided a wonderful cross section of contemporary European kids furniture design; and evidence that there are options beyond the cheap tat available in every large furniture store.
The idea with the "kids flat" format was to present the international brands not as competitors, but more as part of unified solutions for creating a safe and creative space for children; a concept that we found as refreshing as many of the products on display.
Aside from old favourites such as MAXintheBOX by Perludi or Duck by Rijada, we were especially taken by the two bright, foam furniture/building block products Tukluk and Kubix.
And of course the somewhat sorry for itself looking Punch'n'Cuddle - a droppy eared figure that invited children of all ages to do both.
In addition to the exhibition itself, kidsroomZOOM also featured a paper toy workshop on the Saturday.
Reading the press material it appears that this was the second kidsroomZOOM; the first having taken place during Fuori Salone 2011, where of course we failed to notice it against the onslaught of other shows.
And so we hope that the organisers repeat the exercise at further design festivals; we certainly found it a successful concept that deserves a wider audience.
We'll keep you posted.
More details can be found at kidsroomZOOM.com
