Furniture for Change and Diversity

Alumni from the Architecture and Business Administration departments present the innovative variand furnishing system in Germany for the first time

The Cologne startup variand is presenting the prototypes of its newly developed wall furniture system for the first time as part of Passagen 2020 – Interior Design Week in Cologne. The system makes it possible to furnish rooms of all kinds with exceptional flexibility. The variand system will be on display for one week from Monday, 13 January, in the exhibition rooms of the carpentry company Mhoch3 in Cologne Ehrenfeld.
The four founders, Johannes Klapfer, Valentin Quecke, Valentin Schily (Architecture) and Lennard Lingk (Business Administration), met while studying at Alanus University in Alfter near Bonn. They developed the idea for the furniture system in 2017 during a study project in which the interior design for a school in South Tyrol was planned. According to the school’s requirements, it had to allow for a high degree of flexibility in how the rooms were used. The project continued beyond their studies and was completed in January 2019.
In the meantime, the idea has grown into a company that is attracting attention across the country: since August 2019, the project has been funded by the Gründerstipendium NRW and supported in an advisory capacity by the Cologne Chamber of Skilled Crafts. In November 2019, the founders were invited to the West Regional Conference, an event of the start-up initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. There, they presented their furniture system to Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier.
With its system, variand aims to enable the free, individual arrangement and use of pieces of furniture. These can be moved freely along wooden slats permanently mounted to the walls and rearranged in just a few simple steps. Thanks to the specially developed hanging mechanism, the furniture can be attached or removed with a single twisting motion, without tools, while otherwise remaining firmly secured in the slats. Rooms of all kinds—whether apartments, workspaces, schools, shops, or other settings—can thus be quickly redesigned and adapted to new requirements and uses.
“With variand, we want to encourage people to interact with their living environment, empower them to help shape it, and thus contribute to a more conscious approach to furniture,” says co-founder Johannes Klapfer.
The new prototypes were exhibited for the first time in December 2019 at the autumn trade fair "Arredo" in Bolzano, Italy.
Passagen 2020 – Interior Design Week: 13–19.01.2020
Exhibition address: Mhoch3 GmbH, Oskar-Jäger-Str. 147a, 50825 Cologne
Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 2 pm-8 pm, Saturday-Sunday: 12 pm-6 pm
Website: www.variand.de
Facebook: variand.furniture