Oslo 2015

ECIA GA and Designers Saturday in OSLO 2015

The main topic in Oslo ECIA General Assembly was the communication of ECIA in society and also between our 17 members in Europe. Communication has changed a lot during the last years. What about the visibility of the organisation?

The meeting point of all the GA participants was set on the sunny Friday afternoon at the courtyard of Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) to witness the opening of Designers Saturday and awards’ ceremony in several categories. As a grand surprise four great design persons – Patricia Urquiola, Dirk Wynants, Ola Rune and Giulio Capellini – were speaking about their work for the large audience. Afterwards the Norwegian hosts took us all to a walking tour down by the Aker river to the Barcode business area and up to Ekeberg hill restaurant to give a proper overview of the architecture and city planning of Oslo.

After the meeting next evening it was an opportunity to visit main showrooms of Designers Saturday including DogA (Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture) and AHO (Oslo School of Architecture). There were in total 28 satelites with 180 exhibitors waiting for visitors and a special bus route connected these different locations all weekend. Thank you NIL for arranging our stay in Oslo!

www.designerssaturday.no/in-english

ECIA president Anja Dirks:

"Last year we had a strong internal focus on the mission, vision, main themes and topics of the ECIA for the upcoming years. The next year we will use this strong foundation to continue working from and to realise our goals." The new president of the European Council of Interior Architects ECIA was elected on the general assembly in Oslo 2015. Anja is based with her office “INZIGHT architecture” in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Jan Geysen from Belgium, board member since 2012, holds the position of vice president, Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla from Estonia and Elisabetta de Strobel from Italy were elected as new board members. Furthermore Elke Kaiser, Germany, was re-elected as secretary general and Marianne Daepp from Switzerland affirmed as treasurer. The main focus of the new board lies in strong external contacts, education and serving the members in order to keep on representing and promoting the qualified profession of interior architects/designers in Europe. The vision of ECIA comprises that there is a common view on the profession of interior architects/designers as a vital part of society, culture and economics.