What happens to furniture when it’s no longer needed? That’s the fundamental question that prompted Cologne firm Designdirektive to develop their Möbelkiste and Mingbud projects. The answer is usually as frustrating as it is obvious: unwanted furniture ends up at the rubbish tip. Unless the Möbelkiste team come to pick it up.
Rescuing furniture destined for the dump: Möbelkiste’s mission
A few years back, a group of carpenters and creatives in Cologne decided it was time to take action to challenge the throw-away mentality that’s so omnipresent in our lives – including in the furniture and design business. Their mission? To buy furniture from large companies and sell it either to other companies or, after upcycling, in their online shop. What counts is that it doesn’t get thrown away. Möbelkiste has built good connections locally and is well-known throughout the area. But manager Mark Vomberg wants to solve the brand’s image problem. “People think we’re junk dealers”, he tells us, “but that’s not what we do.”
“People think we’re junk dealers but that’s not what we do.“
Mark Vomberg
In fact, rescuing preloved furniture stopped being Mark’s core business segment long ago. Möbelkiste continued to evolve and is now part of Designdirektive, along with the Mingbud online marketplace.
Designdirektive: uniting sustainability and design
“Nowadays, our main business is the project work we do through Designdirektive“, Mark explains. “We furnish properties using our different brand portfolios. So it’s a mixture of upcycled, used furniture and curated new pieces.” If a new co-working space in Cologne needs sustainable office furniture, for instance, Designdirektive are on hand to supply both furniture that’s been rescued by Möbelkiste and carefully selected products made by local artists, who also sell those products on Mingbud.
Sustainability is the number one priority at Designdirektive. “We use Cradle to Cradle Certified products where we can and we try to work with recycled materials so we’re as carbon-neutral as possible”, Mark says. Local production is important to him too. “We want to provide a platform for artists from the local region that still create their own ideas and have things produced in Germany instead of selling their designs to big brands, which then have them made in poor working conditions on the other side of the globe.”
Möbelkiste and Mingbud: sustainability, design and Cologne-born creativity
Designdirektive’s furnishing projects combine three of Mark’s passions: sustainability, design and Cologne. So, what does he love about his adopted home? “There are loads of good people here who give a lot of thought to the issues confronting society today and really try to come up with ideas for ways to make the world a better place.” And they’re precisely the people he wants to support through Designdirektive and the Möbelkiste and Mingbud projects.
One example of that support was when he brought in a local artist to design the lighting fixtures for a refurbishment project at Café Fleur on Lindenstraße. “I was really pleased that big contract went to a Cologne-based designer who sells her products on Mingbud too. We make an active effort to work with people from Cologne and one reason is that we want to help make sure they stay in business”, he says proudly. Although it’s sometimes more expensive than using mass-produced goods, Designdirektive sets out specifically to support people who are at the beginning of their careers. Mark firmly believes that “small business owners have to support each other and join forces to strengthen the local market – that’s the only way to generate true impact.”
Looking to the future: international expansion planned for Mingbud
Designdirektive have clear plans for the future. One, for instance, is that Mark, who hails from Belgium originally, would like to expand the furnishing business outside of Germany too.
Another long-term goal is for Möbelkiste’s painstakingly upcycled furniture to provide young design lovers with an alternative to the likes of IKEA. “We want to promote sustainability and the circular approach in the furniture and interior design industry and continue evolving as pioneers in the field”, he says, looking optimistically to the future.
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