In 2020, a first joint exhibition with Brussels and German designers from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was initiated at Passagen in Cologne, during the yearly international furniture fair. The initial plan was – and still is – to con-tinue this cross-border exchange between MAD Brussels and Designers Towers. Unfortunately, lockdown measures due to Covid prevented two successive bilateral exhibitions in 2021 and 2022.
At last, during Design September 2022, an exhibition with five young design talents and design studio‘s from each NRW and Brussels, ten in total, will take place. The fact that this will be in Brussels is a première in the true sense.

The selected designers from NRW are Anja Bachmann, JBNG, Julian Gerullis, Johannes Budde and Enis Akiev & Olaf Schroeder. Their work will be confronted with the work of Brussels based designers: Beaverhausen, Pierre-Emmanuel Vandeputte, Yvan Caillaud Design Studio, Zigmund Pront and Esther De Vos. The selected designers from both regions meet for the first time. Herewith, different orientations of design training and cultural imprinting of both regions emerges. The presented concepts, furniture and home furnishings enter into a multi-layered correspondence which conveys a transnational outlook on the interior design of tomorrow.

Both the Brussels-Capital Region and the neighbouring German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) are widely recognized as centers for European design. The focus of the joint venture has been on innovative interior design preferably coming from young designers from both regions. Designers Tower which already made a name as a platform for design talents from the state of NRW, supported by the State Ministry of Economic Affairs, has been the initiator. MAD Brussels, funded by the Brussels-Capital Region and the City of Brussels, was the Belgian public partner in the 2020 event. Hub.brussels has been in charge of the practical organisation.