Movie: Katrin Schön of garden trade fair Spoga+Gafa shows Dezeen around the Garden Unique section of this year's show and discusses the growing trend for outdoor cooking in this movie filmed in Cologne.
Garden Unique is a showcase of premium garden furniture at the Spoga+Gafa trade fair, which took place at Koelnmesse in Cologne earlier in September.
"We do this area especially for the furniture traders," explains Schön, project manager of this year's show. "In Germany outdoor living is very popular."
Schön says that the market for cooking and eating outside is growing rapidly and there is now a demand not just for grills and barbecues, but full outdoor kitchens.
"The Germans love grilling, the grilling market is the fastest growing market in recent years," she says. "It's a trend to have an outdoor kitchen."
"Not only the Germans, I think the Europeans like to be outside and here at the fair you have a whole range of products for it."
One of the brands showing a range of outdoor kitchens at this year's show was German company OCQ. Nadine Pollex of OCQ says the trend is due to the increasing size and importance of outdoor spaces.
"Outdoor spaces continue to grow, people have big lounges and big tables," she says. "There are guests and guests like to eat, so you need an outdoor kitchen."
There were many garden products besides kitchens at Garden Unique, including an array of chairs, tables and daybeds.
One of the more unusual products on show was a shower that you connect to a garden hose by Swedish company Röshults. Tobias Lindberg of Röshults agrees that outdoor living is becoming more and more popular.
"Our experience is that people want to be more outside," he says. "We see all these new types of modern architectural houses and we want to do products for those types of houses."
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