A yawning gap between two 1960s buildings is not at all unusual in Cologne. A gap scarcely wide enough to park a few bicycles has been used as an office by the Rendel and Spitz Advertising Agency since 1999.

Text in German & English. In Cologne's narrowest building, which is also one of the best known examples of modern architecture in the city, special installations have been staged during the International Furniture Fair for several years. Well-known designers are invited to implement a design on a particular topic in this unusual environment for the week's duration of the trade fair.

Text in English and German. As in 2001, during the 2002 Cologne International Furniture Fair three internationally known designers squeezed themselves into the town's best known building between buildings. There they presented their ideas on the subject of 'expanding the gap'. From Tokyo came the idea of expanding the exhibition space with an installation to make it snow. Designer Tokujin Yoshioka had 18 kilos of down whirled up by fans at the end of the room to create an everlasting blizzard, and the largest snowball of the year. -- In order to burst through the austere geometry of the exhibition building, projections from lava lamps from the London-based designer Ross Lovegrove covered the greater part of the interior. The coloured, gently moving bubbles created in these lamps by heat caused the sharp contours and hard black and white contrasts of the ceilings and walls to melt and flow. -- Greg Lynn from Los Angeles installed an over-dimensioned, organic sculpture on one of the side walls. It reached out well into the room, and so the visitors were obliged to squeeze past it and search on the other side for space.

Text in English and German. The narrowest building in Cologne is the office of the advertising agency rendel & spitz. Once a year, during the 'Passagen', the offsite- programme of the international furniture fair in Cologne, the office is turned into an exhibition space: It serves as a stage for an installation of a chosen designer. In 2005 there was no exhibition. The accompanying book to the exhibition that never took place contained only empty pages. Just as in previous years, the book was sent out to designers, architects, artists, journalists and friends. One of the recipients then asked rendel & spitz whether he was supposed to fill the empty pages and sent the book back. An idea was born: each recipient was asked to lend his (used) book for the 2006 exhibition 'Dear Diary / Liebes Tagebuch'. The result is a collection of private notes, sketches, photographs, collages, and objects. The accompanying book shows a synopsis of the contributions, which in some cases are very personal. In addition to the book, there is a CD-ROM with the complete contents of each book that was contributed.