Beginning today, and under the theme, 'Urban Living – City of the Future', the international trade fair Techtextil will a look ahead to see how technical textiles will shape urban life in the future.

Techtextil will kick-off at 10 a.m. with the opening ceremony taking place in Hall 4, Saal Europa, followed by the ceremony for the Techtextil Innovation Awards at 10:30 a.m. During the whole time of the fair visitors will be able to find out about the prize-winners and their award-winning projects at the Techtextil Innovation Award Exhibition Area in Hall 4.2.

Taking "Towards sustainability" as its motto, the Techtextil Forum between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. today will be providing a series of contributions devoted exclusively to sustainable textile innovations. Chaired by Braz Costa, managing director of the Portuguese technology center CITEVE, among the topics on the program will be: textile recycling (TWD Fibres, Velener Textil), sustainable construction with wool (Minet S.A., Romania), sustainable textile coatings (Centexbel), biopolymers (RWTH Aachen University), traceability of GMO-free cotton (Hohenstein Institute) and low-cost, bio-based carbon fibres (Jules Verne Research Institute, France).