JUN 2014 — Polo is a conceptual office chair that provides just as much comfort and support as necessary. Instead of supporting every single move the chair encourages you to move yourself to prevent muscular atrophy from too much sitting. The base for instance is not equipped with wheels and forces you to walk, rather than roll, from one place to another. The design process was informed by questions like: How could the design of an office chair raise the awareness about the importance of sitting and encourage people to identify with their office chairs? Could an office chair evoke the same aspiration for performance like a bicycle? A product which is customizable, repairable, standardized, and last but not least, sustainable. Hence, the seat is constructed like a bicycle’s saddle and its breathable suspension mesh distributes your weight evenly to eliminate pressure points and heat buildup. As chairs that promote alternative sitting concepts often come across as rather “medical” and their acceptance in offices seems to be relatively low, we aimed to design a saddle chair that blends into the common formal language of offices. Yet, a completely new chair typology evolved.

The project was supported by K+R Textil.

JUN 2014 — The hat COIF#001 was developed in collaboration with the designer Julia Georgallis and it represents the first item of the Collection of Industrial Fashion (COIF). Our focus was on the classic industrial way of producing hats, like top hats or bowler hats. During the industrial revolution Luton was - with about 600 hatters - the center of the British hat making industry, nowadays only a handful of them are left. In dialogue with hat maker Philip Ian Wright and the hat block makers from Boon & Lane we designed a contemporary hat informed by the possibilities of production. The project is documented in a film by photographer Philip White.

In collaboration with Julia Georgallis.

SEP 2013 — The Beta chair is a lightweight, stackable outdoor chair whose construction was informed by exploring the possibilities of replicating folded paper forms in sheet metal. This idea was further developed through a collaboration with the experts from the London-based company Robofold Ltd. who developed a special technique of 3-dimensionally folding sheet metal with industrial robots. For the final body, a 2mm thin aluminum sheet is cut and milled by a CNC machine. The milled V-shaped grooves enable curved foldings, resulting in a surprisingly organic and comfortable metal seat shell. The foldings give the seat shell its characteristic shape and stability. Attaching the legs to the seat shell with rivets creates a constructive and formal unit without any welds. As the legs are made from standard 1x1 inch aluminum square tubes Beta chair is entirely made from aluminum, bringing the total weight of it to just 2.8 kg.

In collaboration with Robofold Ltd.

SEP 2011 — The chair Donald was developed in the context of a graduation project at Folkwang UdK and in cooperation with the plywood company Becker Brakel. Two mutually reinforcing elements are connected by the use of industrial velcro and form a constructive and formal unit. The unusual connection reduces assembly costs, offers easy disassembly and a strong construction. Certain coloring of the elements either underlines or reduces the visual duality of the chair. As we see a chair most of the time from its back, this view got special attention in the design process. Donald is ecological and efficient to produce and compact stackable.

In collaboration with Becker Brakel.

JAN 2011 — As part of the collective milz we represented the Folkwang University of the Arts at the imm Cologne 2011. The concept of our booth was “Maschinen malen Möbel” (machines draw furniture). Every exhibit on show was drawn by a robotic arm based on human proportions. The furniture and lighting designs were photographed and a self-programmed algorithm transformed the photo into a line drawing. The visitors began to compare the drawings with the objects and examined the machines and the exhibits. The unique drawings were given away for free as flyers. The characteristic - almost human - style of the drawings emerged from the construction of the robotic arm. Two servomotors formed the hinges which made it possible to reach every point on the paper. A third motor dropped and lifted the pen. The booth was designed to serve as an area for communication and presentation. It combined the schools of photography, graphic design, interface design and industrial design in an interactive and communicative way, and won the d3 schools award for the “Best Communication Concept 2011”.

In collaboration with milz.

JAN 2011 — While exploring the possibilities of splitting and bending aluminum tubes, one principle turned out to be a promising way of creating a T-joint. A tube is split in two halves which are bend open into opposite directions and joined by another half tube to create two axes. This naturally appearing joint allows Al’s light cone to be controlled intuitively along these axes.

JAN 2010 — Alpha is based on the thought that it should be possible to fold sheet steel just like paper. Setting out from the two-dimensional surface to the three-dimensional seat shell, the first mock-ups were made from paper and cardboard. Later the foldings were transformed into 1:1 models made from sheet metal. The 1.5 mm thin sheet material is cut and perforated by a laser. The perforation makes folding possible without employing expensive tools. It is from the folding that the seat shell gets its characteristic shape and stability. After the folding process the sheet metal is powder-coated. Screwing the legs - made from identical oak profiles - to the seat shell produces a constructive and formal unit from metal and wood. When designing the seat shell the goal was to keep the number of surfaces as few as possible. Despite its polygonal design Alpha is surprisingly comfortable, and furthermore, stackable.