farbe wird noch festgelegt

farbe wird noch festgelegt

50 DESIGNERSYOU SHOULD KNOW

Front cover from top to bottom:Arne Jacobsen, Ant Chairs, 1952Marianne Brandt, MT 49 tea infuser, 1924, see p. 38Verner Panton, Panton Chair, 1960, see p. 95Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, LC 4 chaise longe, 1928, see p. 30Frontispiz: Alessi (Stefano Giovannoni), kettle SG 65 MamiSeite 10/11: Karim Rashid, Metro station university, Naples, 2011contents© Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2012© for the works reproduced is held by the artists, their heirs or assigns, with the exception of: Alvar Aaalto, Max Bill, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouve, Gerrit Rietveld, Wilhelm Wagenfeld with VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012;Le Corbusier with FLC / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012; Isamu Noguchi with The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012;Ron Arad with Ron Arad; Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby with Jay Osgerby & Edward Barber; Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec with Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec;Achille Castiglioni with Achille Castiglioni Foundation; Terence Conran with Terence Conran; Lucienne and Robin Day with Robin and Lucienne DayFoundation; Tom Dixon with Tom Dixon; Charles and RayEames with Eames Foundation; Konstantin Grcic with Konstantin Grcic; Pierre Jeanneret withVG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012; Raymond Loewy with Raymond Loewy Foundation; Vico Magistretti with Fondazione Vico Magistretti; Ingo Maurer withIngo Maurer; Jasper Morrison with Jasper Morrison; Marc Newson with Marc Newson; Verner Panton with Verner Panton Design, Basel; Andree Putmanwith Andrée Putman; Karim Rashid with Karim Rashid; Ettore Sottsass with Studio Ettore Sottsass; Philippe Starck with Philippe Starck; Tapio Wirkkalawith Tapio Wirkkala-Rut Bryk FoundationPrestel Verlag, MunichA member of Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbHPrestel VerlagNeumarkter Strasse 2881673 MunichTel. +49 (0)89 4136-0Fax +49 (0)89 4136-233512161822242628Michael ThonetWilliam MorrisCharles Rennie MackintoshJosef HoffmannEileen GrayWalter GropiusLudwig Mies van der Rohe808286909296100Achille CastiglioniVico MagistrettiAlessiAndrée PutmanVerner PantonTerence ConranDieter RamsPrestel Publishing Ltd.4 Bloomsbury PlaceLondon WC1A 2QATel. +44 (0)20 7323-5004Fax +44 (0)20 7636-800430323436Le CorbusierGeorge CarwardineGerrit RietveldGio Ponti102106108112Ingo MaurerPhilippe StarckVitraRon AradPrestel Publishing900 Broadway, Suite 603New York, NY 10003Tel. +1 (212) 995-2720Fax +1 (212) 995-273338404446Marianne BrandtRaymond LoewyPoul HenningsenAlvar Aalto114116118122Tom DixonJasper MorrisonKarim RashidMarc Newsonwww.prestel.com48Wilhelm Wagenfeld126Joep van LieshoutLibrary of Congress Control Number is available; British Library Cataloguingin-Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is availablefrom the British Library; Deutsche Nationalbibliothek holds a record of this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio grafie;detailed bibliographical data can be found under: http://dnb.d-nb.de505256Jean ProuvéMarcel BreuerArne Jacobsen130134138Konstantin GrcicEdward Barber & Jay OsgerbyRonan & Erwan BouroullecPrestel books are available worldwide. Please contact your nearest bookseller or one of the above addresses for information concerningyour local distributor.Project management: Claudia Stäuble, Franziska StegmannTranslated: Katherine O’DonoghueCopyedited: Danko SzabóPicture research: Andrea Weißenbach, Utting am AmmerseeTimeline: Franziska StegmannCover and design: LIQUID, Agentur für Gestaltung, AugsburgLayout and production: zwischenschritt, Rainald Schwarz, MunichOrigination: ReproLine MediateamDruck und Bindung: Druckerei Uhl GmbH & Co. KG, Radolfzell6062646668727476Isamu NoguchiCharles & Ray EamesMax BilleEro SaarinenTapio WirkkalaLucienne & Robin DaySori YanagiEttore Sottsass142144146148155156Apple – Jonathan IveMujiSwatchDroog DesignindexPhoto creditsVerlagsgruppe Random House FSC-DEU-0100The FSC-certified paper Hello Fat Matt has beenproduced by mill Condat, Le Lardin Saint-Lazare, France.Printed in GermanyISBN 978-3-7913-4720–2

12| 13Michael ThonetEugène Delacroix1809 Charles Darwin is born 1837 Victoria becomes queenof the United Kingdom1851 First World’s Fair in London1857 Gustave Flaubert,Madame Bovary1874 First Impressionistexhibition in Paris1887–1889 Eiffel Towerbuilt in ParisWilliam Morris1894 Tower Bridge in Londonopened for traffic1900 Boxer Rebellion in China1914 Beginningof WorldWar IMichael Thonet1745 1750 1755 1760 1765 1770 1775 1780 1785 1790 1795 1800 1805 1810 1815 1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920“Never was a better and more elegant design and a more precisely crafted and practical item created.” This was how thearchitect Le Corbusier admiringly described the bentwood furniture. It was a cabinetmaker from Boppard, a small townon the Rhine River, who revolutionized furniture design of the 19th century with his pioneering invention.Michael Thonet, coffeehousechair No. 214, re-edition byThonet GmbHAround 1830, Michael Thonet began to experimentwith a new process that permitted him to bendlaminated wood and later even solid beech-woodrods into curved shapes using steam and pressure.With the bentwood, he broke new ground in designduring the mechanical and industrial age.The Austrian Chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzelvon Metternich, who was himself from theRhineland, was impressed by Thonet’s work at theKoblenz trade fair in 1841. He advised Thonet to goto Vienna and promised to put in a good word forhim at court. In 1842, Thonet was granted theprivilege by the Imperial and Royal Court Chamberto “bend any type of wood, even the most brittle,into any shape or curve using chemical-mechanicalmethods.” Thonet first worked for the parquetmanufacturer Carl Leistler and created magnificentparquet floors and chairs for the Palais Liechtenstein.In 1849, he established his own workshop forthe production of bentwood furniture, which, after1853, was run under the name Gebrüder Thonetwhen he transferred the business to his five sons(without of course removing himself from thebusiness).In 1849, Chair No. 1 was created for the gardenpalace of Prince Schwarzenberg. Its constructionwas revolutionary: the individual parts created frombentwood were all finished parts that could becombined with the parts of other models using atoolbox principle. Thonet thus created the basis forthe variety of types and models in industrial massproduction. The company’s most successful modelwas Chair No. 14, which was made of solid beech andcreated in 1859. It became famous as a Viennesecoffeehouse chair. Over 50 million units of thismodel alone were sold by 1930. It is the mostmanufactured chair in the world and is a perfectexample of a modern article of mass consumption.In the 1850s, Thonet established a flourishingbentwood furniture industry by moving the productionsites to the forested regions of Moravia, Silesia,Hungary, and Poland and by increasing worldwidesales. This is where Thonet’s true talent becameapparent as he combined his groundbreaking inventionwith ingenious business sense. The bending ofsolid wood, which is what had made industrial massproduction at all possible, was soon copied by competitors.Thonet’s bentwood furniture was clearlyidentified by the stamp and trademarks and could betaken apart. The low transport costs made it perfectfor export. Worldwide turnover was expanded withthe aid of advertisements, catalogs, and retail outletsin all the major cities of Europe and the US.The company continued to flourish even afterMichael Thonet’s death in 1871, and after the turn ofthe century, leading designers began to createfurniture for Gebrüder Thonet. In 1929, the Frenchsubsidiary Thonet Frères was established and theproduct range was expanded to include tubularsteel furniture by Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Miesvan der Rohe, among others. The Thonet familybusiness is now being run by the fifth generationand is today based in Frankenberg, in North Hessen,Germany. ch1796 Born in Boppard am Rhein1819 Establishes a furniture workshopin Boppard1830 First experiments with bentwood(Boppard laminated wood chairs)1842 Invited to Vienna by Prince Metternich1843–1846 Works with his five sonsat the parquet company CarlLeistler, including work on furnishingsat the Palais Liechtenstein1849 Establishes his own furnitureworkshop in Vienna, run from1853 on under the name GebrüderThonet1851 Bronze medal for Thonet’sfurniture at the first World’s Fair,London1856 Patents the process for bendingsolid wood1859 Chair No. 14 (Viennese coffeehousechair)1860 Establishes factory production1867 Awarded the gold medal at theWorld’s Fair in Paris1871 Dies in ViennaPortrait of Michael Thonet

14 | 15aboveGebrüder Thonet, Chair No. 209,re-edition by Thonet GmbHright pageGebrüder Thonet, Chair No. 233,re-edition by Thonet GmbH

16| 17John RuskinWilliam MorrisCharles Rennie Mackintosh1797 Invention of lithography1805 Battles of Trafalgarand Austerlitz1830 July Revolution in France1855 Courbet’s Réalism exhibition1861–1865 AmericanCivil War1901 Queen Victoria dies1897 Tate Gallery is foundedin London1914 Marcel Duchamp’s firstreadymade, Bottle Rack1939–1945 World War II1947 India gains independencefrom the British EmpireWilliam Morris1785 1790 1795 1800 1805 1810 1815 1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960As the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris was one of the most influential designers of the19th century, his reformist ideas having had a major influence on the start of the modern age.The Arts and Crafts movement originated in Englandin the 19th century and represented a protestagainst industrialization, which produced only poorquality and unattractive, sterile results. Its representatives,in particular William Morris, wanted tofind an authentic style for the 19th century and theyrejected the overloaded, bulky furniture that wascommon at the time. Its objective was to return tothe simpler shapes and traditional manufacturingprocesses of craftwork, away from the inhumanefactories.The most famous works of William Morris includethe floral wallpaper designs that were also usedin textiles and, in a simplified form, in carpets. Heused nature as the inspiration for these designs.It was not just the appropriate counterpart toindustrialism, which he rejected, but for the religiousMorris, it also represented the perfect design as ithad been designed by God. With his wallpaper,Morris succeeded in bringing a piece of nature intothe home. His patterns were always stylized plants,mainly flowers, and included the names of theplants shown. The wallpaper designs by Morrisare still sold today under license by the Londoncompanies Sanderson and Liberty.William Morris was, however, much more thanjust a creative and talented wallpaper designer. Heworked as a painter, architect, poet, craftsman,engineer, and publisher, and was a passionateaesthete and one of England’s first socialists. Hedeveloped his great interest in art, architecture, anddesign during his theology studies, when he becamefamiliar with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He wasparticularly fascinated by the Gothic movement. Asa wedding present for his wife, he and his friendsEdward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossettifurnished her house, the Red House, taking inspirationfrom nature and from the Middle Ages. Theysubsequently formed the cooperative Morris,Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Thus their hobby became acompany that, from 1861 on, manufactured furnitureand other decorative objects such as ceramics,stained glass, wallpaper, metal goods, tiles,materials, and embroideries in accordance with theirideals of simplicity, craftwork, and usefulness. In1874, he took on the management of the workshopsalone and expanded them. Morris employed manytalented artists and artisans and always categoricallyrejected industrial production. At the end of the1880s, Morris experienced an identity crisis. His ideathat the Arts and Crafts movement would reformsociety had not been achieved. Instead of changingmechanical mass production, the popularity of hisproducts in fact meant that they were being copiedby the factories.Although William Morris did not achieve his goalof producing good, crafted products for the masses,he was, with his ideals, still a mastermind of themodern age. With his floral designs and the returnto nature, he was a pioneer of Art Nouveau. Hisvision of creating good design for all and therejuvenation of handicrafts also influenced theGerman Werkbund artist association and theBauhaus school. nk1834 Born on March 24 in Walthamstow,Essex, Great Britain1853 Studies theology in Oxford1856 Works in the architecture agencyG. E. Street1859 Marries Jane Burden1861 Establishes the cooperativeMorris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co1877 Establishes the Society for theProtection of Ancient Buildings1891 Establishes the Kelmscott Pressfor manufacturing high-qualitybooks1896 Dies in Londonleft pageWilliam Morris, Strawberry Thiefwallpaper, circa 1897abovePortrait of William Morris

18| 19William MorrisCharles Rennie Mackintosh1848–1849 Revolutions innumerous EuropeancountriesJosef Hoffmann1861–1865 AmericanCivil War1888 Vincent van Gogh,Sunflowers1911 Marie Curie awarded theNobel Prize for Chemistry1927 Charles Lindbergh flies nonstopfrom New York to Paris1939–1945 World War II1955 The Family of Man exhibitionat MoMA in New York1978 The Galápagos Islands arethe first item on the UNESCOWorld Heritage list1989 Fall of the1973 Yom Kippur WarBerlin WallCharles Rennie Mackintosh1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995He was committed to the Arts and Crafts movement and at the same time had a rather unique, distinctive style. Many ofhis projects – the Glasgow School of Art, the decoration of tea shops in his Scottish hometown – were developed with thenotion of a complete work of art. Today, he is primarily known for his striking chair designs.Glasgow School of ArtParis, Vienna, Brussels – at the end of the 19th andstart of the 20th centuries, these were the centers ofthe artistic avant-garde movement. The Scottisharchitect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh,who during his lifetime remained closely linked tohis hometown – the emerging industrial metropolisof Glasgow – worked away from these classical artcenters. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, hequickly made his name as an architect and furnituredesigner with his works, whose highly individualshapes – first organic, then strictly geometric – hada major influence on the style of the fin de siècle.The most outstanding work by the architect isprobably the new Glasgow School of Art, whichwas constructed from 1896 to 1899, and which heexpanded ten years later with the construction of alibrary. As a young man, he had attended eveningclasses in drawing and painting here himself whilehe worked as an apprentice for the architecturecompany run by John Hutchinson. The new buildingof the art school was captivating with its formalclear lines and its interior design, which was plannedto the smallest detail and which included matchingfurniture.Together with the painter and glass artist MargaretMacDonald, who would later become his wife,her sister Frances MacDonald McNair, and herhusband, James Herbert McNair – all students ofthe Glasgow School of Art – Mackintosh formed thegroup “The Four.” They represented art influencedby the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement andincluded references from Celtic and Japanese art intheir geometric style, the so-called Glasgow Style.Mackintosh was particularly fascinated by thesimple shapes of Japanese architecture and wasinspired by them in his reduced interiors, which wereidentified by geometric ornaments and flooded withlight. The harmonious union of the most diversecontrasts – modern and traditional, black and white,vertical and horizontal – characterizes many of hisprojects.Mackintosh achieved international fame andrecognition after he accepted the invitation fromJosef Hoffmann in 1900 to take part in the exhibitionof the Vienna Secession. His geometric style, hisintegrated approach, and projects that were oftendesigned as complete works of art were echoed inthe German and Austrian design of this time.Whether in the Glasgow School of Art, in Hill House,or in the Glasgow tea rooms designed by him,Mackintosh did not take responsibility for just thearchitecture; he also designed the walls, furniture,textiles, and other details. Between 1887 and 1905,for example, he designed more than 400 pieces offurniture, in particular chairs in the austere style,such as the Argyle model (1898) and the Willow 1chair (1904), which was influenced by Japaneseshapes, for the Willow Road Tea Rooms. The mostfamous is probably the Hill House model (1903)with its dramatically high backrests and theblack-painted, solid wood construction that weretypical for Mackintosh and that Mackintoshdesigned for the eponymous villa of the publisherW. W. Blackie. ch1868 Born in Glasgow, Scotland1884 Apprentice to the architect JohnHutchinson in Glasgow1889–1913 Works at the architecturecompany Honeyman & Keppie inGlasgow1891 Traveling scholarship throughEurope1896–99 Construction of theGlasgow School of Art1896–97 Designs the interior for theGlasgow tea rooms1900 Marries Margaret MacDonald;participates in the ViennaSecession exhibition1902–04 Hill House in Helensburghto the north of Glasgow1907–09 Expansion of the GlasgowSchool of Art by the addition ofa library1923 Moves to Port Vendres, France,and devotes himself to painting1928 Dies in LondonPortrait of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

left pageCharles Rennie Mackintosh, Hill House Chair, 1904 –ž08rightWillow Chair, 1917

22| 23Josef HoffmannGustav Klimt1826 First photograph byJoseph Nicéphore Niépce1837 Victoria becomes queenof the United KingdomKoloman Moser1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engelspublish the Communist Manifesto1855 Courbet’s Réalismexhibition1869–1883 Construction of the BrooklynBridge in New York1870/71 Franco-Prussian War1897 Auguste Rodin,Balzac1921 Arnold Schoenberg inventstwelve-tone music1905 German Expressionist group Die Brückeis founded in Dresden1914 Beginning of World War I1939 Germany invades Poland;World War II commencesJosef Hoffmann1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995Josef Hoffmann was one of the most influential artistic figures at the start of the 20th century. As a founding memberof the Wiener Werkstätte, Hoffmann played a significant role in the development of modern art in Vienna.As a member of the Viennese Secession, theAustrian architect and designer played a key role inthe development of a modern art concept. WithKoloman Moser, he was also a founding memberand one of the main representatives of the WienerWerkstätte (1903–32), a group of architects anddesigners who strove to rejuvenate arts and crafts.The products were to be characterized by theirindividuality, beauty, and precise design. With hisfunctionally strict yet decorative and inventivefurniture designs, Hoffmann also became one of themost influential furniture designers of moderntimes.From 1887 on, Josef Hoffmann attended theHöhere Staatsgewerbeschule in Brno, where helearned the principles of antique architecture, inparticular of Greek architecture and the ItalianRenaissance. After a year of practical experience as aconstruction trainee in Würzburg, Hoffmann beganhis studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.Hoffmann has Otto Wagner (1841–1918) in particularto thank for the important insights into modernarchitecture. After Hoffmann joined the ViennaKünstlerhaus, he and Gustav Klimt became leadingmembers of the Vienna Secession, which theyhelped to found in 1897. Here, he was able to presenthis designs to a group of cultured, forward-thinking,and well-off clients for the first time. In 1899,Hoffmann’s reputation was already so establishedthat he was appointed professor at the Kunstgewerbeschulein Vienna. At the start of 1900, therewas a clear change of style in Hoffmann’s work.With the renunciation of the swinging curves of theSecession and of Art Nouveau, he returned toclassicist ideals and simple forms. The Scottishdesigners Charles Robert Ashbee and CharlesRennie Mackintosh were an important influencehere. A period of intensive production now began incollaboration with the Jacob & Josef Kohn company,manufacturers of modern bentwood furniture. In1908, a complete country house together withinterior decoration and furniture was constructedbased on Hoffmann’s designs. The constructionof a villa complex at Hohe Warte in Vienna gaveHoffmann the opportunity to demonstrate his newform ideals. House and furnishings should be a unit,“… a house whose exterior [must] also reveal itsinterior.”With the establishment of the Vienna Werkstätte(1903–32), Hoffmann concentrated on his aim ofovercoming the ornamental excesses of ArtNouveau and returning to simple design. TheSanatorium in Purkersdorf, near Vienna (1903–06),and the Palais Stoclet in Brussels demonstrateHoffmann’s innovative form intentions, both in theirarchitecture and the interior decoration: strictformal detailing and simplicity of the cubic formsthat continue through to the furnishings. All ofHoffmann’s constructions from before the WorldWar I show a timid, unconventional classicism andcorrespond to the upper middle class’s need forrepresentation.From 1919 on, ill health forced Josef Hoffman tohand over management of his workshop for sometime. However, he continued to create new designsand products until his death. After World War II,Hoffmann took on various official tasks, such asmembership of the Arts Senate and the role ofAustrian General Commissioner for the Biennale inVenice. The Wittmann furniture workshops beganto reproduce Hoffmann furniture in the 1970s.Hoffmann’s lamp designs have also been manufacturedby hand by the Viennese company WOKAsince the 1970s. hdleft pageJosef Hoffmann, Sitzmaschine armchair, 1908abovePortrait of Josef Hoffmann1870 Born on December 15 in Pirnitz,MoraviaFrom 1887 on, attends the HöhereStaatsgewerbeschule in Brno1892–95 Studies architecture at theAkademie der Bildenden Künstein Vienna; from 1894 on underOtto Wagner1897 Founding member of the ViennaSecessionFrom 1899 on, teaching post at theVienna Kunstgewerbeschule(today Hochschule für AngewandteKunst)1900–02 Residences at Hohe Wartein Vienna1903 Establishes the Vienna Werkstätte(with Fritz Wärndorferand Koloman Moser)1903 Purkersdorf Sanatorium nearVienna1905–11 Palais Stoclet, Brussels1914 Austrian Pavilion at the WerkbundExhibition in Cologne1924–25 Sonja Knips House, Vienna;Austrian Pavilion at the InternationalArts and Crafts Exhibitionin Paris1932 Terraced houses in the ViennaWerkbund settlement1934 Austrian Pavilion for the Biennalein Venice1956 Dies in Vienna on May 7

26| 271837 Louis Daguerre inventsdaguerreotype1849 Frédéric Chopin dies1853–1870 Haussmann’s renovationof Paris1861 Abraham Lincoln sworn in aspresident of the USWalter GropiusMarianne Brandt1876 Invention of the telephone1884 Robert Koch discoversthe cholera bacillusMarcel Breuer1900 Sigmund Freud,The Interpretationof Dreams1911 Wassily Kandinsky,Concerning theSpiritual in Art1914 Beginning ofWorld War I1937 Pablo Picasso, Guernica1924 Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain1946 UNESCO foundedWalter Gropius1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010With Klee and Kandinsky as groomsmen and a honeymoon trip to Le Corbusier in Paris, Walter Gropius was part of theavant-garde movement of the interwar period. With his designs, which were always a synthesis of art and technique,the enthusiastic pioneer of modern art was a founder of “New Objectivity” in the industrial age.Walter Gropius, F51 armchair,Bauhaus Weimar, 1920, re-editionby TECTA, LauenfördeWalter Gropius was primarily an architect. Inaccordance with his concept of “Unity in Art,” healso designed furniture and other interior decorationobjects such as textiles, wallpaper, lighting, andceramics.Initially, his pieces of furniture were veryindividual and influenced by craftsmanship as,together with Henry van de Velde of the GermanWerkbund artist organization, he fought against thestandardization of design and for more creativity.For example, the furniture for the Fagus factory from1911 has a strong personal signature; however, withregard to the construction, it was well suited tomass production. Gropius’s Bauhaus office from 1923is also symbolic of this phase: the austere lines ofthe lighting and the geometric shapes are broken upby bright carpets. The F51 executive chair, which hedesigned for this office, is today one of his bestknownpieces of furniture with its unusual shape,the freestanding armrests, and the upholstery ofleather and cavalry cloth.The new technical opportunities in particular, andalso the destruction of the world war periods causedGropius to standardize his designs and constructionsand to increase mass production. He devotedhimself intensively to mass housing construction asa solution for town planning and social problemsand also applied this train of thought to furniture.Rationalism, usefulness, and the shift towardmodernity are therefore reflected in his laterdesigns. The futuristic TAC 1 tea service created forRosenthal in 1969, which he designed for his office aspart of his Studio Line, became very popular. Inaccordance with his concept of design, it shouldsatisfy both material and spiritual requirements.With the extraordinary, tapered paunches and thehidden sliding lids, he created a tea service that isstriking in its elegance. When he designed it,Gropius was already well into his 80s and he re -flected on a successful career that had lasted forover five decades.With the merger of the Kunstgewerbeschule andthe Hochschule für bildende Künste in Weimar,Gropius wanted to create a completely new type ofeducation with the Bauhaus school that was suitedto modern industrial society. Here, artists, craftsmen,and architects could work together “onmodern design,” both in theory and in practice.The specially designed Bauhaus workshops were“basically laboratories for developing models ripefor mass production, implements typical of thepresent day [from the simplest household applianceto a complete dwelling] and continually improvingthem” (Gropius, 1925).Gropius and his colleagues, including LudwigMies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and WilhelmWagenfeld, developed many designs in this creativeenvironment that are today considered modernclassics and exhibited in design museums aroundthe world. nk1883 Born on May 18 in Berlin1903–07 Studies at the technicaluniversities in Munich and Berlin1908–10 Works in the agency of PeterBehrens1910 Gropius becomes a freelancer anda member of the German Werkbundartist association1919 Appointment at the Kunstgewerbeschuleand Hochschulefür bildende Kunst in Weimar:merging and renaming of the twoschools as the StaatlichesBauhaus1934 Emigrates to England, director ofthe design department at Isokon1937 Emigrates to the USA, professorof architecture at Harvard1946 Founded the TAC agency (TheArchitects Collaborative)1958 Highest Order of Merit with Starfrom the Federal Republic ofGermany1963 Honorary doctorate from theFreie Universität, Berlin1969 Dies in BostonPortrait of Walter Gropius, 1919

30| 31Le CorbusierLudwig Mies van der RoheMart Stam1848 French Revolution (February1870/71 Franco-Prussian WarRevolution)1857 Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary1888 Vincent van Gogh,Sunflowers1900 French Métro isopened1914 Marcel Duchamp’sfirst readymade,Bottle Rack1927 Charles Lindbergh flies nonstopfrom New York to Paris1940–1944 German occupation of France1958 Yves Klein opens the exhibitionLe Vide in Paris1962–1968 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,Neue Nationalgalerie, BerlinLe Corbusier1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010As a mastermind of the urban lifestyle, Le Corbusier was convinced that good design would lead to improvedliving standards, and he became one of the most influential personalities of design, architecture, and urban planningin the 20th century.Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, andCharlotte Perriand, LC4 chaise longue,1928Modern design and modern architecture aresynonymous with the name Le Corbusier. It wasduring study tours from 1907 to 1911 and whilstworking in well-known architecture agencies inVienna, Berlin, and Paris that the young Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris acquired the basicknowledge that would subsequently make him oneof the most renowned architects, urban planners,and designers, As early as 1914, he succeeded indesigning a skeletal system in reinforced concretethat made it possible to build multistory constructionswith ready-made individual concrete parts. In1917, he settled in Paris. As it was not yet the righttime for his architectural ideas, he devoted himselfto painting and published the journal L’EspritNouveau. From 1920 on, he presented his avantgardearchitectural concepts in this journal andused the pseudonym Le Corbusier for the firsttime, which he chose in memory of his grandfather(Lecorbésier).Although Le Corbusier’s works extended over fivedecades, he designed furniture mainly in the late1920s and early 1930s and always in collaborationwith his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and the architectCharlotte Perriand. These furniture designs conformedwith his functional architectural principlesand were intended to correspond to modern livingconditions.In 1925, he designed a pavilion for the ExpositionInternationale des Arts Décoratifs with his cousinPierre, which contained paintings as well as the firstfurniture designs by the two men. After employingthe architect Charlotte Perriand at his agency, theteam of three began to experiment with pieces offurniture. Inspired by the designs of their colleaguesMarcel Breuer, Mart Stam, and Mies van der Roheand by the design opportunities offered by industriallymanufactured steel, the first models of the LCseries were created and exhibited for the first timeat the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1929. They are atrue manifestation of modern furniture design andare limited to just a few basic shapes to accommodatehuman needs.The LC4 couch and his famous quote “A house is amachine for living in, a chair is a machine for sittingin” clarify the principles of Le Corbusier design. Likemachines, furniture should fulfill functional requirementsand, consequently, make this evident in theirdesign. The structure of the LC4, or “relaxationmachine,” is kept as simple as possible, and isclearly and perfectly modified to human ergonomics.The S-shaped sleeping area is reminiscent of aresting person and is itself an invitation to relax.Like all furniture designs by Corbusier, the couchalso plays with contrasts, for example organic oninorganic material, hard on soft surfaces, andangular on curving forms. The interesting pointabout this couch is that as a piece of furniture, therecliner can also be seen as a symbol for modernman. Now that new, urban lifestyle habits have lessand less to do with physical work, they allow formore leisure time and relaxation. In 1964, the Italianfurniture manufacturer Cassina purchased theexclusive rights to Le Corbusier’s furniture designsand is still the only authorized manufacturer of hisfurniture designs. nk1887 Born as Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Grisin La Chaux-de-Fonds,Switzerland1900–07 Studies painting andarchitecture at the Kunstgewer -beschule in La Chaux-de-Fonds1907–11 Study tours with appointmentsin leading Europeanarchitecture agencies (Vienna,Berlin, Paris)1912–14 Teacher at the Kunstgewer -beschule in La Chaux-de-Fonds1917 Moves to Paris1919 Publishes the journal L’EspritNouveau, uses the pseudonymfor the first time1927 Designs for the Weissenhof -siedlung in Stuttgart1928 Founder member of the CongrèsInternationaux d’ArchitectureModerne (CIAM)1929 Exhibits the first furniture rangeat the Salon d’Automne, Paris1930 Marries Yvonne Gallis; Frenchcitizenship1933 The CIAM publishes the urbanplanning manifesto AthensCharter1965 Dies in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin,FrancePortrait of Le Corbusier

32| 33George CarwardineWalter GropiusWilhelm Wagenfeld1886 Statue of Liberty erected in1865 Slavery abolished in the U.S.New York Harbor1851 First World’s Fair in London1874 First Impressionist exhibition 1895 First Venice Biennalein Paris1900 Boxer Rebellion in China1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 1942 Edward Hopper, Nighthawksof Austria on June 28; World War I breaks out1948 Declaration of Independence of1929 Stock market crash heraldsthe State of Israel, May 14global economic crisis1939–1945 World War IIGEORGE CARWARDINE1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010Many important and popular everyday objects are by-products of a much more fundamental development,and truly great designs often emerge from the solution to a specific need.The Briton George Carwardine, born in 1887, wasemployed in the late 1920s as a freelance engineerin the automobile industry in Bath, where hedeveloped and constructed springs and wheelsuspensions. One of his most important ideas wasa suspension system developed in 1932, which couldbe placed in any position and which would notmove. Two springs were connected via a rod insuch a way that the traction was balanced and thearm connected to the rod kept its position. Themechanism was intended for use in the automobileindustry but implementation was too expensiveand its purpose was unclear.However, Carwardine soon realized that theprinciple could be applied to other areas. With theoriginal idea of creating focused light for his ownworkplace, he created an adjustable work lamp inhis workshops that consisted of one foot, a swivellingand folding arm balanced on four springs, and alampshade to protect against glare and burning. Thelamp was very effective and, after Carwadine hadmade some improvements, he patented his designthe same year. The Anglepoise, as he called his lamp,was born.At first he produced some of the lamps himselfand sold them under the name of his own company,Cardine Accessories, but demand for his practicalwork lamp grew quickly and in 1934, Carwardineinitially licensed the design for production by theTerry Spring Company, which supplied his springs.They advertised the lamp as “precise” and “energysaving”and marketed it very successfully to doctors,dentists, and workshops under the name Type 1208.Carwadine could now devote his time to the furtherdevelopment of the suspension system and in 1936,he brought out the more elegant Type 1227, an ArtDeco variant with three springs for use at home.Sales figures for the 1227 quickly overtook the 1208,and when Jacob Jacobsen purchased the rights forthe lamp for the European and American markets in1937, it finally became a bestseller. Jacobsenmodified the design and from 1938 on sold it asLuxo L-1. The inventor of the Anglepoise died in 1948but his ideas live on: the animation studio Pixarcommemorated the Luxo L1 variant with a short film,Luxo Jr, and this established the studio’s ownsuccess in the animation of objects that is nowcharacteristic of its cartoon films. Even so, theTerry Spring Company had to file for bankruptcy in2001 as the license used by Jacobsen to sell Luxo L1restricted it to the British market and the companycould no longer compete with cheaper competitorsfrom Asia. jr1887 George Carwardine was born onApril 4 in Bath, England1901–05 Engineer apprenticeship atthe Whiting Auto Works1916 Works manager and chiefdesigner at the Horstman CarCompany1924 Establishes the CardineAccessories engineering companyin Bath1929 Cardine Accessories is closedtemporarily and he returns toHorstman1931 Works as a freelance engineerand inventor of suspensions1932 Patents the Anglepoisemechanism1934 The Terry Spring Companymanufactures the first Anglepoiselamp (Type 1208)1936 The Type 1227 is launched on themarket1937 Grants the production rights tothe Norwegian engineer JacobJacobsen, who sells the lampsunder the name Luxo L11947 Anglepoise is protected as abrand name1948 Carwardine dies at the age of 601986 Luxo L1 is the subject of theanimated short film Luxo Jrleft pageGeorge Carwadine, Anglepoise lamp,1932abovePortrait of George Carwadine

34| 35Wassily KandinskyPiet Mondrian1861–1865 American Civil War1848 Start of the California Gold RushGerrit Rietveld1883–1885 First skyscrapers1907 Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignonin Chicago1914–1918 World War I1892 Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s balletThe Nutcracker in St. Petersburg1924 André Breton,Surrealist Manifesto1942 Peggy Guggenheim opens the gallery“Art of This Century” in New York1936–1939 Spanish Civil War1950 Josef Albers, Homage to the SquareGerrit Rietveld1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015The Utrecht designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld was an expert on the Der Stijl movement who carried out pioneeringwork in architecture and furniture design.The Dutch architect and designer is best known forhis chair designs. Gerrit Rietveld rose from being amaster carpenter to become one of the mostimportant artists of the De Stijl group. He gainedinfluence first and foremost with the Rietveld-Schröder House in Utrecht (1924) and the Red and BlueChair (1918). The main features of his work, whichwas influenced by De Stijl, are the strict geometryand the reduction of the color palette to the primarycolors of red, blue, and yellow.Born in 1888, Gerrit Rietveld initially trained as acarpenter in his father’s business. He acquired hisarchitectural knowledge at evening classes held bythe architect P. J. C Klaarhamer, whose architecturalcompany was able to offer Rietveld solid financialbacking through frequent commissions, thusproviding him with the chance to engage intensivelywith the new design opportunities. Klaarhamer alsoacquainted Rietveld with the ideas of the new DeStijl movement. Rietveld soon joined this group,whose members included Piet Mondrian, Theo vanDoesburg, Robert van’t Hoff, and other renownedpainters and architects. Their objective was theuniversal renewal of the arts through purelyobjective, geometric, and color-reduced design,which – in addition to painting and sculpture –should be applied to all everyday objects.Around 1917, Rietveld, who in the meantime hadestablished his own furniture workshop, received acommission to create furniture, based on thedesigns of Frank Lloyd Wright, for the VerloopHouse built by Robert van't Hoff in Huis ter Heide.These initial furniture designs show his familiaritywith the De Stijl concepts of form from early on.Between 1917 and 1918, Rietveld designed his famousRed and Blue Chair. However, it was not until 1923that the chair was given its final form withcharacteristic bright paint in the primary colors.With this piece of furniture, which seemed like amanifestation of De Stijl philosophy, Rietveld hadcreated a completely new furniture prototype:in its most familiar variant, the chair has a totalheight of 88 cm and is created from one board cutinto 13 pieces of square timber, two slats for thearmrests, and two slats for the seat and back,making it suitable for industrial production. Thetechnique used to join the various pieces was alsoinnovative: the individual wooden parts are nolonger mortised but held together with dowelsinstead. The colors applied later are from thespecific palette of primary colors used by De Stijl.They are, however, more than mere decoration,for they also comply with the structural conditions.All parts of the frame for the square timber areblack, their cut areas yellow. The seat has a stripeof intense blue, while the supporting and loadresistingbackrest is aggressive red. The chair, likeno other object, combines elements from both theformal and the functional De Stijl ideals. It is both awork of art and a utility object, and demonstratesthe utopian vision of another ideal form of theenvironment, interpreted in the same way byRietveld in the Rietveld-Schröder House – wherevisible integrated steel joists include the structuralelements in the design, sliding walls structure theupper floor, and unsupported corner windows openthe rooms to the outside.In subsequent years, Rietveld switched his mainactivity to the design and decoration of interiorrooms and complete residences. In 1930/31, hedeveloped standard construction elements for theCity of Utrecht that could be arranged in differentways as finished parts and connected as residentialunits. Rietveld was also experimental and innovativein furniture design. This led to the creation in 1932 to1934 of the Zig-Zag Chair, which joined four boards ina classic right angle in the backrest and at a bold 45degrees at the base and thus managed without thestandard four chair legs.As a founding member of the InternationalCongress for Modern Architecture, 1928, Rietveldcampaigned for modern design until his death. hd1888 Born on July 24 in Utrecht1900 Apprenticeship in his father’sfurniture workshop1906 Evening classes with the Utrechtarchitect P. J. C. Klaarhamer1917 Establishes his own furnitureworkshop in Utrecht1918 Red and Blue Chair, final version1923/241919–31 Member of the De Stijl group1924 Rietveld-Schröder House1932 Terraced house for four familiesat the Werkbund Exhibition inViennaFrom 1946 employed mainly as anarchitect, also continues withdesigns for furniture and interiordecoration1954 Dutch Pavilion for the Biennale inVenice1963–72 Van Gogh MuseumAmsterdam (completed by theemployees van Tricht and vanDillen)1964 Dies on June 25 in the Rietveld-Schröder Houseleft pageGerrit Rietveld, Red Blue Chair, 1917–23abovePortrait of Gerrit Rietveld

36| 37Le CorbusierGio PontiGiorgio Morandi1853–1856 Crimean War1873 Claude Monet,Impression, Sunrise1883 Opening of the MetropolitanOpera in New York1902 Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Workis founded1896 First modern OlympicGames1911 Ernest Rutherford developshis model of the atom1925 Invention of television1940 McDonald’s is founded1955 The Family of Man exhibitionat MoMA in New York1962 Cuban Missile Crisis1970 British rock band Queen formGio Ponti1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015Gio Ponti is often called the father of Italian design because his publications as well as his own designs hada great influence on Italy’s understanding of art.Gio Ponti, Superleggera chair, 1957With buildings in 13 countries, 1,000 architecturalsketches, 25 years as a teacher, articles in 560journals (which he also published himself), anddesigns for 120 different companies, Gio Ponti wasnot only extremely productive throughout his careerbut also highly versatile. He was an architect, craftsman,editor, writer, set designer, and industrialdesigner. In his designs, he always aimed to bemodern without forgetting the old ways, and thecombination of modern and tradition thus becamePonti’s trademark.In the 1920s, Ponti, along with Emilio Lancia,Giovanni Muzio, and Tommaso Buzzi, was one of themost important proponents of the Novecento style,which was inspired by Art Deco as well as by theVienna Werkstätte and classicism. He created handcraftedvases and porcelain and designed furniturefor the La Rinascente department store. As theartistic director for the ceramics manufacturerRichard Ginori, Ponti was able to give new impulseto the art of industrial design by decorating simpleshapes with neoclassical designs. In the late 1920sand 1930s, he again devoted himself to architectureand turned to rationalism, albeit in a rather reservedway. With his Milan Domus houses in particular,which from the outside looked like typical Milantownhouses, but inside were highly innovative withflexible rooms and modular furniture, Ponti showedhis talent for unifying old and new. He created anItalian design classic in 1947 with the La Cornutacoffee machine, with its chrome, streamlined, andtechnically elegant silhouette.Another of Ponti’s masterpieces is the Super -leggera chair, which he created in the 1950s. After aten-year thought process, he managed to developthis period furniture with the manufacturer Cassina.The chair combines a fragile appearance with anindestructible stability and was ideal for thecramped apartments of the 1950s. To prove itsstability, Ponti once threw it out of a fourth-floorwindow – the chair remained intact. Inspired by thetraditional Chiavari chairs, with Superleggera Pontiopted for a new arrangement of the cross bracesand, by using ash, he was able reduce the radius ofthe chair legs, which made the chair more delicatebut also more stable. Although he remained true tothe traditional caned seat, he chose black paint forthe wood. He thus created a chair that was strikingin its Italian tradition, classical elegance, andmodern shape yet still represented the weakenedrationalism that was so typical for Ponti. At the startof the 1960s, the mass-produced Superleggerabecame a symbol of the economic miracle in Italyand established Cassina’s route to becoming anambitious design company.In addition to his original designs, Ponti wasalso influential on other levels. His journal Domus,which he himself published from 1928 on, becamethe most influential magazine for design andarchitecture. As a founder of the Milan Trienniale,he always supported the work of progressivedesigners, and during his career as a professor,which lasted for almost 30 years, he also influencedsubsequent generations of designers. nk1891 Born on October 18 in MilanUntil 1921 Studies architecture inMilan1921–22 Architecture office of EmilioLancia and Mino Fiocchi1923 Artistic director at the ceramicsmanufacturer Richard Ginori1926–33 Architecture agency withEmilio Lancia1925–79 Director of the Biennale inMonza1928 Establishes the journal Domus1933 Manager at Fontana Arte1936–61 Professor at Politecnico diMilano1941 Establishes the journal Stile1948 La Cornuta coffee machine forLa Pavoni1953 Serie P sanitary ware for IdealStandard, Distex chair for Cassina1957 Superleggera chair for Cassina1979 Dies on September 16 in MilanPortrait of Gio Ponti

38| 39Paul KleeLudwig Mies van der RoheMarianne Brandt1888 Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café1905 German Expressionist groupDie Brücke is founded inDresden1929 The Museumof Modern Artopens in NewYork1916 Albert Einstein, Theory of Relativity1933 Adolf Hitler comes to power1945 Atom bombs dropped onHiroshima and Nagasaki1961 Founding of AmnestyInternational1949 Founding of the GermanDemocratic Republic1955 Beginning of Pop Art1971 First Starbucks opens1989 Fall of the Berlin WallMarianne Brandt1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020She never achieved the fame of her male colleagues, but as one of the few women in the Bauhaus movement,Marianne Brandt made her name with beautiful yet functional metalwork. Some of her most famous designs –for coffee and tea services and ashtrays, for example – were created while she was still a student, and some arestill manufactured to the same design today.Marianne Brandt, MT 49 tea infuser, 1924Weaving, bookbinding, pottery – these were theclassic fields of the Bauhaus movement in whichwomen were strongly represented. However,Marianne Brandt was one of the few Bauhaus womento assert herself in a male domain: the metal workshop.When Walter Gropius opened the StaatlicheBauhaus in Weimar in 1919, he spoke out in favor ofabsolute equality, but it soon became apparent thatreality was quite different and the female studentswere forced out of many workshops.Brandt, who arrived at the Bauhaus school in1923, completed her apprenticeship in the metalworkshop, which was directed at this time by theHungarian constructivist László Moholy-Nagy.Impressed by the work of the new student, heencouraged her to specialize in this area. She soonmade a name for herself with timeless and beautifulpieces of metalwork – with innovative and func -tional cutlery, in particular. Later, Brandt evenbecame the deputy manager of the metal workshopand was thus one of the few women at the Bauhausschool to hold a managerial role.As early as 1924 and while still a student,Marianne Brandt created a real masterpiece withthe design of a tea and coffee service. This lavishlyworked service in brass and ebony was in theArt Deco style and is striking with its contrast ofmaterials and the clear, bold combination ofgeometric shapes. The combination of spheres,hemispheres, and cylinder shapes, as well as theasymmetrically arranged handles, are echoes ofRussian constructivism and the Dutch De Stijlmovement. In 1985, this service, originallymanufactured as individual pieces, was reissuedby the Alessi company.“Art and technology, a new unit!” Gropius’sdemand was put on the program after the Bauhausschool moved to Dessau in 1925. Cooperation withindustry was promoted and mass productionbecame more professional. Elegant utility productswere to be made accessible to a wider public. Brandtsucceeded in implementing the Bauhaus philosophyof industrial product design in an exemplarymanner. Over the next few years, she designed aseries of utility objects, including metal ashtrays,jugs, and bowls. From 1927 on, she turned to thedesign of electric lamps. One of the most famousdesigns from those years is the bedside lampKandem, which she designed in 1928 together withHin Bredendieck. The lamp, which is painted in blackor white and has a movable arm, is a prime exampleof functional, simple, and modern design.After leaving the Bauhaus school at the end of the1920s, Brandt worked at Walter Gropius’s Berlinarchitecture agency, where she initially designedinterior furnishings before working for three years ashead of design at the Ruppelwerke metal goodsfactory. After the war, she taught at the Hochschulefür Bildende Künste in Dresden and later at theInstitut für industrielle Gestaltung in Berlin. How -ever, she was unable to recreate her early success asa designer and devoted herself more and more topainting and sculpture until her later years. ch1893 Born Marianne Liebe in Chemnitz1911–18 Studies painting at the GrandDucal-Saxon Hochschule fürBildende Kunst in Weimar1919 Marries the Norwegian painterErik Brandt1923 Attends the introductory courseat the Bauhaus School in Weimar,then studies texture andmaterials under Josef Albers andLászló Moholy-Nagy and artisticcomposition under Paul Klee andWassily Kandinsky1925–28 Apprentice, then employeeand deputy manager of the metalworkshop at the Bauhaus school1929 Works in Walter Gropius’s constructionagency in Berlin1930–33 Manager of the designdepartment at the Ruppelwerkemetal goods factory in Gotha1933–49 Freelance artist and appliedartist1949–54 Lecturer in wood, metal, andceramics at the Hochschule fürWerkkunst in Dresden and at theInstitut für industrielle Gestaltungin Berlin-Weissensee1955 Moves to Chemnitz1983 Dies in Kirchberg, SaxonyPortrait of Marianne Brandt

40| 411866 Civil Rights Act extendingthe rights of emancipatedslavesRaymond LoewyMarcel Breuer1884 Mark Twain publishes theAdventures of Huckleberry FinnCharles Eames1912 Sinking of the Titanic1901 Theodore Roosevelt swornin as president of the US1928 AndyWarholis born1941 Pearl Harbor attack1955–1968 Civil rights movementin the U.S.1963 Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!1949 Mao Zedong founds thePeople’s Republic of China1973 Watergate scandal1982 Production of the first commercialcd-player1991 World Wide Web (WWW) clearedfor general useRaymond Loewy1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020For more than 50 years, Raymond Loewy influenced the tastes of the Western world like no other. “I can claim,”stated the industrial designer retrospectively and rather immodestly, “to have made the daily life of the 20th centurymore beautiful.”Raymond Loewy, pencil sharpener, 1933In 1919, the Frenchman emigrated to the US, wherehe first worked as a window dresser for New Yorkdepartment stores and as a fashion designer forVogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. His careerchange came ten years later when the British officefurniture manufacturer Gestetner commissioned himto create a new design for one of their copyingmachines within a few days. Loewy used plasticineto create the prototype of a new elegant cover forthe machine, which subsequently became a bestseller. He had thus discovered a completely newapproach, which he continued to use for a number ofdiverse industrial mass products: whether it was akitchen appliance or an automobile, most of the lessattractive mechanical parts were hidden beneath anelegant, modern exterior. Today, product design is amatter of course, but in the 1930s, this was a radicalnew way of thinking. For Loewy, the potential of hisideas was apparent immediately: “Between twoproducts equal in price, function, and quality, theone with the most attractive exterior will win.”In 1934, Loewy made a breakthrough with a newdesign for the Coldspot refrigerator for Sears Roebuck,the first domestic appliance to advertise itsaesthetic design and become a sensational success.Loewy’s idea of beauty was the streamlined shape.The rounded edges, the extended, flowing shapes,and also the cover of gleaming chrome suggestedspeed, and these elements can also be seen in hisaerodynamic designs for the steam locomotives forthe Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as well as inthe Studebaker automobiles, for example in theStarliner coupé with its curving fenders (1953) and inthe Scenicruiser bus for Greyhound (1954).Based on vehicle design, whereby the optimum airstream enables greater speed, the “StreamlineDesign” symbolized the new mobility and vitality ofAmerican society and was applied to a variety ofproducts. Even Loewy’s famous, albeit nevermanufactured prototype for a pencil sharpener in1933 pays homage to streamlined design.From the toothpaste tube to the ocean steamer,from porcelain tableware to the porthole for theNASA Skylab, there was almost nothing that Loewydid not want to redesign. He designed logos andpackaging for such industrial giants as Coca-Cola,Lucky Strike, Exxon, and Shell. In the end, thanks tointensive self-promotion, the all-around designerbecame a star and was written about with admirationin a cover story in Time magazine in 1949: “Hestreamlines the sales curve.” In fact Loewy did notstop at product design. With his large employeebase and offices in New York, Chicago, London, andParis, what he offered the customer was thecomplete package instead, which, in addition toproduct design, also included a concept foroptimization of marketing, packaging, and sales.Thus he succeeded in the aestheticization andcommercialization of private consumption. Hereduced his design philosophy to the acronym MAYA– “Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable.” ch1893 Born in Paris1910–19 Studies at the Université deParis and the École de Lanneau,graduates as an engineer1919 Emigrates to the US1919–29 Window dresser andillustrator in New York1929 Opens a design agency inNew York; redesigns theGestetner copying machine1933 Prototype of a streamlined pencilsharpener1934 Redesigns the Coldspotrefrigerator for Sears Roebuck;Hupmobile car for the HuppMotor Company1938 President car for Studebaker1940 Silversides bus for Greyhound1951 Publishes the autobiographyNever Leave Well Enough Alone1953 Starliner car for Studebaker;opens a Paris office1954 Scenicruiser bus for Greyhound;Form 2000 porcelain tablewarefor Rosenthal1967 Start of cooperation with NASA1986 Dies in Monte CarloPortrait of Raymond Loewy

leftColdspot refrigerator, 1934belowGreyhound Scenicruiser, 1954

44| 451867 The Alaska Purchase by theUnited StatesMarcel DuchampPoul HenningsenNaum Gabo1877 Leo Tolstoy publishes Anna Karenina1888 First crossing of the Greenlandice cap by Fridtjof Nansen1903 Henry Ford establishes theFord Motor Company in Detroit1919–1933 Prohibitionin the US1931 Completion of the Empire StateBuilding by William van Alen1955 First documenta exhibition1983 Production of the first commercialin Kassel, Germanymobile phone1961 Construction of the Berlin Wall1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights1971 Founding of GreenpeacePoul Henningsen1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020Often referred to by the Danes as just PH, Poul Henningsen, architect, author, critic, and designer, was one of thecentral figures of cultural life in Denmark between the two world wars.Today, the name Poul Henningsen can almost beused as a synonym for “Danish lighting design.”However, it was initially his written works thatreceived most attention after he abandoned hisstudies. As a journalist and art critic, Henningsenalways strove to link culture to politics and hecreated the slogan: “All political art is bad – all goodart is political.” In his most famous work, Whatabout Culture? from 1933, he criticized cultural life inDenmark, which at the time was characterized by anelitist and antimodern attitude. He also took part inpublic discussions during the postwar period andfought against the artistic arrogance of Scandinaviandesign.As a designer and with his revolutionary lights,Henningsen was one of the most important representativesof Danish functionalism. In his designs,the focus was on the quality of light. He himselfgrew up with the gentle light of the petroleum lampand it was his declared objective not to “flood thehome with light” but instead to make it a snug andrelaxing place. His designs were based on scientificinvestigations into the size, shape, material, andposition of lampshades and used the refraction oflight to create soft, glare-free lighting. He used slatsas diffusers to refract the light and to provide theprecisely calculated diffusion with their brightlypainted undersides. In addition, the combination ofreflectors in different sizes united both direct andindirect illumination. His light designs could createlighting that did not glare and that let the differencebetween the lit and unlit space become fluid. Hisfirst design was the three-shaded PH lamp made ofbrass and opal glass (1924). It was exhibited in theDanish Pavilion at the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs inParis. Other international design and architecturecolleagues integrated it into their room designs,including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who used it inthe living area of the Villa Tugendhat (see page 29).This development also won the PH lamps greatrecognition outside Scandinavia. Until his death,Poul Henningsen created more than 100 lightingdesigns for the PH series, which were all based onhis original idea of using shades and diffusers tocreate a warm, diffused light. The best-knowninclude the PH Septima (1927), whereby four additionaldiffusers of frosted glass were added to thethree original lampshades, the PH Louvre with13 concentrically arranged metal shades that diffusethe light to all sides, and the PH Kogelen (1957), alsoknown as Artichoke, in which the lightbulb is surroundedby scale-like copper plates that resemblethe heart of an artichoke.Even though his lights were initially used mainlyin offices and public institutions, with their moderndesign, combination of soft light, and their perfectlight function, they quickly became popular diningroomlights and modern design classics. nk1894 Born on September 4 in Ordrup1908–10 Studies painting at theTU Copenhagen1911–14 Studies architecture atthe Polytechnic Institute ofCopenhagen1917–21 Art critic for the KlingennewspaperFrom 1924 Designs lights andfurnitureFrom 1926 Production of PH lamps atLouis Poulsen1933–45 Scriptwriter and journalist1943–45 Flees to Sweden1958 Kogelen (Artichoke) lamp1967 Dies in Hillerødleft pagePoul Henningsen, PH Kogelen,Artichoke lamp, 1958, re-editionby Louis Poulsen, 2008abovePortrait of Poul Henningsen

46| 47Wassily KandinskyAlvar AaltoRay Eames1883 Friedrich Nietzschepublishes Thus SpokeZarathustra1897 Tate Gallery is foundedin London1919 Founding of theWeimar Republic1958 Truman Capote,1939–1945 World War IIBreakfast at Tiffany’s1949 Founding of the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization1973 First oilcrisis1965 Beginning of Vietnam War1981 First flight by the Columbiaspace shuttle1990 German reunificationAlvar Aalto1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Alvar Aalto was a central figure in international modern design. With his innovative pieces of furniture, including theAalto vase, he succeeded in connecting the naturalism of Finnish romanticism with modern ideals in a playful manner.Alvar Aalto, cantilever chair No. 31(now No. 42), re-edition by ARTEKAnyone waiting for a delayed Finnair aeroplane inthe 1950s could possibly blame Alvar Aalto for this.For even at that time, the Finn was part of thearchitect and designer elite and thus one of the fewpeople for whom scheduled flights would wait.At just 25 years of age, Aalto opened his ownarchitecture agency and even at that time con -sidered himself a star: he placed his name at theentrance in two-foot-high letters. A short time later,this proved to be justified, for even after his firstprojects, influential critics ranked him alongsideGropius’s Bauhaus in Dessau and Le Corbusier’s“League of Nations” project. Like his Germancolleagues, he was not just an architect; he alwaysfollowed the idea of the complete work of art. So,almost accidentally, a number of design objectswere created that today count as classics.The focus of all of his designs was always functionality,albeit a functionality that neverthelessradiated comfort. So, quite in contrast to his designcolleagues from Germany and Italy, he used naturalmaterials instead of glass and steel. The typicallysoft, often irregular Aalto shapes, such as waves andfolds, also became symbols for the move toward amore human functionalism.Inspired by Breuer’s cantilever chair, the Thonetchairs, and a company in Estonia that manufacturedtram seats from plywood, he devoted himself tobending wood. The chair No. 41 and the first woodencantilever chair, No. 31, which would subsequentlybecome the symbol for Scandinavia’s move into anew design era, were created in his plywood workshopswith the furniture manufacturer OttoKorhonen. Thanks to further innovations in the fieldof bentwood, which he lovingly called the “littlesister of the architectonic column,” over the years,further furniture ranges were developed: with L-legs(1932–33), Y-legs (1946–47), and folding legs (1954).The success of this furniture and the resulting trendtoward natural materials and soft shapes enabledhim to set up the ARTEK furniture company with hiswife in 1935 and to submit a patent for the woodencantilever chair.In accordance with the principle of the completework of art, in addition to his work as an architectand furniture designer for the houses Iittala andRiihimäki, Aalto was also a freelance designer. Hismost famous design also comes from this period,the Savoy vase from 1937, which he had designed forthe Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki. The wavelikeshape of this vase, which was originally called“Eskimoerindensskinnbuxa” (leather trousers wornby Eskimo women) and which is today known underthe name Aalto vase, is based on a lakefront. Thecrucial aspect of the shape of the vase, which canalso be considered symbolic for Aalto’s otherdesigns, is that it is both organic and abstract.His design philosophy, which rejects both formalrationality and artificially manufactured materials, istoday considered to be the basis for Scandinaviandesign. With his great success in the US and GreatBritain, he influenced the designers there with thisideals, including the married design team Charlesand Ray Eames. nk1898 Born on February 3 in Kuortane,Finland1903 Moves with his family toJyväskylä1916–21 Studies architecture at theHelsinki University of Technology1923 Opens the Alvar Aalto Office forArchitecture and Monumental Art1924 Marries the architect Aino Marsio1928 Member of the Congrès Internationauxd’Architecture Moderne(CIAM)1933 Moves to Helsinki and sets up thefurniture company ARTEK1937 Finnish pavilion for the World’sFair in Paris; Savoy vase (Aaltovase)1939 Finnish pavilion for the World’sFair in New York, Aalto exhibitionin the MoMa (Museum of ModernArt), New York1940–48 Professor of architecture atMIT (Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology) in Cambridge1949 Death of his wife, Aino1952 Marries the architect ElissaMäkiniemi1962–71 Finlandia Helsinki (Congressand Concert Center)1976 Dies on May 11 in HelsinkiPortrait of Alvar Aalto, 1970

48| 49Wassily KandinskyMarianne BrandtWilhelm Wagenfeld1894 Tower Bridge in Londonopened for traffic1902 Alfred Stieglitz founds thePhoto-Secession in New York1914 Marcel Duchamp’s firstreadymade, Bottle Rack1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1948/49 Berlin Airlift1939 Germany invades Poland;World War II commences1982 Michael Jackson, Thriller1992 Founding of the European Union1973 Chilean coup d’état; elected presidentSalvador Allende diesWilhelm Wagenfeld1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025With the MT 8 table lamp, Wilhelm Wagenfeld successfully developed a new design form that embodied modernityduring his time as a student at the Bauhaus. Wagenfeld, who was born in Bremen, is today considered a pioneerof industrial design.Instead of “arts and crafts,” the new orientation ofthe Bauhaus in 1922 was to create a symbiosis of“art and technology.” With the Hungarian artistLászló Moholy-Nagy, who was director of the metalworkshop from the spring of 1923, this new orientationbegan to take shape with a vengeance. Hedemanded and encouraged the development of anew language of forms, in particular through the useand unusual combination of inexpensive materials.At his suggestion, the metal workshop designedlight fittings for the planned model house, the Hausam Horn. For this house, the Swiss silversmith CarlJacob Jucker developed various lamps with glassfeet and shafts, to which, in a formally not veryconvincing manner, he added mirrored bulbs orsemicircular reflectors. Jucker’s creative achievementconsisted in the use of a glass shaft and thedisclosure of function through the visibility of theinner wiring. Another Bauhaus student, Gyula Pap,later claimed that at that time he had placed a glasstube on Jucker’s table for the building of a lamp. Butthe documentation shows that at that point in timeJucker had already finished designing his lamps.In April 1924, Wilhelm Wagenfeld took his journeyman’sexamination as a silversmith. Again it wasMoholy-Nagy who gave the stimulus for thedesign of lamps. Wagenfeld, who knew Jucker’sexperiment, which was not suitable for industrialuse, created with his well-balanced concept animmediately convincing solution. He solved theproblem of the reflector with a frosted glass dome,which rests on soldered metal rods that support asurrounding metal band. This design by Wagenfeldsucceeded in meeting the aesthetic criteria of theBauhaus. Foot, shaft, and dome now formed aunity, with harmonious proportions and a pleasantlight effect. The lamp is not too dazzling, as theshade itself emits some light. But this was notenough. Moholy-Nagy’s next step was to ensurethat Wagenfeld produced his lamp in a variantmaterial with the glass parts, also used by CarlJucker, for the foot and shaft. Wagenfeld also movedthe cable, visible in Jucker’s design, enclosing it in ametal tube (MT 9 and ME1).From 1928, the Berlin company Schwintzer & Gräffmanufactured the lamp in two different sizes. In1930, Wagenfeld himself created a variation on bothlamps. The version reworked since 1980 by theBremen firm of Tecnolumen together with Wagenfeldcorresponds, apart from minimal alterationssuch as the diameter of the base, to the originalversion. It was precisely through the design boomof the 1980s that the Bauhaus lamps are nowmodernist classics, and remain paradigmatic forthe entire Bauhaus aesthetic. js1900 Born on April 151914–18 Apprenticeship as industrialdesigner at the silverwarecompany Koch & Bergfeld inBremen1916–19 Kunstgewerbeschule Bremen1919–22 Trains at the Zeichen -akademie Hanau1923–25 Works at the metal workshopof the Bauhaus Weimar underLászló Moholy-Nagy1924 Final examination as silversmith1926–30 Assistant, from 1928 headof the metal workshop of theBauhochschule Weimar1930–35 Freelancer, main clientGlaswerk Schott & Gen in Jena1931–35 Professor at the StaatlichenKunsthochschule GrunewaldstraßeBerlinFrom 1935 Artistic director atVereinigten Lausitzer Glaswerkein Weißwasser, Oberlausitz1947–49 Professor of industrial designat the Hochschule für BildendeKunst Berlin1954–78 “Werkstatt Wagenfeld” inStuttgart1990 Dies in Stuttgartleft pageWilhelm Wagenfeld, Bauhaus lamp,metal version, Bauhaus Weimar, 1924abovePortrait of Wilhelm Wagenfeld, 1920s

50| 51Pablo PicassoJosef AlbersJean Prouvé1870/71 Franco-Prussian War1901 André Malraux, French Ministerof Culture, is born1889 Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night1916–1922 Dadaistmovement1939–1945 World War II1952 Samuel Beckett,Waiting for Godot1969 Woodstock festival1973 Pablo Picasso dies1991 Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibilityof Death in the Mind of Someone LivingJean Prouvé1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Jean Prouvé, wrought-iron craftsman, designer, product developer, and architect, is one of the central figures of20th-century design. His background as a metalsmith enabled him to create innovative furniture designs.Jean Prouvé, Wall lamp Potence, 1950,re-edition by Vitra“Prouvé was indissolubly an architect and anengineer, or even better, an architect and a masterbuilder, since everything he touches and designsimmediately takes on an elegant, beautiful formwhile he finds brilliant solutions to resistance andmanufacturing.”This was how Le Corbusier evaluated the work ofthe great designer and engineer. However, in spiteof his countless construction projects, Prouvé couldnever call himself an architect because of his lack offormal training. As a design engineer, he createdprototypes of industrial designs, from facades toroof constructions to different house types. His mostsignificant construction is the Maison du peuple inClichy (1935–39) with its modern curtain wall. As afurniture designer, we still have Prouvé to thank forstyle icons such as the Cité chair, which he created in1930 for a competition to furnish a student apartmentin the Cité Universitaire in Nancy.The trademarks for Jean Prouvé are his simplebut efficient designs. As a trained metal artisan,he treasured the clarity of technical objects andrecognized the aesthetic possibilities in the differentmaterials he used in his designs. Even the firstfurniture designs are thought out in detail andmanufactured so that the construction itselfbecomes a specific design element: screws andjoints remain just as visible as the traces of themanufacturing process that he deliberately leaves.From 1923 on, in his own workshop in Nancy, Prouvécreated not just the first furniture designs but alsorails, metal separating walls and doors, glazing,balustrades, lighting fixtures, sliding windows, andelevator cars made of sheet steel – engineeringsystems and construction parts, many of whichreceived their own patents. The cool and functionalaesthetics of the sheet-steel furniture, which Prouvéexhibited for the first time in 1925 at the ExpositionInternationale des Arts Décoratifs et IndustrielsModernes in Paris, drew the attention of the architectsLe Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and RobertMallet-Steven, for whom he developed constructivesolutions to their construction requirements.After Prouvé received his first significant order –the design of the entrance gate of the Villa Reifenbergfor Robert Stevens-Mallet – the commissionsfor his engineering design ideas did not stop. From1931 to 1939, Prouvé worked with the architects TonyGarnier, Eugène Beaudouin, and Marcel GabrielLods, with whom he constructed the aviation clubRoland Garros in Buc and also the prototype of aweekend house. His invention of the school deskand chair combination caused a sensation. In the1950s, in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand, hecreated bookshelves made of wood and sheet metalwith irregularly arranged compartments into whichbrightly painted back walls and sheet metal doorswere inserted. Furniture production came to anabrupt halt in 1953, when Prouvé was forced out ofthe Ateliers Jean Prouvé factory, which he hadfounded, by the majority owner Aluminium Français.However, with his own engineering designcompany Les Constructions Jean Prouvé, establishedin Paris with Michel Bataille, he con tinued to createself-contained architectural works: in 1955, thehouse for himself and his family in Nancy constructedfrom remnants of his former factory; that sameyear, a giant pavilion on the bank of the River Seinein Paris for the 100th anniversary of the invention ofaluminum; in 1956, the prototype of a prefabricatedhouse for the homeless program run by the“Emmaus” founder, Abbé Pierre; and in 1957, theEvian pump room on Lake Geneva.In addition to furniture, buildings and numerouspatents, Prouvé’s complete works also include hislegendary teaching activity at the renowned Con -servatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) inParis from 1958 to 1971.In 1971, as one of the judges for the constructioncompetition for the Centre Pompidou, Prouvé wasable to push through the bold design by the youngarchitects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. hd1901 Born on April 8 in Paris1916–21 Trains as a wrought-ironcraftsman1924 Opens his own workshop1925 First sheet-steel furniture1930 Founding member of the Uniondes Artists Modernes (UAM)group of artists1931 Establishes the designengineering company LesAteliers de Jean Prouvé1947 Constructs the Maxéville factory(200 employees)1953 Leaves company after rows withthe majority shareholder1954 Design and construction of ownhouse in Nancy1956 Establishes design engineeringoffice Les Constructions JeanProuvé (together with MichelBataille) in Paris1968–84 Office in Paris as a freelancearchitect1984 Dies on March 23 in NancyPortrait of Jean Prouvé

52| 53Marc ChagallMarcel Breuer1895 First Venice BiennaleJoseph Beuys1911 Wassily Kandinsky,Impression III1919 Bauhaus founded byWalter Gropius in Weimar1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1950–1953 Korean War1940–1944 Vichy regime in France1961 John F. Kennedy sworn in aspresident of the US1970 Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty 1988 Freeze, exhibition of the YoungBritish Artists group in London1993–1997 Frank O. Gehry,Guggenheim Museum, BilbaoMarcel Breuer1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025According to legend, the handlebars of his bicycle were the inspiration for his most famous design, the cantilever chairs.Breuer became the master of tubular steel frame chairs.Walter Gropius considered Marcel Breuer to be hismost talented student. Many of his furniture designscame from the period at the Bauhaus school andthey display the detached elegance and practicalityfor which the German designer became famous. HisWassily Chair is one of the best-known chairs ofmodern times and is also one of the most copieddesigns.In 1920, Marcel Breuer arrived at the Bauhausschool in Weimar and became director of the furnitureworkshop when he was still a junior master. Hedesigned furniture based on a rational simplificationin the style of his teacher, Gropius. He created classicpieces of furniture for modern times. They weredistinctive with their lightness and geometric formsand corresponded with functional principles. First itwas wooden furniture that was designed with simple,geometric shapes in the style of the Bauhaus.Then, when Breuer discovered the design opportunitiesof Mannesmann tubular steel, he brought thelight, metallic, gleaming look to modern design.Breuer designed the Wassily Chair (also known as B2)for Kandinsky’s home in Dessau, and in doing this heused the new materials for the first time. With thecurves, the angled planes, and the materials used,the construction is modern as well as inviting andcomfortable. The subsequent experiments andresearch into tubular steel furniture led in 1928 tothe first cantilever chair, a chair without rear legs.In time, a whole series of tubular steel furniture wascreated, including tables, stools, and cupboards,which all utilized the benefits of tubular steel: lowcosts, hygiene, durability, and comfort.Breuer designed the interior decoration andfurnishings for the new Bauhaus school in Dessau,where he taught until 1928. He then managed hisown architecture company in Berlin and continuedto design furniture and interior decoration therewhile his architectural designs mainly remainedon the shelf. In 1935, like many of his Bauhauscolleagues, he emigrated. His first stop was London,where he worked with the architect FRS Yorke andbecame director of the design department at Isokon.Inspired by Aalto’s laminate wood designs, whichwere exhibited in London from 1933 on, Breuerbegan to transfer his tubular steel constructions tolaminate wood for the first time.In 1937, Marcel Breuer then followed the call ofWalter Gropius to Harvard. His professorship forarchitecture also symbolized the change in hiscareer, as from now on he concentrated mainly onbuilding designs. He also founded an architectureagency with Gropius and together they establishedthe Bauhaus style in America. The Alan I. W. Frankhouse in Pittsburgh, which was designed as acomplete work of art, including interior design andfurniture, is an impressive relic from this period.Their collaborative work ended in 1941. Breuer setup his own architecture agency, Marcel Breuer &Associates, which he relocated to New York in 1947.In the 1950s, like Le Corbusier, he worked mainlywith concrete, and with his later giant buildings,such as the Whitney Museum of Modern Art and theUNESCO headquarters in Paris, he became a forerunnerof Brutalism. nk1902 Born on May 21 in Pécs, HungaryUntil 1920 Studies at the Akademieder Bildenden Künste in Vienna1920–23 Studies at the BauhausWeimar, master carpenter1925–28 Manages the furnitureworkshop at the Bauhaus inDessau1928 Sets up an architecture agencyin Berlin1935 Emigrates to England;collaborates with the architectFRS Yorke, designs for Isokon1937 Emigrates to the US, architectureagency with Walter Gropius inCambridge, professorship at theHarvard School of Architecture1956 Architecture agency MarcelBreuer & Associates in New York1981 Dies in New Yorkleft pageMarcel Breuer, D4 armchair, BauhausDessau, 1927, re-edition by TECTA,LauenfördeabovePortrait of Marcel Breuer

leftBauhaus display cases, 1925,re-edition by TECTA, Lauenförderight pageContainer S41, S43, 1924/27,re-edition by TECTA, Lauenförde

56| 57Arne JacobsenAlvar AaltoErnst Ludwig Kirchner1901 Queen Victoria dies1891 Construction of Trans-SiberianRailway begins1913 Armory Show in New York showsthe European avant-garde1928 Alexander Flemingdiscovers penicillin1906 San Francisco earthquake1939–1945 World War II1959 Completion of the SolomonR. Guggenheim Museum in 1976 Apple Computers foundedNew York1965 First Op Art exhibition,The Responsive Eye in New York1999 First e-book reader1992 Maastricht Treaty establishesthe EUArne Jacobsen1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025His understanding of how to harmonize geometric forms and organically flowing lines, classical proportions, andmodern visions is unrivaled. With his seating furniture, which had naturalistic names such as Ant, Egg, and Swan,he created the design icons of the 20th century.leftArne Jacobsen, Ant chair, models 3101, 1952, reeditionby Fritz Hansen, Allerødnext double pageEgg visitor chair, model 3316, 1958Yet Arne Jacobsen himself, one of the most influentialScandinavian designers of the 20th century,resisted the term “designer.” Although he createdtimeless modern seating furniture such as the Eggand the Seven, he always saw himself as anarchitect. In fact, outside of Denmark, his architecturalwork, which includes private residences andsettlements as well as public buildings, has ratherunjustly taken a backseat. His constructions werepart of the pioneering achievements of Scandinavianmodern art before World War II. His visionarydesigns for the circular House of the Future (1929),a flat-roofed building constructed of glass andconcrete with a heliport, and the Bellavista settle -ment (1931–34) in particular made Jacobsen a forerunnerof the International Style.In the 1950s and 1960s, Arne Jacobsen consistentlyimplemented the idea of “architecture as a completework of art.” His integrated approach meantthat he devoted meticulous attention to even thesmallest details of interior decoration as well as tofurniture, lamps, and textiles. His masterpiece wasthe SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Everything herebears the mark of Jacobsen, from the architecture ofthe skyscraper, which is almost 70 meters tall (atthat time the tallest building in the country), to thedoor handles, ashtrays, candlesticks, and the AJstainless-steel cutlery in the restaurant. Until then,an abundance of gold, marble, and red velvet hadbeen synonymous with luxury hotels; Jacobsen,however, set completely new standards.Even the architecture – a 20-story building with acurtain wall made of glass and steel – illustratedthat fact that Arne Jacobsen was striving for aradical modern concept. The building, the interior,and the furnishings were intended to form a con -sistent whole, and so for the lobby and receptionareas, Jacobsen designed the Egg and Swan seats,created as modern plastic shells with cold foamupholstery and an aluminum stand. Both chairswere created without straight lines, and with theirorganic, flowing shapes they form a fascinatingcontrast to the otherwise strictly geometric lines ofthe hotel. With its high back and the protrudingsides, the Egg is a new interpretation of the wingchair and offers a private space in the public room ofthe reception area. Like the other seating furnitureby Jacobsen, the chairs are still produced by theDanish furniture company Fritz Hansen.Arne Jacobsen had already won a silver medal atthe Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs inParis in 1925 with the design for a chair. His mostfamous chair, however, is probably the Ant, which hedesigned for Fritz Hansen in 1952. The laminatedwooden chair takes its name from the stronglytapered backrest and the three or four thin, steeltubelegs. Three years later, he developed Chair 3107– Series 7, which had a simplified backrest. Compact,light, and stackable and available with or withoutarmrests and in a variety of colors, the Seven wasperfect for modern living and became a hugesuccess. To date, more than five million units havebeen sold. It is one of the most copied chairs inthe world. ch1902 Born in CopenhagenAround 1922–24 Apprenticeship asa stonemason1924–27 Studies architecture at theRoyal Danish Academy of FineArts in Copenhagen1925 Works on the Danish pavilionfor the Paris World Exhibition;silver medal for chair design1927–29 Works at the planningoffice for the Copenhagen localauthority1929 Own architecture office inHellerup; designs the House ofthe Future for a competition(together with Flemming Lassen)1931 Rothenborg House, Klampenborg1931–34 Bellavista settlement inCopenhagen1943–45 Flees to Sweden beforeDenmark is occupied by theNazi Germany1952 Ant chair1956–61 SAS Royal Hotel with theEgg and Swan chairs1956–65 Professor of architectureat the Academy of Fine Arts inCopenhagen1969–63 St. Catherine’s College,Oxford1971 Dies in CopenhagenleftSwan chair in Fritz Hansen’s head -quarters in Allerød, models 3320, 1958,re-edition by Fritz Hansen, AllerødabovePortrait of Arne Jacobsen

60| 61Constantin BrâncușiIsamu Noguchi1904 “Entente cordiale” between theUnited Kingdom and France1912 Jackson Pollockis born1925 Francis Scott Fitzgerald,The Great GatsbyTakashi Murakami1937–1945 Second Sino-Japanese War1945 Beginning of Cold War1957 Soviet Union launchesthe first Sputnik1972 US uses napalm as a toolof war in Vietnam1968 Assassination ofMartin Luther King1983 Discovery of the AIDS virus, HIV1993 Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerkawarded Nobel Peace Prize2003 Human genome projectcompletedIsamu Noguchi1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Isamu Noguchi, sculptor, product designer, set designer, landscape architect, and designer, ranks among themost influential artistic personalities of the 20th century.Isamu Noguchi is one of the most interesting figuresat the interface of 20th-century art and design.Stimulated by very diverse areas and genres, hecreated far-reaching works that comprised not onlysculptural work in the minimalist tradition but alsothe design of lights, furniture, stage sets, and publicareas. He thus managed to build a bridge betweenvisual and applied art, between East and West,between artistic vision and practical function.Born the son of the American author LéonieGilmour and the Japanese poet Yonejiro (Yone)Noguchi in 1904, Isamu experienced the tension oftwo cultures that could not be more different. Hegrew up in Japan from 1906 to 1918 and thenattended school in the US. In 1922, he began amedical degree but very soon abandoned it in orderto study sculpture.A Guggenheim scholarship enabled him to travelto Paris in 1927, where he worked under ConstantinBrâncuşi. In 1928, he returned to New York and setup a studio there. Further trips to Europe and Asiabrought him into contact with Japanese calligraphyand pottery, among other things. In New York, thiscommuter between East and West got to know thechoreographer Martha Graham and a productivecooperation developed between the two. Until themid-1960s, Noguchi was to design 21 stage sets forGraham, the outstanding representative of moderndance theater – including such productions asHerodiade (1944) and Judith (1950). In the 1940s,Noguchi designed a series of light sculptures madeof paper (Lunar). From 1951 on, he created thefamous Akari paper lanterns for which Noguchirevived the ancient Japanese art of making paperfrom the bark of the mulberry tree. Akari is theJapanese term for lightness and light: “The light ofAkari is like the light of the sun filtered through thepaper of shoji. The hardness of electricity is thustransformed through the magic of paper back to thelight of our origin – the sun – so that its warmth maycontinue to fill our rooms at night.” (Isamu Noguchi)In the 1940s and 1950s, Noguchi designed hismost famous pieces of furniture: the Coffee Table,whose heavy glass plate rests on an organic, curved,sculptural foot, the ingenious Chess Table, and thefiligree Rocking Stool (1954).Noguchi’s sculptures also serve a purpose: theGarden Seat (1963), for example, made of basalt orgranite, and the Water Table (1968) have recesses tocollect rainwater so that birds can drink from them.For his art projects in the public arena, Noguchifrequently worked with architects, such as therailing for two bridges (1951) for the Hiroshima PeacePark and Sunken Garden for the library of YaleUniversity (1960–64).In the 1970s and 1980s, he added further largescalegarden projects: UNESCO Paris, 1956–58; BillyRose Sculpture Garden, Israel Museum, Jerusalem,1960–65; Bayfront Park, Miami, Florida, 1978;California Scenario, Costa Mesa, California; DomonKen Museum Garden, Skata, Japan, 1984, and theMoere-Ken Park Sapporo, Japan, 1988.In the years from 1981 to 1985, Noguchi con -structed his own museum, the Isamu NoguchiGarden Museum in Long Island City, New York.In all genres, the works of Noguchi are impressivewith their timeless, Asian-influenced aesthetics,which are often close to biomorphic abstraction orminimal art but which also embody the Japanesetradition. hd1904 Born on November 17 inLos Angeles1906 Grows up in Japan until 1918and then returns to the USA1922 Starts a medical degree, butsoon devotes himself exclusivelyto sculpture1927 Guggenheim scholarship,assistant to Constantin Brâncuşiin Paris1929 Start of cooperation with MarthaGraham in New York1937 Initial industrial design: ZenithRadio Nurse1950 Designs the Hiroshima MemorialPark1951 Starts work on the Akari paperlanterns1956 Works on the garden for UNESCOin Paris1960 Designs the gardens for YaleUniversity and for the IsraelMuseum in Jerusalem1968 Retrospective at the WhitneyMuseum, New York; auto -biography A Sculptor’s World1985 Opening of the Isamu NoguchiGarden Museum, Long IslandCity, New York1988 Dies in New Yorkleft pageIsamu Noguchi, coffee table, 1944,re-edition by VitraabovePortrait of Isamu Noguchi

62| 63Raymond LoewyCharles EamesRay Eames1909 Opening of QueensboroBridge in New York1919 Treaty of Versailles officiallyends World War I1930 Grant Wood,American Gothic1944 Normandy landings1949 The Soviet Union commencesits first atomic test1956 Elvis Presley has hisfirst major hit,Heartbreak Hotel1962 Andy Warhol,Campbell’s Soup Cans1969 Stonewall riots on ChristopherStreet in New York1981 Ronald Reagan sworn in as40th president of the US1973 First commercial personal computer1990 End of Cold War2003 US invasion of IraqCharles & Ray Eames1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The spirit of optimism in America after World War II made modern design accessible to a wider audience. Ray and CharlesEames did not just experiment with new technologies and materials in furniture design – laminated wood, plastic, steelwire, and aluminum – they also displayed their versatility with innovative architecture and film projects.Charles and Ray Eames, La Chaise, 1948,re-edition by VitraThey were not the first to experiment with moldedplywood, however Charles Eames and his congenialpartner and wife, Ray, were able to literally bend thewood into new shapes and change furniture designof the 20th century forever with their designs. In1941, in their apartment in Los Angeles, the newlymarried couple set up a workshop with their homemadeplywood press – the Kazam! Machine – namedfor the magic spell “Ala Kazam!” (hocus pocus).Of course it was not magic; it was heat, pressure,and glue that bent the thin veneer plywood intosweeping complex curves in the press.Charles Eames had already had his first experienceof bending laminated wood at the CranbrookAcademy of Art. In 1940, together with his friendEero Saarinen, he won first prize in the competition“Organic Design in Home Furnishings,” which wasawarded by the MoMA in New York. However, dueto the shortage of materials in the war years, thedesigns could not be realized. The Kazam! Machinewas initially also used for an order placed by the USNavy, who commissioned the Eames couple todesign arm and leg splints as well as stretchersmade of shaped plywood.In the following years, their spectacular Plywoodfurniture collection for the company Herman Millerincluded the Lounge Chair Wood (LCW, 1945), whichwas constructed of several shaped pieces of plywood.By combining a seat with different frames andcovers, Charles and Ray Eames created a number ofvariants – ideal for mass production. A furtherdevelopment of the LCW is the famous Lounge ChairNo. 670 (1956), which they designed as a contemporaryversion of the English club chair with darkpalisander veneer, black leather upholstery, andblack painted aluminum.In addition to shaped plywood, the Eames duoalso discovered fiberglass as a design material in the1950s. Back in 1948, they designed the elegant,expansive chair sculpture La Chaise, which wasinspired by a sculpture by the sculptor GastonLachaise and whose sweeping fiberglass shell restedon a chrome frame and an oak cruciform base.Their principle, “Create the best for the most forthe least,” was also applied to their Plastic Armchairsand the Plastic Side Chairs (1950), which combined anorganically shaped seat made of colored plastic witha variety of frames. Plastic was followed by aluminumwith the elegant office chairs of the Aluminum Group(1958).The Eames duo was also known for its architecturalprojects, in particular the Case Study HousesNo. 8 and 9 (1949). The two Eames houses, which hadsteel frames, were unique in their very light constructionand assembly method. For the most partthey were constructed out of prefabricated elementsfrom industrial construction. “Design is theappropriate combination of materials in order tosolve a problem,” said Charles Eames. ch1907 Charles Eames is born inSt. Louis, Missouri1912 Bernice Alexandra “Ray” Kaiser isborn in Sacramento, California1925 Charles receives an architecturescholarship for WashingtonUniversity, St. Louis1930 Charles opens an architectureagency in St. Louis1933 Ray studies painting underHans Hofmann in New York1940 Ray starts a course at theCranbrook Academy of Art inMichigan1941 Charles and Ray marry and moveto Los Angeles1942 They open a design studio1946 Plywood Group goes intoproduction1948 Charles Eames and Eero Saarinenwin the MoMa “Low-CostFurniture Competition”1949 Construction of two of the CaseStudy Houses designed by theEames duo in Pacific Palisades1956 Lounge Chair No. 6701958 Aluminum Group furniture range1978 Charles Eames dies inLos Angeles1988 Ray Eames dies exactly tenyears to the day after the deathof CharlesPortrait of Charles and Ray Eames

64| 65Max BillEl LissitzkyDieter Rams1893 Edvard Munch, The Scream1917 October Revolutionin Russia1909 Publication of theFuturist Manifesto1933 FranklinD. Rooseveltsworn in aspresident ofthe US1949 Founding of theNorth Atlantic 1961 Yuri Gagarin is the firstTreaty Organization man in space1954 Premiere of Hitchcock’s filmRear Window1976 First G7 summit1996 First cloned mammal(Dolly the sheep)2001 Terrorist attacks on World Trade Center (9/11)1987 Black Monday (October 19) sees 2007 iPhone launchedstock market crash worldwideMax Bill1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Max Bill is a “universal man” whose name is closely linked to architecture, fine art, product design, typography,journalism, research, teaching, and, with his elective office in the Swiss National Council, with politics, too.Max Bill, Ulm stool, 1955,re-edition ManufactumThe Swiss painter, architect, furniture designer, andart theorist was an important exponent of “concreteart,” in which materials and regularity are exclusivelyused without any alignment to nature. For example,between 1935 and 1938, Fifteen Variations on aSingle Theme were created, whereby a compositionof primary and secondary colors was created indifferent arrangements. In his numerous sculptures,which were based on mathematical rules, the artistalso created variations on a single theme (Continuity,1983–86). From 1945 on, Bill also designed utilityobjects. For the company Junghans, he designed arange of clocks that have become legendary for theirconstructive clarity and precise proportions, andwith the Ulm Stool, he also became known as afurniture designer.After he abandoned a silversmithing course atthe Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule, Max Bill studiedarchitecture at the Bauhaus school in Dessau from1927 to 1929. His teachers there included WassilyKandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, and LászlóMoholy-Nagy. The Bauhaus teaching gave him theidea of unifying all arts and of an art form in whichthe material would suit the function. However, theDutch painter and founder of Neoplasticism, PietMondrian (De Stijl), whom Bill met after returningto Zurich in 1932, probably had an even greaterinfluence on him. With Mondrian, an artist of theDe Stijl movement, Bill was encouraged to acceptthe mathematically constructed, concrete art thatused only its own resources without any referenceto nature. The second important stop on the road toDessau for Bill was Ulm, where he became one ofthe founders of the Ulm School of Design in 1951. Hedesigned the buildings for the school and was itsfirst principal from 1953 to 1956. In addition to thebasic teachings, which were strongly based on theBauhaus introductory course, there was particularfocus on the development and design of industriallymanufactured mass products. Some graduates ofthe school were subsequently employed asdesigners in large companies and had a significantinfluence on German product design, for exampleDieter Rams for the company Braun. The developmentof the school, which was promising at first,was soon restricted by conservative powers andsteered along different tracks. In 1969, it was closedfor political reasons. Bill had already left the schoolback in 1957 to begin working as a freelance architectand artist.In addition to his artistic activities, Bill publishednumerous principles on concrete art (The MathematicalWay of Thinking in the Visual Art of Our Time, 1949).From 1940 to 1960, Bill was concerned mainly withthe design of objects with “product forms,” whichfor him were just as important as the works of art.As an industrial product designer, Bill designed suchdiverse objects as typewriters, pendant lamps, sunlamps,and hairbrushes. His most famous designwork is certainly the Ulm Stool (1954), which combinesvarious functions: it is a stool, side table,stepladder, and transport container. In addition tohis numerous artistic works – paintings, sculptures,as well as graphics – Max Bill also designed metallights, chair and table models (Cross-Frame Chair,1951), and sculptural arrangements for public areassuch as Statues – Group of Three from 1989 in front ofthe Mercedes-Benz Center in Stuttgart.From 1967 to 1974, Bill was professor of environmentaldesign at the Hochschule für BildendeKünste in Hamburg. In 1987, a large exhibition at theSchirn-Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main followedand in 1990/91, the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum held aretrospective of the artist. hd1908 Born on December 22 inMoosseedorf, near Bern1924–27 Studies at the Kunstgewerbeschulein Zurich1927–29 Studies at the BauhausDessau1929 Moves to Zurich; works asarchitect, painter, sculptor,graphic designer, and journalist1926–32 Member of the Parisian artistgroup “abstraction-création”From 1938 Member of the CIAM1951–53 Establishes and designs thebuildings for the Hochschule fürGestaltung in Ulm1953–56 First principal of the UlmSchool of Design1967–74 Professor of environmentaldesign at the Hochschule fürBildende Künste in Hamburg1994 Dies on December 9 in BerlinPortrait of Max Bill, 1969

66| 67Eero SaarinenJackson PollockCharles Eames1911 Marie Curie awarded theNobel Prize for Chemistry1922 First British MountEverest Expedition1940 Charlie Chaplin,The Great Dictator1952 Elvis Presley becomes famous1963 Martin Luther King’s“I have a dream” speech1978 The Galápagos Islands arethe first item on the UNESCOWorld Heritage list1995 Japanese electronic petTamagotchi launched1986 First modular space station Mir;Challenger space shuttle disaster2000 Dot-com bubble bursts2004 Facebook set up2010 Earthquake in Haitikills 220,000Eero Saarinen1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025As the son of the famous Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, his talent was predestined. Just as significant as hisarchitectural works, however, are his organic furniture designs for Knoll International, in particular the one-leggedTulip Chair, which won numerous awards.Eero Saarinen, Tulip chair, 1956Eero Saarinen’s architectural masterpiece is theTWA Terminal at New York’s JFK airport; hisgreatest triumph in the field of design is the TulipChair. If one considers the flowing, curved lines ofthe departure hall and the sculpturally shaped seatof the Tulip Chair, one is struck by their expressive,organic design, which was futuristic-looking in thosedays. It was thus with good reason that a slightlymodified version of the Tulip Chair found itself on theset of the spaceship Enterprise in the science- fictiontelevision series Star Trek.For Eero Saarinen, who was born in Finland,architecture was always his “main occupation.” Atthe same time, however, he was also fascinated withthe idea that no piece of work can be viewed inisolation and that each part of a work reflects andsupplements the other parts. His credo was:“Always design a thing by considering it in its nextlarger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house,a house in an environment, an environment in acity plan.”The influences were already evident in his childhood.The son of the famous architect Eliel Saarinenwas 13 when his family emigrated to the US. Hisfather worked as an architect and director of theCranbook Academy of Arts in Michigan, a type ofAmerican Bauhaus. After studying architecture, EeroSaarinen met Charles Eames in Cranbrook and thetwo men experimented together with new furnitureshapes and materials. In 1940, they both enteredseveral designs in the “Organic Design in HomeFurnishings” competition for the Museum ofModern Art in New York. With their revolutionaryseat groups made of organically shaped laminatewood, whose seats reflected the seating requirementsof the human body, they moved furnituredesign in a new direction.In the 1940s, Florence Knoll asked her childhoodand university friend Eero Saarinen to design chairsfor her husband’s furniture company. In a portrait ofthe trendsetting furniture company Knoll International,Der Spiegel reported in 1960 that “the seat,back, and armrests were merged as if someone hadsat in the snow and left an imprint of his body.”Saarinen subsequently developed a range oforganically shaped seating furniture such as theexpansive Womb Chair (1946). Saarinen modeled thechair, from which the back and armrests emerge, ona foam-covered plastic shell with loose seat andback cushions.In 1955, at the peak of his career, Saarinendesigned a revolutionary collection of plastic chairsand tables with a central leg. The Tulip Chair consistsof a white, plastic frame that rises from a columnfoot like the goblet of a wine glass or a tulip.Although it appears to be constructed from onepiece, the base of the chair is manufactured in aluminumcasting and painted. The one-legged chairsand accompanying table, which also has one leg,were Saarinen’s ingenious attempt to “clear up theslum of legs in the US home,” as he put it. ch1910 Born in Kirkkonummi, Finland1923 Family emigrates to the US1929–30 Studies sculpture at theAcadémie de la GrandeChaumière in Paris1930–34 Studies architecture atthe Yale School of Art andArchitecture1935 Joins the architecture companyof his father, Eliel Saarinen,in Cranbrook1940 Participates (with Charles Eames)in the competition run by theMuseum of Modern Art in NewYork. Prizes for several of theirdesigns, including the OrganicChair1946 Womb Chair1949–56 General Motors TechnicalCenter, Warren, Michigan1950 Opens his own architecturecompany in Birmingham,Michigan1952–62 TWA Terminal (TWA FlightCenter) at John F. KennedyAirport, New York1955 Tulip Chair1958–62 Dulles International Airport,Washington, D.C.1961 Dies in Ann Arbor, MichiganPortrait of Eero Saarinen

68| 69Pablo PicassoDiego RiveraTapio Wirkkala1922 Discovery ofTutankhamun’sTomb1938 Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmanndiscover nuclear fission1945 End of World War II1955 Rosa Louise Parks sparks theMontgomery Bus Boycott1963 Assassination of John F. Kennedy1973 Chilean coup d’état; electedpresident Salvador Allende dies1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomesGeneral Secretary of the CPSU2004 Disastrous floods in Asia1994 End of apartheid in South Africa1999 Columbine High School massacre2009 Barack Obama sworn inas first African-Americanpresident of the USTapio Wirkkala1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025A finely veined leaf, a drop of water, shimmering ice – throughout his life, nature was the greatest source of inspirationfor Tapio Wirkkala, the father of Finnish design. Whether in his designs for glass, ceramics, metal, or wood, he managedto break down the barriers between fine arts, handicraft, and industrial production.Tapio Wirkkala, laminated birchleaf dish, 1951After studying sculpture in the mid-1930s, TapioWirkkala soon made his name internationally as agraphic and industrial designer. From vases and cutleryto furniture, bank notes, and stamps, his rangecould hardly be broader and was always accompaniedby the variety of shapes in nature. The designerwas particularly inspired by the raw beauty of theFinnish countryside. He spent a lot of time abroad –working from around 1955 to 1956 for the designagency of Raymond Loewy in New York – yet heoften returned to Lapland. The landscape of forestsand lakes, snow and ice had a lasting influence onhis designs.In 1946, Wirkkala won first prize in a design competitionrun by the Iittala glass company and thisestablished his international career. It was also thestart of a lifelong productive collaboration with theFinnish glassworks and he made a significant contributionto their fame. It was here between 1946 and1960 that he produced his famous Kantarelli range ofvases (1946). Resembling chanterelles, these handblown,cup-shaped vases open upward while finelines run vertically through the body of the vase likethe segments of a mushroom.During his time as artistic director of the CentralSchool of Artistic Design in Helsinki (1951–54),Wirkkala made Finnish design famous throughoutthe world at the Milan Trienniale exhibitions of 1951and 1954 with his organic, natural shapes. His designof the Finnish Pavilion for 1951 was sensational.In the same year, the American magazine HouseBeautiful voted his leaf-shaped wooden bowl the“Most Beautiful Object of the Year.” He createdlaminate wood that was then cut into a preciseshape to give the object the striped effect reminiscentof the veins of a leaf.Wirkkala was henceforth considered a “poet ofwood and glass.” For the carafes and glasses in theUltima Thule range (1968), he was inspired by the icemelt in Lapland. Wirkkala broke new ground with hiscollaboration with the Venetian glass manufacturerVenini. Many of his glass designs were typicallyNordic – thick-walled and robust, as if carved outof ice – but here, the glassblowing tradition fromMurano took center stage. For the two-colorcollection Bolle, he and the glassblower mastersfrom Venini experimented with the age-old incalmotechnique, whereby two glass bulbs are blown in amold, then cut and fused together directly at theedges.Wirkkala also very successfully designed porcelainfor the Rosenthal company for many decades. Hisdesigns for the Finlandia, Variation, and Centuryranges are still regarded as classics. In the 1960s, healso designed a range of consumer items, includingplastic ketchup bottles, a glass bottle for the vodkabrand Finlandia, as well as onboard cutlery andcrockery for the Finnair airline.The combination of functionality and outstandingaesthetics, of highly skilled craftsmanship andindustrial production, and, not least, organic naturalshapes characterize Wirkkala’s designs. ch1915 Born in Hanko, Finland1933–36 Studies sculpture at theCentral School for IndustrialDesign in Helsinki1945 Marries the artist Rut Bryk1946 Wins the design competition forglass art run by the companyIittala1951 Participates in the IX MilanTrienniale1951–54 Artistic director at theCentral School for IndustrialDesign in Helsinki1954 Participates in the X MilanTrienniale1955–56 Works at Raymond Loewy’sdesign agency in New York1956–82 Collaborates with theRosenthal porcelain company;collaborates with the Venetianglass company Venini1967 Ultima Thule sculpture for theMontreal Expo1971 Honorary doctorate from theRoyal College of Art, London1985 Dies in Esbo, FinlandPortrait of Tapio Wirkkala

70 | 71aboveTapio glassesright pageKantarelli vase, 1946

72| 73Joan MiróRobin DayLucienne Day1922 Joseph Stalin becomes GeneralSecretary of the CentralCommittee of the CommunistParty of the Soviet Union1932 Aldous Huxley,Brave New World1954 First commercial nuclearpower plant in Obninsknear Moscow1948 Declaration of Independenceof the State of Israel, May 141964 Racial segregationabolished in the U.S.1971 Aswan Dam finished1991 Soviet coup d’etat attempt1980 –1988 First Persian Gulf War2002 US opens detention campin Guantánamo2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster2007–2010 Global financial crisisLucienne & Robin Day1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The furniture designer Robin Day and his wife, the textile designer Lucienne Day, caused a stir in British design of thepostwar period. He created low-cost furniture, she created vivid patterns.Lucienne Day, Calyx textile,1951, Victoria and AlbertMuseum, LondonWith their pioneering working in the field ofindustrial design, Lucienne and Robin Day becameEngland’s most celebrated designer couple of thepostwar period. They met at the Royal College of Artand from then on they used their creative synergiesboth in private and for their work. They were con -sequently also often compared with their Americancontemporaries Charles and Ray Eames, althoughtheir working methods were completely different.While Charles and Ray Eames worked on theirdesigns together, Robin and Lucienne were alwayslord and lady of their own areas. He designed lowcostfurniture, she devoted herself to textiles, wallpaper,and carpets. The fascinating aspect of theirdesigns is that when they are viewed together, theyblend so well that they appear to have been createdby the same person.From the very start, Robin Day had the idea ofcreating comfortable, long-lasting yet low-costfurniture. His first success was a storage systemcreated from plywood, for which he won first prizein the “International Competition for Low-CostFurniture Design” in 1948 run by the Museum ofModern Art in New York. This prize led to his firstcommission: to design the chairs for the RoyalAlbert Hall.His masterpiece, the Polyprop stacking chair, forwhich he received an OBE (Order of the BritishEmpire) in 1983, was developed between 1962 and1963. Inspired by the “Plastic Shell” chairs byCharles and Ray Eames, he created a chair with benttubular steel legs and a seat shell created from asingle piece of molded plastic. Robin Day was one ofthe first people to use polypropylene for furniture.It is extremely hard-wearing and cheap and alsopermits an injection-molding process in which up to4,000 seat shells per week can be molded. It ishardly surprising that since production started in1963, an estimated 50 million of these chairs havebeen sold. The success prompted Robin Day tocreate a complete “Polyprop family,” including anarmchair (1967), the School chair (1971, also known asthe E-Series), and the more extravagent Polo chair(1975).Lucienne Day’s abstract, colorful designscaptured the spirit of the postwar years and weretrendsetting in the 1950s. She was inspired both bynature as well as by the modern art of Joan Miró,Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. Her revolutionarytextile design Calyx, which Lucienne created for theFestival of Britain, was an abstract reduction ofplant motifs arranged with thin lines and irregularcurved shapes.The 1950s and 1960s in particular were veryproductive. During this period, she designed wall -paper, tableware, and carpets and continued todesign textiles for Heals, who had produced her firstdesign, Calyx. In the 1960s, her designs, which wereat first rather cheerful, became simpler and moredaring, for example the Pennycress design from 1966and Helix from 1970. She wrote several books ondesign and received awards, including from theCouncil of Industrial Design and the AmericanInstitute of Decorations. Lucienne Day is thus notjust one of the most important textile designersof the postwar period but also one of the fewwomen to receive international recognition forher creative work. nk1915 Robin Day is born in HighWycombe, Buckinghamshire,Great Britain1917 Lucienne Conradi is born inCoulsdon, Surrey, Great Britain1938 Robin graduates from the RoyalCollege of Art, London1940 Lucienne graduates from theRoyal College of Art, London1942 Marriage1948 They open their design agencytogether; Robin: 1st prize in the“Inter national Competition forLow-Cost Furniture Design” forthe MoMa, New York1951 Lucienne: textile design Calyxfor the Festival of Britain1983 Order of the British Empire (OBE)for Robin Day2010 Lucienne dies January 30;Robin dies Novemver 9Portrait of Robin and Lucienne Day

74| 75Sori YanagiSalvador DalíRobert Rauschenberg1908 Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends theChinese throne at the age of two1925 Invention oftelevision1939–1945 World War II1975 Pol Pot comes to powerin Cambodia1966 Barnett Newman, Who’s Afraidof Red, Yellow and Blue1985 Live Aid concertfor Africa1995 Toy Story is first movie produced entirelywith computer animation2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing, China2001 First same-sex “marriage” in HollandSORI YANAGI1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Sori Yanagi’s design philosophy merges traditional Japanese craft with modern Western production techniquesand universal humanism. In the 1950s, he was the first person to form a specific Japanese counterpoint to thefamous Western designers.Sori Yanagi, Butterfly stool, 1954,re-edition by VitraYanagi’s conviction that beauty is created bysimplicity and usability is proven by his career as adesigner, which spans six decades. He reconcilesobjects and their function with the human need forharmony and balance. This connection is reflectedstrongly in his designs and is inferred by his bio -graphy.Sori Yanagi was born in 1915 in Tokyo, the son ofthe leading philosopher of the Mingei folk art movementof the 1920s and 1930s, Muneyoshi Yanagi. Hisgrandfather was a naval officer, land surveyor,mathematician, and member of parliament. Bothstrongly influenced Yanagi with their focus ontraditional Japan. Yanagi himself attended theAcademy of Fine Art in Tokyo from 1933 to 1940,where he also became familiar with the work ofLe Corbusier. Following this, until 1942, he workedas an assistant to the designer and Le Corbusierstudent Charlotte Perriand, who had a consultingagency in Tokyo on behalf of the Japanese Ministryof Trade. He finally decided on a career as a designerand was soon successful. In 1947, he first taught atthe Bunka Gaguin Institute and in 1951, he won thefirst and second prize in the Japan Industrial DesignContest.In 1952, he founded the Yanagi Industrial DesignInstitute, where he created his most famous chairdesigns to date: the Butterfly stool, consisting of twocurved pieces of plywood held together by a brassbracket, and the Elephant Stool, made of glass-fiberreinforcedpolyester resin. Both seats are fundamentallydifferent in their construction; with their simpleproduction, however, they are both characterized bythe same complete sensitivity for the harmony ofform and material. The curved form of the Butterfly,reminiscent of a Japanese cabinet, became the basisfor Yanagi’s international success and for a shift inthe public perception of design.When he showed his designs at the XI MilanTrienniale in 1957, they were awarded the exhibitionprize and were subsequently also exhibited atdocumenta III in Kassel in 1964. Both the MoMA inNew York and the Paris Louvre have exhibited theButterfly. Yanagi is thus attributed with openinginternational doors for industrial design as an artform, and designers are still benefiting from thistoday. Originally manufactured by the Tendo Mokkocompany, Butterfly and Elephant Stool are todayproduced by Vitra as design classics.During his career, Yanagi designed everyday itemsas well as monumental bridges, subway stations,motorbikes, toys, and in 1972, the Olympic Torch forthe Winter Games in Sapporo. In 1977, Yanagibecame director of the Japanese Folk Art Museum inTokyo and thus remained true to the concerns andtradition of Japanese arts and crafts. In 1982, hetook part in the Contemporary Vessels: How to Pourexhibition organized by the Japanese NationalMuseum for Modern Art. Sori Yanagi was activeuntil the grand age of 96 and he created beautifuland useful items, always combining the virtues ofcraft and industrial production. He died in Tokyoin 2011. jr1915 Sori Yanagi is born in Tokyo1933–40 Attends the Academy of FineArt in Tokyo194o–42 Assistant to CharlottePerriand1951 First prize in the JapaneseIndustrial Design competition1952 Establishes the Yanagi IndustrialDesign Institute1954 Creates Butterfly and ElephantStool1957 The Butterfly wins the Triennialeprize in Milan1964 Exhibition at documenta III inKassel1977 Yanagi becomes director of theJapanese Folk Art Museum2011 Dies in TokyoPortrait of Sori Yanagi

76| 77Mark RothkoEttore SottsassAndy Warhol1905 Greta Garbo is born1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1940 Trotsky murdered in Mexico1931 Second SpanishRepublic proclaimedin Madrid1964 Racial segregation abolishedin the US1960 Clement Greenberg,Modernist Painting1973 US Supreme Courtlegalizes abortion1986 First modular space station Mir;Challenger space shuttle disaster1993 Bombay bombings2001 Apple iPod launched2007 Al Gore awarded Nobel Peace Prize2010 “Arab Spring” begins withprotests in TunisiaEttore Sottsass1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025“If anything will save us, it is beauty,” said Ettore Sottsass, one of the most important designers of our time.His “Anti-Design” movement brought him international fame and success.His Valentine has long been a legend: the Italiandesigner Ettore Sottsass designed the bright redtypewriter, which became an icon of Pop Art at theend of the 1960s, for the company Olivetti 40 yearsago – even today it can still be found in all majordesign museums, including the Museum of ModernArt in New York. Sottsass was perceived by thepublic mainly as an important representative of thepostmodern era and as a member of the designergroups Memphis and Alchimia. Yet his completeworks cannot be confined to the postmodern designof the 1980s. On the contrary: Sottass was anincredibly creative artist who also grappled intensivelywith social issues and attentively followedthe developments of his time.Born in Innsbruck in 1917, Sottsass first followedin the footsteps of his father, a student of the ArtNouveau architect Otto Wagner, and completed anarchitecture degree. After graduating from thePolitecnico di Torino in 1939, and following a shortperiod of employment as an architect, Sottsassturned increasingly to design. In 1958, he began hislong-term employment as a design consultant forthe Olivetti company and in 1959, he designed thefirst electronic mainframe computer, Elea 9003.Countless designs for typewriters followed,including the design for possibly the most famoustypewriter of the 20th century, the red Valentine,which was designed – in his words – “to keep lonelypoets company on weekends in the country.”Influenced by Pop Art, Sottsass distanced himselfmore and more from the functionalism of his timeand soon became an important leading figure of“radical design”: in 1970, the first laminate mobilegrigi appeared, bright yellow fiber-glass beds andmirrors. In 1972, he became a founding member of“Global Tools,” a group of revolutionary architectsand designers in Milan who rejected the strictformality of the Bauhaus school and committedthemselves to searching for new avenues in design.A short time later, Sottsass joined the Milan studioAlchimia, an experimental design formation run byAlessandro Mendini that became known for gaudilycolored furniture in heterogeneous materials. In1980 – at the age of 63 – he founded SottsassAssociati, a group of young designers and architectswho looked after the complete image of a company(Esprit). One year later, the design group Memphisfollowed and significantly changed the world ofdesign with bright, multifunctional designs. Irre v -erent and innovative, Sottsass and his colleaguesmixed wood, plastic laminate, and glass, referencedhistorical elements, and used lavish ornaments. By1985, however, Sottsass had already moved awayfrom the pop culture of this bold designer group andreturned with vigor to his Milan studio and architecturalprojects. Over the years, Sottsass Associatiworked with architects to develop internationalarchitecture projects and completed industrial andgraphic design orders for international customers.The list of successful constructions ranges fromprivate houses in Colorado, Hawaii, Tuscany,Switzerland, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates,and Belgium (Birdhouse in Interlaken, 1999) to amuseum gallery in Ravenna, from a golf club withhotel in China to the Malpensa Airport in Milan.Sottsass was actively creative and innovative untilthe grand age of 90, and in addition to design andarchitecture, he also worked with glass, ceramics,and photography. hd1917 Born on September 14 inInnsbruck1935–39 Studies architecture in Turin1950 Establishes his first own studio1958 Start of collaboration withOlivettiFrom 1960 Leading representative ofthe “Anti-Design” movement1968 Famous design of the red typewriterValentine1980 Establishes his own companySottsass Associati in Milan1981 Establishes the Memphis designgroup1994 Participates in the Busstops artproject in Hanover; exhibition atthe Centre Pompidou in Paris; atthe Design Museum in London,20072007 Dies in Milan on December 31left pageEttore Sottsass, Valentine, portabletypewriter, design for Olivetti(with Perry King), 1981abovePortrait of Ettore Sottsass

left pageCarlton, room divider, for Memphis, 1981aboveKönigsworther Platz, bus stop Hanover,1994

80| 81Achille CastiglioniMarcel DuchampDavid Hockney1892 First issue of Voguein the US1911 Roald Amundsen reachesthe South Pole1930 Luis Buñuel,L’Age d’Or1941 Bruce Nauman is born1955–1968 Civil rightsmovement in the US1965 Beginning of Vietnam War1983 Civil war breaks outin Sudan2010 Mass panic at the Love Parade1991 Conflict breaks out in the Balkansin Duisburg, Germany2005 Founding of YouTube1999 Columbine High SchoolmassacreAchille Castiglioni1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Achille Castiglioni is one of the most important contemporary Italian designers. His designs for lighting fixturesin particular had a profound influence on the design of lighting in the 20th century.Achille Castiglioni, Sanluca,armchair, 1961“So sophisticated and so simple – I like that!” Thisquote defines the design philosophy of AchilleCastiglioni, who became world-famous first andforemost with his innovative lighting fixtures. Hisdesigns are distinguished by the playful medium ofmisuse and the pursuit of the reduced form.Functionality always has a higher priority thanaesthetic requirement; for Castiglioni, however, adesign object should always be both functional andwell formed. His designs are highlights in the historyof modern design.At the age of 26, Achille Castiglioni, who was bornin Milan, joined the architectural company run by hisbrothers, Livio and Pier Giacomo. Architecture, exhibition,and object designs were the focus of the familytrio, which existed in this form until 1952. AfterLivio Castiglioni left to work alone, Achille workedwith Pier Giacomo on all projects until the latter’sdeath in 1968. The cooperation of Pier Giacomo andAchille Castiglione was highly productive over manyyears. With this congenial team spirit, they developednumerous innovative designs. In 1957, theyfirst showed their design for a stool at the Colori eforma nella casa d’oggi exhibition in Como: Mezzadroconsisted of only a tractor seat mounted onto aframe. The Sella stool uses a bicycle saddle as theseat. Numerous furniture, cutlery, and servicedesigns were to follow.Yet it was with their lighting fixtures, which theydesigned for Arredoluce, Artemide, and, in particular,for the company Flos, that the brothers wereespecially successful. Here, too, they focused theirefforts on innovative misuse and minimalisticdesign. Thus a simple streetlamp became the modelfor the Arco floor lamp, and a basic automobileheadlight was used as the lamp head for the Toioceiling light. This innovative repurposing of everydayobjects and their reuse in the design resulted in thereinvigoration and creative expansion of the conceptof “readymade,” as invented by Marcel Duchamp in1912. Many designs for the lighting manufacturerFlos are today considered to be among the mostfamous design classics and can also be found in themost important design museums of the world.These include the lights Taraxcum (1960), SplügenBräu (1961), Arco (1962), the table lamps Lampadina(1971) and Noce (1972), and the pendant lamp Frisbi(1978), which resembles an illuminated UFO. Brera(1992) uses the egg as a basic form and has varioususes as a wall, floor, table, or ceiling lamp.In the area of trade fair and exhibition design,Achille Castiglione proved himself to be far ahead ofhis time. On the occasion of the XI Milan Triennalein 1956, he designed the pavilion for the Italianbroadcaster RAI with a spectacular production ofconstruction and lighting elements, text panels, andgraphic scaffolding that, in a certain way, anticipatedthe “deconstructivist” design of later architecture,for example Frank O. Gehry or Zaha Hadid. Subsequentdesigns of the RAI pavilion were created inthe 1960s. Castiglioni also realized important constructionprojects in the architecture sector, such asthe Torre della PERMANENTE in Milan (1952–53), thebuilding for the Chamber of Trade and Industry inMilan (1958), the Milan brewery Splügen-Bräu,(1960), the OMEGA office building on the Piazza delDuomo in Milan (1968), and the Castiglioni Haus inMilan (1969). hd1918 Born on February 16 in Milan1944 Graduates in architecture fromthe Politecnico di Milano1947 Start of cooperation with hisbrothers, Pier Giacomo(1913–1968) and Livio (1911–1979)1952 His brother Livio leaves thearchitecture company1968 Death of his brother PierGiacomo; Achille continues torun the company alone1987 Honorary doctorate from theRoyal College of Art, London2001 Honorary doctorate for industrialdesign from the Politecnico diMilano2002 Dies in MilanPortrait of Achille Castiglioni

82| 83Vico MagistrettiLucian FreudWilliam Kentridge1894 Tower Bridge in Londonopened for traffic1902 Alfred Stieglitz founds thePhoto-Secession in New York1914 Marcel Duchamp’s firstreadymade, Bottle Rack1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1948/49 Berlin Airlift1939 Germany invades Poland;World War II commences1982 Michael Jackson, Thriller1992 Founding of the European Union1973 Chilean coup d’état; elected presidentSalvador Allende diesVICO MAGISTRETTI1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Vico Magistretti was one of the founders of elegant Italian style in design. He originally trained as an architect andearly on developed the ideal that design should be functional, rational, elegant, and, above all, affordable, too.Vico Magistretti, Maralunga sofa, 1973Magistretti’s designs are characterized by anabsence of everything pretentious; his requirementwas, in his own words, to design objects that were“anonymous and traditional.” They should not comeacross as conceived, but as having grown from theexperience. The fact that he is still relativelyunknown outside the design scene, despite the factthat his furniture and lamps sold in millions, alsospeaks for his pragmatism, the freedom fromaffectation, and the democratic approach to theproducts he designed.Vico Magistretti was born into a Milanese familyof architects in 1920, his great-grandfather GaetanoBesia having been a member of the profession. Hisfather, Pier Giulio Magistretti, was involved in thedesign of the Palazzo dell’Arengario in the Piazzadel Duomo.In 1939, the young Magistretti enrolled in anarchitecture course at the Politecnico di Milano, butfrom 1943 on he had to continue in Lausanne inSwitzerland in order to avoid deportation toGermany. He soon returned, however, and finallycompleted his studies in Milan in 1945. At the agencyof his father, who had just died and who had workedthere his entire life, Magistretti immediatelyaccepted his first commissions with the architectPaolo Chessa. Although he was actually an architect,Magistretti exhibited his self-built pieces offurniture at the R.I.M.A. as early as 1946. He was,however, primarily concerned with town planningtasks and in the 1950s, he designed houses forveterans of the Africa campaign in the QT8 project,a church, and various office buildings.These early projects and his enormous pro -ductivity quickly took Magistretti to the peak of amovement of young architects, and he was regardedas avant-garde, controversial, and modern. At thesame time, he began to work with the land surveyorFranco Montella on designs for lamps and pieces offurniture, such as the famous Carimate chair. Manysimple, highly pragmatic products were created thatshowed great elegance in both their impression andtheir design. In his office, Magistretti was still onlydeveloping the product ideas, whereas the finalconstruction took place from the end of the 1960s onin close dialogue with manufacturers such asArtemide, Cassina, FontanaArte, Fritz Hansen,Kartell, Knoll, O-Luce, Schiffini, and Campeggi.Magistretti placed great emphasis on consideringthe production options of his clients so that thedesigns could be created economically and enablehim to remain true to his credo of “design for all.”From his conscientiousness with productionmatters grew a fascination for plastics in the 1960s.In 1969, he created one of his best-known designsfor Artemide, the stackable plastic chair Selene, andone year later the stacking chairs Gaudi and Vicariocame to the market. The designs combined traditionalforms with the latest production technologyand worked sensitively with the constructive andaesthetic possibilities of the material. Even todaythey are timeless, clever, and stylish.From the late 1970s on, Magistretti taught atdifferent design schools, including the Royal Collegeof Art in London and the Domus Academy in Milan,although he remained highly productive as anarchitect and designer. In 1979, he received theCompasso d’Oro, the most important design prize inItaly, for his lamp Atollo, and in 1982 he was awardedthe Cologne Furniture Fair prize. His Maui chair isthe top-selling designer chair of all time. A dozenof his designs are exhibited at the Museum ofModern Art in New York, including his Maralungasofa from 1973. He died on September 19, 2006 atthe age of 85. jr1920 Vico Magistretti is born in Milan1939–45 Architecture course at thePolitecnico di Milano and inLausanneFrom 1945 on Works in thearchitecture agency of hisdeceased father together withFranco Montella1946 Exhibits at the R.I.M.A., anItalian furniture exhibition1950s Numerous town planningarchitectural projects in Milan,including the Torre al Parco(1953–55) and office buildings onthe Corso Europa (1955–57)1960 Works increasingly as anindustrial designer1962 Designs the classic modern chairCarimate for Cassina1969 Designs the plastic chair Selenefor Artemide1979 Awarded Compasso d’Oro for hisAtollo lampFrom 1980 on Professor at the RoyalCollege of Art in London and theDomus Academy in Milan1997 Awarded the Compasso d’Oro forhis life’s work2006 Dies at the age of 85Portrait of Vico Magistretti

84 | 85Selene plastic chair, 1969Maui chair, 1996

86| 871894 Tower Bridge in Londonopened for traffic1902 Alfred Stieglitz founds thePhoto-Secession in New YorkAlessiAlessandro Mendini1914 Marcel Duchamp’s firstreadymade, Bottle RackMichael Graves1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1939 Germany invades Poland;World War II commences1948/49 Berlin Airlift1965 Joseph Beuys action: “How to explainpictures to a dead hare”1982 Michael Jackson, Thriller1973 Chilean coup d’état; electedpresident Salvador Allende dies1992 Founding of the EuropeanUnion2010 “Arab Spring” begins withprotests in TunisiaAlessi1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Hardly any other manufacturer has influenced the history of household goods to quite the same extent as Alessi.A glance inside museums around the world proves that no other company has so many products in permanentdesign exhibitions.Michael Graves, 9093 kettleAlessi sees itself as an “Italian design factorysomewhere between manufacturing and art.”Thanks to continual experimental activities,a considerable repertoire of objects has beencreated over the course of the company’s development.To describe Alessi’s style, one must considerAlessi before and after 1970: although the designswere still classically restricted to their function inthe early years, in the 1970s, a paradigm switchoccurred, triggered by Alberto Alessi and EttoreSottsass, who changed the old slogan “form followsfunction” to “family follows function” and thusmade Alessi the forerunner of postmodernism.The origins of the group, which is today knownthroughout the world, can be traced back to metalprocessing. At the start, home and desktop deviceswere manufactured in copper, brass, and nickelsilver, later in chrome and silver-plated metal.Although the company was at first heavilyinfluenced by the traditional craftsmanship way ofthinking, the son of the founder, Carlo Alessi,succeeded in bringing an important change to thecompany: he established industrial production andthen the use of stainless steel. He also had a greaterinfluence on design. In the 1950s and 1960s, Alessiboosted his reputation with orders for the US army,hotels, and restaurants. The stainless-steel breadbasket,created in 1952, is a symbol of this period.Alessi reduced the design to the basics and limitedhimself to the pure function. From 1955 on, externaldesigners were commissioned to develop new,fresh ideas. Alessi still works today with freelancedesigners so that their creativity and freedom is notinfluenced or restricted by internal companymatters. Over the years, Alessi has cooperated withover 500 designers.Alberto Alessi, who joined the family company in1970, continued to expand this cooperation. Hebegan with the manufacture of limited and signedranges created by internationally renowneddesigners and architects, and this is what madeAlessi known throughout the world.In addition, it was Alberto Alessi’s goal to creategood design for all, including for such everydayitems as flyswatters and toilet brushes. The costs ofthe materials also fell. His main aim was to createan emotional relationship between person andobject. Products such as Starck’s Juicy Salif lemonsqueezer, the kettle with the bird-shaped whistle byMichael Graves, and Alessandro Mendini’s Anna G.corkscrew ensured that design now – quite literally– had a face.Today, there are three brands under which Alessiis sold: The brand “Alessi” represents innovativedesign and the design classics of the traditionalcompany that are mass produced, “Officina Alessi”is an exclusive brand for individual items and limitedseries, and the budget brand “A di Alessi” provideshigh-quality design for the masses. There is also theCSA (Centro Studi Alessi), a center for the developmentof young designers. Since 1998, objects, prototypes,production machines, drawings, images, anddocuments of all types can be seen in the AlessiMuseum in Crusinallo, on Lake Orta. nk1921 Establishment of FAO (FratelliAlessi Omegna), a handicraftsworkshop run by Giovanni Alessiin Omegna, near Lake Orta, Italy1935 Son Carlo joins the familycompany and introducesindustrial production1945 Carlo Alessi becomes managingdirector; new trademark ALFRA(ALessi FRAtelli); Bombé coffeeservice1970 Alberto Alessi joins the company;motto: To duplicate art1982 Starts to produce cutlery with theseries Dry1983 Establishment of the subsidiaryOfficina Alessi for experimentaldesign1990 Establishment of the CSA (CentroStudi Alessi) for the developmentof young designers; Juicy Salif,lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck1992 Pito kettle by Frank Gehry1994 Anna G. corkscrew by AlessandroMendiniRichard Sapper, Espresso coffee maker9090/6M

88 | 89Basket 370FC04, Blow up, centerpiece

90| 91Andrée PutmanNiki de Saint PhalleTracey Emin1893 Edvard Munch, The Scream1917 October Revolution in Russia1909 Publication of theFuturist Manifesto1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt swornin as president of the US1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space1949 Founding of the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation1976 First G7 summit1954 Premiere of Hitchcock’s filmRear Window2001 Terrorist attacks on WorldTrade Center (9/11)1996 First cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep)1987 Black Monday (October 19) sees2007 iPhone launchedstock market crash worldwideAndrée Putman1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Andrée Putman is the “Grande Dame” of French design, a “diva of modern interior design.” She gained internationalrecognition for her interior decoration of Morgan’s Hotel in New York (1984) with black and white tiles.Andrée Putman, Sofa for Ralph Pucci, 2001These black and white tiles have become her trademarkand she has used them in the design of hotelinteriors, boutiques, and even the interior of aConcorde. But this is only part of her career, whichbegan in Paris back in the 1950s. Andrée Putmangrew up in an upper-class family in St. Germain inParis, a descendant of the hot-air balloon inventorMontgolfier, and her family property included aCistercian Abbey in Burgundy, which is a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site. She was initially destined to bea pianist, but after studying under Francis Poulencat the Paris Conservatory, she left this discipline andchanged her métier. In 1950, she became a fashionand design journalist at the Femina newspaper, lateralso at Elle, and then from 1958 to 1967 she wasartistic director of the Prisunic chain of departmentstores. At the Café de Flore, she met contemporaryartists, including Pierre Alechinsky, Bram van deVelde, Alberto Giacometti, and Niki de Saint Phalle.In 1978, she founded the successful company Écart,which reproduced furniture and objects fromdesigners of the 1930s, and founded the currentcompany Andrée Putman SARL in 1997.The modern hotel industry would be inconceivablewithout the name of Andrée Putman. Hersignature style of the black and white tiles atMorgan’s Hotel in New York shot her into the internationalfashion and design scene and she stillleaves her mark as a stylish creative director. Withher building conversions, interior design, furnituredesign, and objects, including pieces of jewelry andperfume, she draws on the grand era of the 1920s,when the modern age was still young and Art Decowas an international style. Her greatest period werethe frivolous 1980s, when creativity and exhibitionistpleasure were closely linked, when nights werespent dancing at Studio 54 in New York, and whenPutman and her company Écart created a furore withdesigner pieces from the 1930s. The invention of the“boutique hotel,” a combination of luxury hotel andshopping mall, marked the start of her ascent intothe world of luxury interior design, which washelped by her sense for refined details and colorfuldesigner furniture. With her instinctive flair for theharmonious coordination of all items of furniture,she has created exquisite interiors for the SaintJames Club in Paris, the Wasserturm in Cologne, theSheraton in Roissy, and the Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg,as well as the exterior design of two sky -scrapers in Hong Kong (2007), one of which waschristened “The Putman.” However, the list of carefullyselected interior design projects also includedprivate residences and business: the offices forCartier and Ebel, the office for the former FrenchMinister of Culture, Jack Lang, and the apartmentsof Karl Lagerfeld, one of her old friends from the“New Design” period, when Ettore Sottsass andMemphis caused a sensation.In contrast, the style aesthetics of AndréePutman are almost classical: gray tones, highqualitymaterials, classic design forms, simple butsophisticated details. She also clarified this with hercollection of selected designer pieces; she made thefurniture designs of Eileen Gray, Mallet-Stevens,Fortuny, Gaudí, and Lartigue accessible again asreeditions of the design world.Together with her daughter, Olivia, who joinedher company in 2007, Andrée Putman created“French style” in design. She is a master of “goodtaste,” which she continues to defend to this dayagainst all modern innovations. hd1925 Born Andrée Christine Aynard onDecember 23 in Paris1943–45 Studies piano under FrancisPoulenc at the Conservatoire deParis1950 Writes for the fashion magazineFemina1952–58 Design columnist for Elle1958–67 Artistic director of thePrisunic chain of departmentstoresAt the end of the 1950s Marriesthe collector and publisherJacques Putman1960–64 Interior design editor at L’œil1978 Establishes the Écart designcompany for interior design1997 Leaves Écart and sets up thecompany Andrée Putman SARL2007 Daughter Olivia takes overmanagement of the companyAndrée Putman lives and works in ParisPortrait of Andrée Putmann

92| 93Arne Jacobsen1895 First Venice BiennaleVerner Panton1911 Wassily Kandinsky,Impression IIIMiles Davis1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1919 Bauhaus founded byWalter Gropius in Weimar1950–1953 Korean War1940–1944 Vichy regime in France1961 John F. Kennedy sworn inas president of the US1970 Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty1993–1997 Frank O. Gehry, GuggenheimMuseum, Bilbao1988 Freeze, exhibition of the YoungBritish Artists group in London2010 Polish president LechKaczyński and many otherhigh-ranking Polish officialskilled in plane crashVerner Panton1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The Panton Chair by Verner Panton is possibly the most famous chair design of the 20th century. With its futuristic shapeand modern materials, it is a symbol for the shift to the colorful plastic and pop world of the 1960s.Verner Panton, Varna Restaurant Århus, 1971Verner Panton’s colorful, sculptural designs makehim one of the most innovative designers of the20th century and also the enfant terrible of Danishdesign. With his furniture, based on geometricshapes, mainly in bright colors, and made out ofplastic, he broke with the sleek naturalism ofclassical Scandinavian design.Even when he was young, Panton had goodconnections with the leading Danish designers ofhis time. At the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,he attended lectures by Poul Henningsen, gained hisfirst employment experience with Arne Jacobsen,and was friends with the teak chair specialist HansWegner. And yet he took a completely differentpath. His passion was for experimentation withplastic and other new materials. The shapes andcolors of his designs were inspired by the Op andPop Art movements of the 1960s and Panton wasone of the first in the world to introduce these artforms into the world of architecture and design. Hedared to experiment with new materials, shapes,and colors like no other designer.Panton’s almost limitless creativity and hisattempts to release himself from preconceived ideasin design are often expressed in his furniture throughan absence of traditional elements. Classical chairlegs and muted, inconspicuous colors are not to befound in Panton designs. On the contrary, hisfurniture is based on geometric shapes and has afuturistic-sculptural appearance.At the start of his career, he created a stir withhis innovative architectural ideas, such as thecollapsible house (1955), the cardboard house (1957),and the plastic house (1960), before he increasinglydevoted himself to interior design in the 1960s.Panton created a number of celebrated pieces offurniture. His first great success was the Cone Chair,which he designed in 1959 for his parents’ restaurant.The chair, which looks like a floating ice creamcone, caused such a stir at an exhibition in New Yorkthat the police had to remove the crowds of peoplefrom the shop windows.His most famous design is the Panton Chair, whichwas named for him. He created his first sketch of aone-piece cantilever chair back in 1955. It was stillmade from laminate wood but it was his aim todesign the first chair created from a single piece ofplastic. However, it was almost ten years later, onone of his many trips abroad, that he finally found amanufacturer who dared to work with him on theproduction of his no-legged chair; this was the Swisscompany Vitra. With its smooth, innovative look, thePanton became the chair of its generation.With his Living Tower or Pantower and the AmoebeHighback Chair, Verner Panton also applied hisvisions of new, flowing shapes to upholsteredfurniture. They are mainly used in his legendaryroom designs, which link together all elements ofthe room, such as the floor, walls, and ceiling, aswell as the furniture, lighting, and textiles, andlast but not least the spectacular colors, as aninseparable room unit. nk1926 Born on February 13 in GamtofteUntil 1951 Studies architecture at theRoyal Danish Academy of FineArts in Copenhagen1950–52 Works in the architectureagency of Arne Jacobsen1955 Establishes his own agency1963 Moves to Basel, first Inter -national Design Award (also1968 and 1981)1967 Panton Chair1970 Living Tower1984 Visiting professor of industrialdesign at the Offenbach Hoch -schule für Design1998 Dies in CopenhagenPortrait of Verner Panton

94 | 95left pageLiving Tower, 1968/69abovePanton chair, c. 1959

96| 97Terence ConranDamien HirstPipilotti Rist1883 Friedrich Nietzsche publishesThus Spoke Zarathustra1897 Tate Gallery is foundedin London1919 Founding of theWeimar Republic1939–1945 World War II1949 NATO founded1965 Beginning of Vietnam War1973 First oil crisis1990 German reunification2010 Volcanic ash from Iceland causeshavoc in European airspace1958 Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s1981 First flight by the Columbiaspace shuttle2002 Euro introducedTerence Conran1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025With his fresh furniture designs, Terence Conran brought modern art to Great Britain. With the motto“Designed to improve the quality of your life ...,” the Habitat founder still designs contemporary designer sofasand armchairs to this day.Terence Conran, Matador chair, 1990sSir Terence Conran, who was born in 1931, is one ofthe best designers in the world. With his chain ofHabitat furniture stores, he brought a breath offresh air to postwar English society. He also set upother companies so that the name Conran becamesynonymous with new British entrepreneurship. Inthe 1990s, Conran switched to gastronomy andfounded several upmarket restaurants in London,New York, and Paris, and their interior design ledthe way in terms of style. The company Conran &Partners, which was founded in 1980, providesdesign services in the fields of architecture, interiordesign, and town planning.The creativity of Terence Conran was alreadyapparent in his childhood when he sold homemadetoy furniture to his school friends. After studying atthe famous Central School of Art and Design, wherehe became familiar with the Arts and Crafts andBauhaus movements, Conran’s career started whenhe was just 21 years old as he helped out withfurnishings for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Yearsbefore the era of “Swinging London,” Conran,whose circle of friends included Eduardo Paolozziand the Independent Group, was an enthusiasticfollower of modernity, which was only slowlyspreading across England. With his own designcompany, Conran in 1956 designed his first range offurniture, Summa, and a retail outlet for the fashiondesigner Mary Quant. In 1964, the first Habitat shopopened in the London district of Chelsea. Within ashort time, a chain of shops opened across Europeand were very successful at selling functional housewaresinspired by Bauhaus products and affordabledesigner furniture. In 2011, Habitat went bankrupt;most locations in Great Britain faced insolvencyproceedings. The 38 branches in Germany, France,and Spain were taken over by the French companyCafom, and the Habitat brand and some branches inLondon were sold to the British group Home Retail.After Habitat was founded, other companies werealso established in the fields of furniture, fashion,and decoration. Conran’s design company led theway in interior design, product design, and graphicdesign, as well as in the field of architecture incollaboration with the architect Fred Lloyd Roche.This profile made Conran one of the leadingdesign specialists in the world and he began at thesame time to take an interest in something else:gastronomy. Until then, London, and Great Britainas a whole, had been a gourmet wasteland, andEnglish cooking had had a reputation of beingalmost inedible. Conran developed a restaurantconcept that brought French cooking to England.His restaurants were characterized by a refinedcombination of stylish interior design and luxuryliving, often situated in picturesque but dilapidated,archetypal British locations, like Butler’s Wharf onthe South Bank of the Thames, which was completelyrenovated and became a flagship for the BritishGovernment. To this day, numerous restaurantshave been opened across Europe and worldwide,including in Japan. In 2006, the D&D Group run byConran had a market share of 51 percent of theEnglish gastronomy sector.Conran’s own publisher, Conran Octopus, alsopublished countless books on the “democratizationof taste,” which Conran pursued, and they were soldthroughout the world.Conran is also heavily committed to designtraining. Important designers are presented inindividual exhibitions in his own Design Museum inShad Thames, which he founded in 1989. In 2011/12,a major retrospective of his work was held here tocelebrate his 80th birthday. hd1931 Born on October 4 in Kingstonupon Thames1948 Starts his textile design studiesat the Central School of Art andDesign1952 Establishes Conran & Companywith his own furniture designs1953 First Soup Kitchen opens inLondon based on French model;introduction of espressomachines (Gaggia)1956 Establishes the Conran DesignGroup; interior design for MaryQuant1964 Creates the Habitat shops1980 Establishes the ConranFoundation with the aim ofpromoting new British industrialdesign1983 Receives a knighthood1989 Design Museum London opens inButler’s Wharf1991 Establishes the restaurant groupConran Restaurants2004 Awarded the Prince PhilipDesigner’s Prize2007 Receives honorary doctorate fromSouth Bank University, London2011/12 Retrospective of his work atthe Design Museum LondonPortrait of Terence Conran

98 | 99aboveToaster for Tchibo (from the kitchenrange for Tchibo with Sebastian Conran),2007right pageHector Bibendum blue cord table lamp,2011

100| 101Dieter RamsHans GugelotJonathan Ive1888 Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café1916 Albert Einstein,Theory of Relativity1905 German Expressionist groupDie Brücke is founded in Dresden1929 The Museum ofModern Artopens in NewYork1933 Adolf Hitler comesto power1945 Atom bombs dropped onHiroshima and Nagasaki1949 Founding of the GermanDemocratic Republic1955 Beginning of Pop Art1961 Founding of Amnesty International1971 First Starbucks opens1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall2006 A tsunami kills more than500 people on Java1995 Christo and Jeanne-Claudeveil the Reichstag in BerlinDIETER RAMS1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025“Good design is innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough down to the last detail,environmentally friendly, and is self-explanatory.”For 60 years, Dieter Rams has been transferring hisideas of simplicity and clarity to iconic products. Hisdesigns for the Braun and Vitsœ companies in thesecond half of the 20th century demonstrate theperfect composition of technology, aesthetics, andcommunication in exemplary elegance. The awardshe has received and the influence of his design philosophyon product and furniture design make himone of the most important designers of our time. Heformulated his own credo with the “Ten Principlesfor Good Design”: they are quasi-ethical principlesthat elevate design above the simple styling sofrequently practiced today and give it a purpose andjustification. They have lost none of their validityand are still important guidelines for contemporaryyoung designers, even with the move towardsustainable consumption.Rams was born in Wiesbaden in 1932 and wasintroduced to the design and manufacture of utilityobjects at an early age by his grandfather, who wasa carpenter. In 1947, at the age of 15, he began tostudy architecture, although he interrupted thiscourse from 1948 to 1951 to train as a carpenter. In1953, he finally graduated as an architect and got hisfirst job at the agency of Otto Apel. In 1955, hemoved to the electronic appliance manufacturerBraun AG, where he first worked as an interiordesigner for offices and exhibition stands. However,he soon became interested in products and theirdevelopment and, with his rational approach, hebegan to have a significant influence on Braun’sproduct design.In 1956, Rams and Hans Gugelot from the UlmSchool designed a product that today represents hiswork like no other: the Braun SK 4 combined radioand record player. The device had a white-paintedcuboid body made of metal, which was very unusualfor “audio furniture” at that time (Hans Gugelot),and also a cover made of acrylic glass that gave itthe nickname “Snow White’s coffin.” The arrangementof the fittings on the upper side of the devicewas a change to the paradigm and characterizedBraun products from then on. In the mid-1960s,Rams perfected the design, in particular thestructure and interfaces, so that all audio devicesmanufactured by the company had the samedimensions and could thus be combined verticallyor horizontally. This system concept and the dis -closure of technical functions now represented anexpression of modernity and fitted perfectly withthe progressive focus of the time.The rational materialism, reduced design, and theclear graphical structure with high product andproduction quality evolved into a trademark forBraun AG, where Rams became manager of thedesign department in 1961 and director of productdesign. The designs created under his direction areso consistent and so minimal that the introductionof the additional color of black at the start of the1980s was considered by the customers to be almosttoo radical. Before Rams left the company in 1997, hecreated products such as the Multimix MX 32 (1958),the T 1000 multiband radio (1962), the Sixtand Sshaver (1968), the HLD 1000 hairdryer, and the DomoQuartz ABW 21 wall clock (1979). Since the turn of thecentury, his achievements have received increasedrecognition as Jonathan Ive, head of design atApple, was inspired by Ram’s designs for the designof the iPod and other Apple products.With all his clarity and lack of comprise, DieterRams has never become a missionary of hisprinciples. Ettore Sottsass, one of the “Memphis”movement diametrically opposed to Rams, said ofhim: “Dieter was so good at […] not tormentinghimself and others that his design ultimatelyappeared clear, calm, always accepted, understandable,and self-explanatory.” jr1932 Born on May 20 in Wiesbaden1943–53 Studies architecture andcarpentry at the WerkkunstschuleWiesbaden1953–55 Works at the architectureagency of Otto ApelFrom 1955 on Architect and interiordesigner for Braun1956 Designs the Braun SK 4 togetherwith Hans GugelotFrom 1957 on Furniture designer forOtto Zapf (today sdr+)1961–95 Head of design at Braun1964 Exhibition at documenta III inKassel1965 Berlin Art Prize1981 Professor of industrial designat the HFBK Hamburg2002 Highest Order of Merit from theFederal Republic of Germany2007 Lucky Strike Designer Award forhis life’s workleft pageDieter Rams, T 1000 multiband radio,1962abovePortrait of Dieter Rams

102| 103Ingo MaurerJohn Cage1891 Construction of Trans-SiberianRailway begins1901 Queen Victoria dies1913 Armory Show in New York showsthe European avant-garde1906 San Francisco earthquake1928 Alexander Flemingdiscovers penicillinBruce Nauman1939–1945 World War II1965 First Op Art exhibition,The Responsive Eye in New York1976 Apple Computers founded1959 Completion of the SolomonR. Guggenheim Museum in New York1999 First e-book reader2006 Jackson Pollock’s No. 5sold for $140m1992 Maastricht Treaty establishes the EUIngo Maurer1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025From the lighting systems for the Atomium in Brussels to the original Mozzkito tea strainer table lamp,Ingo Maurer plays with lights in all its facets. His lights are technically complex, imaginatively designed,and often seasoned with a pinch of humor or irony.Ingo Maurer’s medium is light, his muse is the lightbulb.Fascinated by the archetype of the naked lightbulband inspired by Pop Art, which he came acrossin the US at the start of the 1960s, he created hisfirst lamp design in 1966: Bulb – an oversized lightbulbof handblown glass illuminated by a real lightbulb.The ingenious idea of making the light sourceinto the lamp itself, and thus creating an ironicinterplay between the form and function, shotMaurer to stardom.In Maurer’s eyes, the naked lightbulb representsa perfect symbiosis of industry and poetic expression.“The light of a lightbulb is heat and fire,”according to Maurer. And so it appeared again andagain in his work over the following decades, be itwinged with goose feathers (Lucellino, 1992), orvirtually as a hologram on a lampshade (Wo bist du,Edison?, 1997). More recently, a heat-resistant siliconcover that turns a clear lightbulb into a frosted one(Euro-Condom, 2009) and an empty lightbulb withouta tungsten filament (WoonderLux, 2010) showMaurer’s creative reaction to the European ban onlightbulbs.Maurer was such an advocate of the good oldlightbulb that with WoonderLux he combines theclassic form of the lightbulb with modern LED lighttechnology hidden in the base to illuminate thelamp. He was one of the first to experiment withhalogen at the start of the 1980s, and in 1984, he firstpresented the first of his halogen light systems,YaYaHo, in which low-voltage cables were strung ina room with small halogen lamps that can bearranged individually. Together with Osram, hedeveloped the first lamp to use energy-efficientorganic light diodes, or OLEDs, (Early Future tablelamp, 2008).Maurer is also fascinated by paper as a material.In one of his most famous designs, the Zettel’z light(1998), 49 small pieces of Japanese paper are fixedaround the light source on wires like rays. Thepapers are printed with poetry texts or drawings,while blank pieces invite further creative decoration.Maurer had already designed a lighting group withfans made out of bamboo and rice paper (Uchiwa) in1973. He plays with the creative options of thematerial, pleats it, creases it (Knitterling pendulumlight), or silver-plates it (Oh Mei Ma).In recent years, the innovative lamp designer hasfollowed new paths and created a stir with hisimaginative light installations and lighting conceptsfor buildings and open areas. In 1999, for example,he bathed the Munich subway station Westfriedhofin a warm light with eleven enormous, shell-like,aluminum lampshades. The Domes look like oversizedheat lamps with a diameter of almost fourmeters and were subsequently mass-produced in asmaller variant as XXL Domes. Ten years later, whenthe Münchner Freiheit station was redesigned,Maurer used a mirrored roof lit by over 200 squarelight boxes to invigorate the space with light animationsin blue and yellow. ch1932 Born on the island of Reichenau,Lake Constance1954–58 After training as a typesetter,he studies graphic design inMunich1960–63 Works as a graphic designerand designer in San Francisco andNew York1966 Sets up the company Design Mfor lamps and lighting concepts;first light design Bulb1984 YaYaHo, the first low-voltagelighting system with 276individual parts1992 Lucellino1994 Pendant light Porca Miseria!with shattered crockery1998 Illuminates the platform andPark & Ride area at the undergroundstation Westfriedhof,Munich2006 Lighting objects and lightingsystems for the Atomium,Brussels2008 Develops an OLED lamp withOsram2010 Awarded the Design Prize of theFederal Republic of Germany forhis life’s workleft pageIngo Maurer, Westfriedhof subwaystation, Munich, 1998abovePortrait of Ingo Maurer

left pageBulbaboveLucellino

106| 107Francis BaconPierre CardinPhilippe Starck1900 Boxer Rebellion inChina1914 Assassination of ArchdukeFranz Ferdinand of Austriaon June 28; World War Ibreaks out1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisis1942 Edward Hopper, Nighthawks1939–1945 World War II1948 Declaration of Independenceof the State of Israel, May 141961 Yuri Gagarin is the firstman in space1976 First G7 summit1987 Black Monday (October 19) sees2007 iPhone launchedstock market crash worldwide1996 First cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep)2001 Terrorist attacks on WorldTrade Center (9/11)Philippe Starck1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025With his sensual, attractive, and often crazy designs, the rock star of the design world became one of the best-knowninterior and industrial designers of all time. As a leading representative of New Design, the Frenchman liked to surpriseand shock and was even happy to step into the spotlight himself.Philippe Starck, Lou ReadChair, 2011From chairs, lights, baths, and candlesticks tomotorbikes and yachts to kitchen utensils, groceries,and a flyswatter – anyone wishing to do so couldsurround himself with objects by Philippe Starck.Those who enter the world of Starck’s design findhappiness, fantasy, modern rationality, a pinch ofirony, and always surprises. But those looking for aconsistent style will be disappointed. Starck casuallycombines different style periods, directions, materials,and production techniques – what PhilippeStarck designs is just Starck. He is unrivaled in hisability to sense and satisfy the spirit of the moment.When the trend toward increased emotionality andless functionality prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s,he designed objects that also created associationswith their offbeat names.Starck’s career began very early: when he was just16 years old, he won the La Vilette furniture com -petition with his inflatable seats, and by the age of20 he was artistic director for the fashion designerPierre Cardin. He then devoted himself to interiordesign and furnished the La Main Bleue bar inMontreuil and the Les Bains Douches club in Paris,for example. His career was boosted by a commissionfrom François Mitterrand, who entrusted himand four other interior designers with the design ofhis private rooms in the Élysée Palace in 1982. Twoyears later, the opening of the Café Costes in Paris,for which Starck designed all furnishings, created aninternational sensation. The three-legged Costeschair became an international sales hit with itstubular steel feet, curved wood back of mahoganylaminate, and leather upholstery. These two pro -jects raised him to the status of an internationallycelebrated star designer. In particular, his collaborationwith such renowned manufacturers as Alessi,Flos, Vitra, Baccarat, and Samsonite, and thegrandiose design of exclusive hotels, restaurants,and boutiques such as the Royalton in New York andthe Delano in Miami and of boutiques for Jean-PaulGaultier, Hugo Boss, and Yamamoto secured his fame.Starck’s pieces are characterized by their names,which are always humorous and which lend a uniquecharacter to the furniture and product designs. TheRichard III chair, for example, is a bulky and powerfuldesign while the Lola Mundo chair is feminine anddelicate with its filigree, curving legs.His most financially profitable designs include theAra table lamp (1988), the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer(1990), the Max le Chinois sieve (1990), and the HotBertaa kettle (1990). With the Louis Ghost chair(2002), he succeeded in creating a successful andalso technically highly demanding design as thecomplete chair consists of only a single elementmanufactured in an injection-molding process. Thiswas a true New Design object that illustrated thedematerialization of design. nk1949 Born on January 18 in Paris1965–67 Studies design at the ÉcoleNissim de Camondo in Paris1965 Wins the La Vilette furniturecompetition1969 Artistic director for Pierre Cardin1979 Establishes the company StarckProducts1982 Commission for the private roomsfor François Mitterrand at theÉlysée Palace1984 Café Costes; Costes chair1986 Visiting professor at the DomusAcademy in Milan2002 Louis Ghost chairleftMama Shelter Marseilles, 2012abovePortrait of Philippe Starck

108| 109Frank O. GehryVITRA1909 Publication of theFuturist Manifesto1917 October Revolutionin RussiaTadao Andō1954 Premiere of Hitchcock’s filmRear Window1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt swornin as president of the US1949 Founding of the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space1976 First G7 summit2001 Terrorist attacks on WorldTrade Center (9/11)1996 First cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep)1987 Black Monday (October 19) seesstock market crash worldwideVitra1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025What would good design be without the right manufacturer? The Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra has set itselfthe goal of optimizing collaboration between designer and manufacturer in order to develop exclusive, long-lasting,high-quality, and inspiring products.Verner Panton, Amoebe Chair, 1970From Charles and Ray Eames to Verner Panton,Ettore Sottsass, and Jean Prouvé to Frank Gehry,Philippe Starck, and Jasper Morrison – the list ofVitra’s collaborative partners reads like a Who’sWho of the international design elite. In addition tothe reissue of design classics and the developmentof avant-garde pieces of furniture, the manu -facturer’s efforts to encourage exhibition managementand the expansion of the production locationinto an architecture park have also long since turnedVitra into a design institution. Vitra also sees itselfas being not only a manufacturer, but rather as aproject with the aim of redesigning the world.The company was founded in 1950 when WilliFehlbaum set up the company Vitra in Weil amRhein with his wife, Erika. Fehlbaum achieved asignificant coup in 1957 when, during a trip to theUS, he acquired the licenses to produce the HermanMiller Collection for Europe. This included alldesigns by the design duo Charles and Ray Eamesand by George Nelson. When Vitra developed andproduced the Panton Chair in 1967 with VernerPanton, the company again demonstrated its sensefor unusual furniture designs. In the 1970s, thecompany concentrated on the combination ofergonomics and good design, a new concept at thetime, and manufactured very successful officefurniture. In 1981, the factory was almost destroyedin a major fire.The son, Rolf Fehlmann, who had managed Vitrasince 1977, decided to completely redesign theproduction location and laid the foundation for thecurrent Vitra Campus. Over time, it became a“design destination” that attracted numerousfamous architects and designers. In addition to theproduction buildings designed by NicholasGrimshaw, the Design Museum was constructed in1989 by Frank O. Gehry and today it is one of theleading design museums in the world. It has acollection of over 6,000 pieces of furniture, 2,000lights, and 3,000 designs and construction plansfrom well-known designers and manufacturers from1850 to today. In 1993, Zaha Hadid, still unknown atthe time, designed the spectacular, futuristic firestation for the site, followed by a garage designedby Jean Prouvé, a production hall by Álvaro SizaVieira, and a conference pavilion by Tadao Ando –and finally, the newest development, in 2010, wasthe VitraHaus by Herzog & de Meuron. It holds theVitra Home Collection and provides inspiration forinterior design in twelve nested, gable-roofedhouses. The visitor can select a preferred variant ofthe Eames classic in the Lounge Chair Atelier andobserve how the unique piece is made by hand.Vitra has supported and promoted internationalavant-garde furniture since the 1970s. The VitraEdition, in particular, enables designers to createexperimental items in a limited edition with marketor production-related restrictions. Together withtheir extensive collection of important furnituredesigns and the research and exhibition projects,Vitra has had a constant influence on contemporarydesign. nk1950 Founding of the Vitra company inWeil am Rhein1957 Willi Fehlbaum receives the saleslicense for the Miller Collectionfor Europe1977 Rolf Fehlbaum takes over Vitra,his brother Raymond theFehlbaum shop-fitting business1981 Major fire in Weil am Rhein,redesign by Nicholas Grimshaw1987 Introduction of the Vitra Edition1989 Opening of the Vitra DesignMuseum2000 Opening of the Vitra DesignMuseum branch in Berlin2002 Introduction of the Vitra HomeCollection2010 Opening of the VitraHausMario Bellini, Figura II, 1984

Charles and Ray Eames,Lounge Chair, 1956

112| 113Ron AradZaha Hadid1902 Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Workis founded1911 Ernest Rutherford developshis model of the atomRichard Serra1925 Invention of television 1940 McDonald’s is founded1962 Cuban Missile Crisis1970 British rock band Queen form1955 The Family of Man exhibitionat MoMA in New York1977 German Autumn(Baader-Meinhof gang)1989 Portable Game Boy consolelaunched1997 Death of Princess Diana2004 EU expands eastwardleftRon Arad, Well Tempered Chair, 1986belowDesign Museum in Holon, Israel, 2010RON ARAD1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025With an unbelievable feeling for uniqueness, Ron Arad has designed objects ranging from a stereo set to chairsto architecture.In his designs, Ron Arad rarely looks for thepragmatic option. Instead, he consciously also seesdesign as an artistic expression. Maybe it is becauseof this that he has also been very commerciallysuccessful over the past 30 years. His ideas aresometimes controversial and, during the early yearsin particular, they often flirted with the confines offine art, albeit strong conceptual art. Nevertheless,his work can hardly be seen as a social commentary;to awaken desire in the observer is always part ofthe commission for this all-rounder.Ron Arad was born the son of a painter and anarchitect in Tel Aviv in 1951. Like so many Israelidesigners, his artistic career began at the BezalelAcademy of Arts and Design. However, he did notstay there long. In 1973, he moved to the avantgardeArchitectural Association School of Architecturein London, where he was taught by Peter Cook,a founder of the Archigram movement. Arad’s fellowstudents included Zaha Hadid and Nigel Coates,and he finally completed his studies in 1979.In 1981, he and Caroline Thorman set up their ownstudio, called One Off, which was both a workshopand a showroom for his designs. Here, Arad initiallyproduced unique items with simple materials. Thestudio was not just the birthplace of his own experimentalcreations but was also a contact point forother conceptual designers such as Tom Dixon,Danny Lane, and Tom Lynham, who exhibited theirwork here. From this environment emerged theRover Chair in 1981, which was created from an automobileseat, and Concrete Stereo, which was anaudio system molded from concrete. In 1986, Aradreceived his first commission for Vitra, for whom hedesigned what has since become the legendary WellTempered Chair. This construction of steel sheets andwinged screws plays with visual conventions and isstill one of his best-known pieces. In 1987, the Sticksand Stones exhibition was launched for the ten-yearanniversary of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Aradpressed chairs provided by visitors into cuboidblocks using a specially designed machine and thenbuilt a wall with them. During the same year, healso exhibited the Carpet Chair and the Curtain Callinstallation at documenta VIII in Kassel.In 1988, Ron Arad won the tender to design thereception area for the Tel Aviv Opera House. Tomanage the extensive planning tasks and to meetthe growing demand for his products, Arad foundedthe design agency Ron Arad Associates Ltd in 1989.From this platform he developed the Bookworm in1994 for the Milan company Kartell, which becamehis greatest commercial success to date. The bookshelves,which were manufactured from flexible butstable plastic, can be installed by customers asrequired and link unconventional design with perfectmastery of the material while being simultaneouslyused in various ways.This virtuosity when dealing with the differentdisciplines of design still distinguishes Ron Aradtoday. His curving Cor-Ten steel architecture, whichoften appears impossible, the combination oftechnical knowledge with daring material combinations,and his unerring instinct for the spirit of thetimes make Ron Arad one of the most important andinfluential designers of our time. One Off and RonArad Associates are still involved with productdesign and architectural projects today. The studiosregularly work for customers such as Alessi, Kartell,Moroso, Driade, and Magis. jr1951 Ron Arad is born in Tel Aviv,Israel1971 Studies at the Bezalel Academyof Arts and Design in Jerusalem1973 Moves to the Architectural AssociationSchool of Architecture inLondon, graduating in 19791981 Establishes the One Off agencyand showroom with CarolineThorman1986 Designs the Well Tempered Chair1987 Sticks and Stones exhibition at theCentre Pompidou in Paris1988 Winning design with C. Nortonand S. McAdam for the design ofthe foyer and reception area ofthe Opera House in Tel Aviv1989 Sets up Ron Arad Associates Ltdwith Alison Brooks1994 Presentation of Bookworm1997–2009 Professor at the RoyalCollege of Art in London, firstfor furniture design, later forproduct design2010 Opens the first design museum inIsrael in Holon, which Arad hadplanned with Bruno AsaPortrait of Ron Arad

114| 115James DysonTom Dixon1905 Greta Garbo is born1931 Second SpanishRepublic proclaimedin Madrid1929 Stock market crash heraldsglobal economic crisisVivienne Westwood1940 Trotsky murdered in Mexico1960 Clement Greenberg,Modernist Painting1973 US Supreme Courtlegalizes abortion1964 Racial segregation abolished in the US1993 Bombay bombings1986 First modular spacestation Mir; Challengerspace shuttle disaster2007 Al Gore awarded Nobel Peace Prize2010 “Arab Spring” begins withprotests in Tunisia2001 Apple iPod launchedTom Dixon1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025As diverse as the designs by Tom Dixon may appear, they are invariably blunt, inspired by different periods,sprinkled with British punk glamor, and always robust.leftTom Dixon, Fin Light, 2012aboveCopper Shade, 2005Even without formal training, Tom Dixon is todayconsidered one of the most significant contemporaryBritish designers alongside Ron Arad and JamesDyson. His most famous designs include the MirrorBall and Copper Shade lamps, along with the S Chairand the plastic lamp Jack. Dixon’s contemporaryglamorous style is inspired in equal measure bydesign classics and by new materials and productiontechnologies. He appeals to both young and old and,thanks to different lines and manufacturers, also tothe mass market as well as the top market segment.When he left the Chelsea School of Art after justsix months, Tom Dixon was part of a group of youngBritish designers who, inspired by the punk movement,began to work with welded metal in the 1980s.Under the name “creative salvage,” the groupachieved recognition, although it was limited toeccentric one-off pieces and limited editions. TheKitchen chair (1987) is typical for this phase andintegrates “objets trouvés” such as frying pans andsoup ladles.At the start of the 1990s, Dixon turned moretoward the commercialization of his designs. Hefounded the studio Space, where he designed morethan 50 models of the sculptural S Chair. It consistsof curved steel and is covered with differentmaterials. In 1987, the Italian furniture manufac -turer Giulio Cappellini discovered the S Chair andtook it to mass production.In 1998, Dixon was offered the position of headdesigner at Habitat and later described this periodas “his first proper job.” Here, the self-taughtdesigner could extend his creativity and industrialknowledge to the fields of mass production, productionprocesses, and cost calculations. At the sametime, he subjected the rather dusty label to modernization.In particular, the reissue of design classicsand the promotion of aspiring designers at Habitatcan be attributed to Tom Dixon.In 2002, he founded Tom Dixon. The Company.Two years later he joined the furniture manufacturerArtek, which had been set up 70 years earlier by theFinn Alvar Aalto. Since then, his aim has been tobring new life to the British furniture industry withsolid designs on the one hand and innovations onthe other. In accordance with this principle, hedesigned the Fresh Fat series, for which he knottedand wove plastic string so that he could createvessels and even chairs and tables that looked as ifthey were made of glass. In 2003, he experimentedwith tableware and designed the eco ware series,which consisted of 85 percent bamboo fibers andbiodegradable plastic. In 2005, he created the veryelegant series of lamps Copper Shade and Mirror Ball,which were created from reflective plastic but looklike shining metal.In addition to designs for his own company, Dixonalso cooperated with famous companies such asVeuve Clicquot, Swarovski, and Terence Conran, aswell as with such personalities as Vivienne Westwoodand Jean Paul Gaultier. In spite of his avantgardereputation, Dixon has always followed his verydemocratic objectives: to promote young talent andto produce good design for everyone. nk1959 Born in Sfax, Tunisia1978 Expulsion from Chelsea Schoolof Art, London1987 Dixon PID, later Space, ownstudio and factory1991 S Chair (Cappellini)1996 Eurolounge1997 Millennium Mark Award1998 Head of design at Habitat2000 Order of the British Empire(OBE) for services to design2002 Establishes Tom Dixon.The Company2004 Honorary doctorate fromBirmingham City University2004 Creative director at ArtekPortrait of Tom Dixon

116| 1171925 Invention oftelevisionEmilia KabakovJasper MorrisonAnish Kapoor1939–1945 World War II1945 Marilyn Monroe discoveredas photographic model1966 Barnett Newman, Who’s Afraidof Red, Yellow and Blue1957 Ghana is first African colony to gainindependence after World War II1975 Pol Pot comes to powerin Cambodia1985 Live Aid concertfor Africa2001 First same-sex “marriage”in Holland1995 Toy Story is first movieproduced entirely withcomputer animation2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing, ChinaJasper Morrison1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The Briton is one of the most influential contemporary product and furniture designers. With his simple,stripped-back design, he is considered a representative of “New Simplicity.”In 2006, Morrison and the Japanese designer NaotoFukasawa curated the exhibition Super Normal. Ondisplay was a selection of 204 everyday objects,including those with an anonymous design, such asa potato peeler, plastic trash can, and paper clips,as well as design classics such as the 606 ShelvingSystem by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe, the Tulip Chair byEero Saarinen for Knoll, and contemporary designs,for example the futuristic office system Joyn byRonan and Erwan Bouroullec. The exhibition was anhomage to straightforward design and to the beautyof simple, intelligently made everyday objects.The work by Morrison can also be described as“supernormal.” For him, functionality is key for thequality of a product, not design. His own designs arecharacterized by the simplicity of their constructionand a highly minimalist use of forms.Jaspar Morrison achieved his first major successas a furniture designer with the Ply Chair (1989) forVitra, created out of nothing but plywood, glue, andscrews. He had originally designed the chair for theSome New Items for the Home exhibition in Berlin(1988) – a minimalist room installation made entirelyfrom plywood, which signified a return to reduceddesign and also a reaction to the postmodernist formalexcesses of the 1980s. Rolf Fehlbaum, chairmanof Vitra, noticed the young designer and included hischair in his program.“The main reason why Ply-Chair looks the way itdoes today is that I had to make it myself and theonly tools available to me were an electric compasssaw and a number of pieces of wood,” explainsMorrison.Morrison’s breakthrough as a product designercame in 1990 with the design of the Series 1144 doorhandles for FSB. In its reduced form, the doorhandle appears unobtrusive, but like a tool, it isperfectly adapted to the anatomy of the hand. Theseries won him Germany’s Bundespreis ProduktDesign award and the iF Top Ten Award. “Youshouldn’t have to think about how to use a doorhandle,” he says, explaining his approach to design,which becomes consciously tangible not so muchthrough the product’s appearance as through theway it is used.In subsequent years, Morrison established himselfas an all-around designer with numerousdesigns for internationally renowned companiessuch as Alessi, Cappellini, Magis, Flos, Rowenta,Vitra, and Olivetti. The extensive body of works bythis British minimalist includes furniture – with 22different chair models alone – as well as lamps,crockery, household goods, sanitary items, householdand electronic devices, home accessories, andtextiles. In addition, together with his designagency, he has also designed various exhibitions(including Danish Design – I like it! in 2011, for theDesignmuseum Danmark) and has developedprojects in the area of urban design, for example abus stop for the Vitra company in 2006. aw1959 Born in London, England1979–85 Studies at the Kingston PolytechnicDesign School and at theRoyal College of Art in London1984 Scholarship to the Hochschuleder Künste, Berlin1986 Establishes his first agency,Design Jasper Morrison Limited,in London1987 Participates in documenta VIIIin Kassel with the installationReuters News Centre1988 Some New Items for the Home,installation at the DAAD Galerie,Berlin1995 Wins the competition to designthe new tram for Hanover1999 Solo exhibition at the AxisGallery, Tokyo2002 Monograph Everything ButThe Walls2003 Opens his second agency,in Paris2006 First Super Normal exhibition,in Tokyo2009 Opens the Jasper MorrisonLimited Shop in Londonleft pageJasper Morrison, Glo-Ball, 1999abovePortrait of Jasper Morrison, 2007

118| 119Karim RashidEttore SottsassVictor Vasarely1917 October Revolutionin Russia1933 FranklinD. Rooseveltsworn in aspresident ofthe US1954 Premiere of Hitchcock’s film1976 First G7 summitRear Window1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space1949 Founding of the North AtlanticTreaty Organization2001 Pop Idols launches the TVcasting-show format1987 Black Monday (October 19) seesstock market crash worldwide1996 First cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep)Karim Rashid1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The internationally renowned designer Karim Rashid wanted to change the world with his soft, colored shapes,and became a pop star of the design world with his “blobism.”Karim Rashid is one of the most productivedesigners of his generation. He has created over3,000 designs for numerous famous companies suchas Artemide, Cappellini, Magis, LaCie, Samsung,Veuve Cliquot, and Swarowski, and has won morethan 300 international design prizes, such as theGood Design Award (South Africa), the Good DesignAward (Japan), the red dot design award, and theDesign Plus Award. His most popular productsinclude the Garbo Can trash basket and the Oh Chairplastic chair. Rashid’s interior designs for the MorimotoRestaurant in Philadelphia and the SemiramisHotel in Athens also won prizes, as did exhibitionsfor Deutsche Bank and Audi. His works can be foundin the collections of renowned museums such as theMuseum of Modern Art in New York.Karim Rashid is the pop star of the design world.Even the outfits worn by the designer, who was bornin Cairo and grew up in Canada, live up to everycommon cliché that the layman could have of thisprofession: wearing large, horn-rimmed glasses, awhite suit, and sneakers, this industrial designer,who works in New York, designs everything fromtrash cans to fashion accessories, from furniture andelectronic products to trendy interiors for hotels andrestaurants such as the Semiramis Hotel in Athens,the Morimoto Restaurant in Philadelphia, and thePowder Club in New York. He can also be regularlyfound enjoying the nightlife of Manhattan as “DJElectronikreemy.” He is not, however, an inventor ofnew, never-before-seen designs, nor is he a superstarof design like Marc Newson or Philippe Starck.Rashid has simple, popular taste that captures thespirit of the time and appeals to trend-consciousyouth in particular. Just as a music studio remixesold songs with digital technology and samplesdifferent music styles, Rashid plays and composeswith the style elements of modern design and thenconverts them into his own signature style. Theinternationally recognized design star focuses onthe sense of color he has derived from Pop Art, andon the psychedelic patterns of the 1960s and otherreferences from the history of design and modern art– from the Op Art of Vasarely to the memorablepatterns of the graffiti scene.After graduating in industrial design fromCarleton University in Ottawa in 1982, Rashid completedfurther design studies under Ettore Sottsassin Naples and Rodolfo Bonetto in Milan. In 1993, heopened his own design studio in New York and soonmade a name for himself with his designs, whosegaudy colors and round forms became sensualreferences to the pop period of the 1960s and 1970s.Rashid celebrated his international breakthrough in1996 with the plastic trash basket Garbo Can. Sincethen, he has designed over 3,000 objects andreceived over 300 design prizes. The modernistreferences of his design products include the designheroes of the past, whom he likes to specify himself:“Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce, Rodolfo Bonetto,Ron Arad, Philippe Starck, Luigi Colani, JoeColombo, Charles Eames, and so many others … ”Rashid is not squeamish about dealing with hisfamous predecessors. For example, he used Autocadto morph Charles Eames’s Chaise into jaunty, stackablediscount chairs. The main point is that everythingis round, sweeping, without corners andedges, and as bright as possible, for exampleturquoise and pink, apparently his favorite colors.Rashid describes his own style as “sensual minimalism”or simply as “blobism,” which would be a sadphenomenon were it not for Rashid’s sense ofhumor. And the sales figures for his products, whichare sold by well-known companies, speak for themselves:2.5 million units of his vacuum cleaner havebeen sold, as well as millions of trash baskets andother fashion articles ranging from a perfume bottleto the total concept (corporate identity) for a designexhibition and a subway station in Naples (2011).Karim Rashid also has the gift of being able todesign mass articles for a mass market and sellthem. hd1960 Born on September 18 in Cairo1982 Bachelor degree in industrialdesign at the Carleton Universityof Ottawa1993 Own design studio in New York1996 International breakthrough withthe Garbo Can2001 Monograph I Want to Changethe World2005/06 Honorary Doctorate from theCorcoran College of Art andDesign, Washington, D.C., andthe Ontario College of Art &Design, Toronto2008 Marries the Serbian chemistIvana PuricKarim Rashid lives and works inNew York and Rotterdam.left pageMorph, One-Dress for One, 2000abovePortrait of Karim Rashidnext double pageUniversity of Naples subway station,Naples, 2011

122| 123Edward Ruscha1919 Treaty of Versailles officiallyends World War I1930 Grant Wood,American GothicPhilippe StarckMarc Newson1949 The Soviet Union commencesits first atomic test1944 Normandy landings1962 Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans1956 Elvis Presley has his first major hit,Heartbreak Hotel1973 First commercial personal computer1969 Stonewall riots on Christopher Street in New York1990 End of Cold War1981 Ronald Reagan sworn in as40th president of the US2003 US invasion of Iraq2009 Swine flu epidemicMarc Newson1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The award-winning Australian designer Marc Newson is known for his futuristic but technically sophisticatedhandling of industrial design.Marc Newson, Lockheed Lounge, 1986Marc Newson is one of the most influentialdesigners of our time. His career is unparalleled, hisproducts range from household objects, lamps,furniture, and clocks to car designs and completebusiness installations. Many of his objects havealready attained cult status and are covetedcollector’s items in design museums around theworld. His designs are considered to be futuristic,sexy, humorous, and original. They are alreadyessential components of modern pop culture andappear in videos by Madonna and in current films,such as the Austin Powers series.Marc Newson, who was born in Sydney in 1962,studied jewelry design and sculpture at the SydneyCollege of Art. From 1987 on, he lived in Tokyo forseveral years and worked there as a designer for theIdée company run by Teruo Kurosaki. Newson foundinternational fame with the Lockheed Lounge. Thissculptural piece of furniture was presented in 1986at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. The core consistsof polyester reinforced with fiberglass that iscovered with a skin of riveted sheet aluminum. Thechaise looks very similar to the external covering ofold aeroplanes although the shape of the furniture isround and organic. Newson also found fame inEurope with an exhibition of his designs at the MilanFurniture Fair. In 1992, he left Tokyo and moved toParis, the new center of design for the 21st century,where he worked for design companies such as Flos(lights) and Cappellini (furniture). For Cappellini, hecreated the Orgone Chair, which is modeled on thesurfboards of his Australian homeland, the BlackHole table, the Event Horizon Table, and the FeltChair, unique pieces of furniture whose organicanthropomorphic forms caused a sensation. Largerorders for restaurant furnishings, for example Coastin London (1995) and Komed in Cologne (1996), gaveNewson the chance to implement his visions indetail and to fully apply his organic technoiddesigns. With the design for a perfume bottle forShiseido, Newson was finally able to afford hisdream car, an Aston Martin DB4. Such sleek fashioncars still have a significant influence on Newson’sdesigns, as do the film sets by Ken Adams forfantasy films and the models for space rockets.In the mid-1990s, Newson met the computergenius Benjamin De Haan, who became his businesspartner. With the help of his new software, Newsonwas finally also able to design and realize largerdesign projects. In 1997, Newson and De Haanestablished a design studio in London, whereNewson accepted two new dream projects: thedesign for the inside cabin of the Falcon 900B longhauljet and the design for a Ford model, the 021C(1999–2000). With this concept car, Newsoncombined everything that he had accomplished indesign up until now, from the shape of the car to thelovingly planned details of the interior fittings: seatsthat swivel on a pedestal, a sparkling, organicallycurved dashboard with instrument dials thatresemble his Ikepod clocks, a steering wheel basedon an Alessi coat hanger, carpets that resemble theshape of the Orgone Chair, and a roof that could beilluminated to bathe the interior in a snow-whitelight.Like Philippe Starck, Marc Newson is today oneof the superstars of design and he creates successfuland exciting designs for many large, well-knowncompanies such as Alessi, Magis, Boucheron,Dom Perignon, and the Quantas airline with suchvaried products as hairdryers, champagne bottles,coat hangers, door stops, lights, clocks (in his owncompany Ikepod), and even airplane seats. hd1963 Born in Sydney, Australia1982–84 Studies jewelry design andarchitecture at Sydney Collegeof Art1986 Exhibits the Lockheed Loungeat the Roslyn Oxley Gallery inSydney1989 Moves to Tokyo, designs for theIdée company run by TeruoKurosaki, which produces theOrgone Chair, Super Guppy Light(1987), Black Hole table (1988),and the Wicker Chair (1990)1992 New design studio in Paris1997 Moves to London with hispartner, Benjamin De Haan1999 Presentation of the 021Cconcept car for Ford at the TokyoAutomobile Show2002 Designs airplane seats forQuantas2011 Lucky Strike Designer Award2012 Awarded the CBE for his designsPortrait of Marc Newson

124 | 125MN Bicycle, Biomega, 1999021C concept car, Ford Motor Co., 1999

126| 127Sol LeWittCy Twombly1916–1922 Dadaistmovement1939–1945 World War IIJoep van Lieshout1952 Samuel Beckett,Waiting for Godot1969 Woodstock festival1973 Pablo Picasso dies2004 Islamist terrorist attacks in Spain (March 11)1998 Construction of international space station (ISS) begins1991 Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility ofDeath in the Mind of Someone Living 2010 Catastrophic forest firesin RussiaJoep van Lieshout1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Over the last ten years, Joup van Lieshout has created a compelling and complex range of works that are at theintersection of art, architecture, and design.Joep van Lieshout, Floating Sculpture,Atelier Van Lieshout, 2000The accessible objects and mobile modules createdby the Atelier van Lieshout collective, which wasfounded in 1995 by the Dutch artist Joep vanLieshout, cross the borders between applied andfine art. In an ironic way, they question the purposeand aesthetics of sculptures in the public arena.Amorphous and organoid structures dealing withthe themes of housing, nutrition, waste disposal,locomotion, reproduction, and other physicalfunctions form the core of his innovative artisticwork.It all began in 1988 with a series of furniture itemsmade of polyester and designed by the graduateof the Rotterdam Academy. They are slightlyreminiscent of Ikea furniture: workpieces based onstandard dimensions that can be combined asrequired. In their reduced square form with theelementary primary color system, they evoke the artof the De Stijl movement and minimal art. However,more important than these references is thematerial polyester, which does not pretend to beanything other than what it is: hard-wearing andwashable plastic. Polyester offered van Lieshout,who expanded the program to bathroom fittingsfrom 1990 on, the maximum possible artisticfreedom and at the same time is a lot cheaper thanother materials such as wood or metal. With theirlurid painting and haptic finish, these objects farexceed functional design and also evoke eroticassociations.In 1995, the artist founded the Atelier VanLieshout (AVL) and expanded his production activityto larger installations and the “Mobile Modules.”Old trailers and caravans were rebuilt as luxuriousbut sometimes also monstrous-looking living unitsthat were used to travel across Europe and parkedat international exhibitions (Modular House Mobile,1995/96). The mobile modules were also given anarchitectural accent in the Mobile Home for KröllerMüller (1995), which consists of one master unit thatcan be expanded with various individual modules,the slave units. While the master unit itself is anempty, wood-clad, mobile space, the function rooms– bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living area – arelinked to the main room via the window openings.This creates a mobile two-room residence that, withits additive structure, resembles the containerbuildings on large building sites.In addition to these extensive living, pleasure,and survival rooms, Joep van Lieshout also created“skulls,” such as the Sensory Deprivation Skull, theStudy Book Skull, and the Bird Skull. These are smallcontainers like monks’ cells, which with optimumarchitectural use of the interior space offer anopportunity to withdraw from the loud world andpursue spiritual activities. In these spatial situations,van Lieshout applies both the orgone theoryof Wilhelm Reich as well as the SexPol movement,which was also initiated by Reich and whichattempts to bring the theories of Karl Max intoharmony with those of Sigmund Freud.Van Lieshout’s activities culminated in 2001 withthe establishment of the city state “AVL-Ville” in theRotterdam port area. However, this project, whichconsidered itself to be a “provocative counterprojectto state domination,” was not tolerated by theauthorities for long. With his large, room-fillinginstallations (The Technocrat, 2004; The Disciplinator,2005), Lieshout again raises questions of usefulness,aesthetics, and domination in order to simulta -neously offer solutions for a new autonomous socialstructure. hd1963 Born in Ravenstein, theNetherlands1980–85 Academy of ModernArt Rotterdam1985–87 Ateliers ’63, Haarlem1987 Villa Arson, NiceFrom 1988 on Polyester furnitureFrom 1992 on Mobile Modules1995 Establishes the artist collectiveAtelier Van Lieshout (AVL)2001 Establishes the city state“AVL-Ville” in the Rotterdamport area; prohibited by theauthorities and removedPortrait of Joep van Lieshout

128 | 129Fossil chairs, 2009Hard Edge, 1989

130| 131Donald JuddJasper MorrisonKonstantin Grcic1930 Luis Buñuel,L’Age d’Or1941 Bruce Nauman is born 1955–1968 Civil rightsmovement in the US1965 Beginning of Vietnam War1991 Conflict breaks out in the Balkans 2010 Mass panic at the Love Paradein Duisburg, Germany1983 Civil war breaks outin Sudan1999 Columbine High School massacre1986 Jeff Koons, Rabbit2005 Founding of YouTubeKonstantin Grcic1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025Konstantin Grcic is one of the most influential new designers from Germany. His futuristic designs are preciselythought out and constructed.Konstantin Grcic designs a wealth of industrialproducts that can be called essential, simple, andeven minimalist. Personally, he prefers the term“simplicity.” His design philosophy is based on amixture of formal severity, intellectual ingenuity,and a certain ironic twisting of material requirements.Functions are laid bare, structures madevisible, and yet a sense for aesthetic and balance isstill maintained. Grcic’s design solutions are oftenexperimental in the combination of materials and intheir functional use, but they are always wellthought out. The sources of his creativity are theconstant dialog with industry, as well as the intensiveconflict with the manufacture and the functionof objects. In his designs, new technologies andecological compatibility play as important a role asreferences to historical designs, for example to theaesthetics of Bauhaus.Konstantic Grcic, who was born Munich in 1965,first completed a course in furniture making atParnham College in England. He then studied designat the Royal College of Art in London from 1988 to1990, and worked for a short time as the assistant toJasper Morrison. He was stranded by chance in thenot particularly uptown but creative train stationdistrict of Munich, where he has had his own officesince 1991. On a return journey to London, the half-Serb with a Yugoslav passport was prevented fromentering the country because he was not an EUcitizen, and was sent back to where he had comefrom, to his grandmother in Munich. As a city,Munich does not really inspire him, but he and hisemployees can work there undisturbed, in his loft inSchillerstrasse. During the first ten years, Grcic –trained in the aesthetics of the Bauhaus school –preferred a more rational, strict design that workswith austere, simple structures. Until now, hisgreatest design has been the One chair, which lookslike a mathematical equation that can be sat on. Theopen frame, made of metal bars, can be painted inmany colors and rests on a concrete base. Althoughit was intended only for German open spaces, therudimentary seat today appears in many Europeancities. Mayday, a robust pendant lamp with a plasticshade, also looks as if it belonged in a DIY hardwarestore.Grcic’s designs are just as stark as they arefunctional and are not without a humoristic note.The Diana side table from 2002 consists of only onevertical and two horizontal metal plates and yet itstill has its own industrial charm. The Tip garbagecan from 2003, whose lift mechanism for the lid issimply placed on the outside, is made entirely ofplastic. In contrast, the Table B coffee table is analuminum construction that looks like an airplanewing and rests on two trestles.As simple as the designs appear, all products runthrough a defined sequence of processing stepsbefore they are constructed. First, a pencil sketch iscreated and converted into a foam or paper model,then the fine details are completed on a computer,and finally a modelling form is developed for the finishedproduct.Design is not a mass product for Grcic, nor is it anelitist art concept. “Design is not art, but gooddesign can have the quality of a piece of art. Thiscan also be said of his chair. First of all it is puredesign, but it also has a quality that far exceeds thefact that it is just a chair. So a plastic chair suddenlybecomes an icon like a sculpture.” (KonstantinGrcic)Many of Konstantin Grcic’s products have woninternational designer prizes (including Compassod’Oro, 2001) and today form part of the permanentcollections of some of the most famous museums,such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York andthe Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. The RoyalSociety for the Arts has named Konstantin GrcicRoyal Designer for Industry. In 2010, he became aFellow of the Villa Massimo in Rome. He alsoreceived the Designer of the Year Award from theDesign Miami design fair in 2010. hd1965 Born in Munich1985 Moves to England; carpentrycourse at Parnham College,Dorset1988–90 Studies design at the RoyalCollege of Art, London1991 Returns to Munich; opens his owndesign studio KGID (KonstantinGrcic Industrial Design)1998 Mayday lamp for Flos1999 Designs a porcelain range forNymphenburg2003 Designs the One chair range forMagis2004 Start of collaboration with Krupsfor kitchen appliances2007 Participates in the exhibition25/25 – Celebrating 25 Years ofDesign at the Design Museum,Londonleft pageKonstantin Grcic, One outdoor chair,2004abovePortrait of Konstantin Grcic

132 | 133abovePallas table, 2003right pageMayday lamp, 1998

134| 1351930 Grant Wood,American GothicJay OsgerbyBarberOsgerbyEdward Barber1944 Normandy landings1973 First commercial personal computer1956 Elvis Presley has his firstmajor hit, Heartbreak Hotel1981 Ronald Reagan sworn in as40th president of the US1949 The Soviet Union commences 1969 Stonewall riots on Christopher Street in New Yorkits first atomic test1962 Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans1990 End of Cold War2003 US invasion of Iraq2009 Swine flu epidemicedward Barber & Jay Osgerby1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025School chairs that tilt, torches for Olympia, tiles for Stella McCartney, and a clothes hook for Levi’s – designsby BarberOsgerby are as diverse as they are original. The British design duo Jay Osgerby and Edward Barber haveworked at the intersection of industrial design, furniture design, and architecture since their university days.Edward Barber/Jay Osgerby,Loop TableEdward Barber and Jay Osgerby met during theirpostgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art inLondon and from then on started their careers aspart of the design elite. After they graduated,they immediately set up the design studioBarberOsgerby and won great acclaim for theirfirst project together, the Loop Table (1997), whichthey presented at the London exhibition “100%Design.” The Italian furniture manufacturerGiulio Cappellini so admired the table, which wasoriginally designed for a restaurant, that he startedto manufacture it immediately. This fortunateencounter led to a collaboration that would lastfor many years.In addition to the Loop Table, other classicBarberOsgerby designs include the Tab light and theTip Ton chair. The Tab light was developed as anextension of the classic drawing table light as thedrawing table was also ultimately replaced by thecomputer. It is multifunctional and can be used on adesk as well as on a bedside table or as a couchreading lamp. The Tip Ton chairs were developed aspart of a project to improve schoolroom furnishings.These simple, two-level chairs were designed toenable schoolchildren to sit without being restrictedand to be able to move more freely.However, to reduce Edward Barber and JayOsgerby to individual design objects would be toolimiting. Since setting up their (interior) architectureagency “Universal Design Studio” in particular, thetwo designers have also realized complete roomconcepts. Their most extensive works include theinterior design of the former Battersea PowerStation in London, which was converted into apartmentsand industrial units.The duo achieved popularity through cooperatingwith famous names, which enabled them to provetheir creativity and versatility over and over again.They designed tiles for Stella McCartney’s shop inNew York, an exhibition room for Damien Hirst,innovative clothes hooks for Levi jeans, glass vasesfor Murano glass, and a sound experience room forSony – the list goes on and on.In spite of their versatility, the style ofBarberOsgerby can be described in their own wordsas “exercise in reduction.” With their designs, thepair want to use existing materials and to useworking practices in a new and more intelligent way,thus avoiding unnecessary details. For example, intheir early years, they developed existing laminatewood techniques. Later, they concentrated more oncolors and created a completely new approach todesign using color as the starting point. Colorfulexamples are the Iris table (2009), which is devotedto a particular color spectrum and depicts thisspectrum in a circle.The design duo received an accolade in 2005when they were selected to modernize the seatingin the De La Warr pavilion for its anniversary.Seventy years before, none other than Alvar Aaltohad designed the chairs for the pavilion. nk1969 Edward Barber is born inShrewsbury, Great Britain,Jay Osgerby in Oxford, GreatBritain1996 They graduate in architecturefrom the Royal College of Art inLondon1996 They establish the design agencyBarberOsgerby in the TrellickTower in London1997 Loop Table1998 ICFF Editors Award: Best NewDesigner2001 They establish the architectureagency “Universal Design Studio”2006 “Designers of the Future” award2007 Blueprint magazine award“Product of the Year”; red dotaward2009 Commission from Murano Glas2010 Sound experience room for Sony;Design of the Olympic torch forthe 2012 Olympic Games inLondonPortrait of Barber & Osgerby

leftOlympic torch designed for theOlympic Games 2012 in Londonright pageTip Ton chairs, 2011

138| 1391931 Second SpanishRepublicproclaimed inMadrid1929 Stock marketcrash heraldsglobal economiccrisisRichard Serra1940 Trotsky murdered in MexicoRonan BouroullecErwan Bouroullec1960 Clement Greenberg,Modernist Painting1973 US Supreme Courtlegalizes abortion1964 Racial segregation abolishedin the US2001 Apple iPod launched1993 Bombay bombings1986 First modular space station Mir;Challenger space shuttle disaster 2007 Al Gore awarded Nobel Peace Prizeronan & erwan BOUROULLEC1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The Bouroullec brothers are amongst the best-known contemporary designers. Although many of their organicallyinspired projects initially appear to be artistic experiments, they are in fact planned in detail and are sensitively tailoredto the needs of people.Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec,Algues, 2004Their early discovery by Giulio Cappellini at theSalone Internazionale del Mobile furniture fair inMilan in 1997 says much about the duo’s extra -ordinary talent. The constructive dialogue of thedifferent viewpoints of the brothers, their ambitiousperfectionism, as well as their vision of furniture,which responds to the human condition, have giventhem a successful career. With their own combinationof organic structures and a high level oftechnical understanding, during their career, theyhave created the Paris showroom for fashiondesigner Issey Miyake and have also carried outmany projects for the designer furnishing giant Vitra.A striking example is the Vegetal chair from 2008,which is inspired by the growth of plants yet still hasa completely autonomous impact.The designs by the brothers, who are five yearsapart in age, are characterized by balance, empathy,and an attention to detail that verges on tenacity.Ronan, the older of the two, was born in 1971, Erwanin 1976. After Ronan graduated from the Écolenationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris in1996, he opened his own studio immediately andbegan to work. His brother, who was still studying,assisted him on some projects until he also receivedhis diploma from the École nationale supérieured’arts in Cergy-Pontoise and became a partner. Aftertheir success at the Milan furniture fair and projectssuch as the Spring Chair with Capellini (1997), theyoung designers were noticed by Rolf Fehlbaum, theowner of Vitra, in 2000. This contact was the start ofa highly successful collaboration, the first product ofwhich was the Joyn office furniture system, which isstill being constantly expanded today. This wasfollowed by Algues (2004), a transparent roomseparation solution for offices, the harmoniousWorknest swivel chair (2006), the intimate Alcovesofa (2006) with its head-high backrest, and theinjection-molded chair Vegetal (2008). However, theBouroullecs do not just design for Vitra; their studioalso works on diverse furniture and architecturalprojects. They also created the Steelwood andStripped series for the Italian manufacturer Magis.In 2006, they collaborated with the Centre Nationalde l’estampe et de l’art imprimé, who wanted tobuild a floating pavilion for guest authors to thecenter. With their usual finesse, the Bouroullecscreated and furnished the Floating House. The floorof the houseboat was so close to the waterline thatthe visitors felt that they were walking on water.The impressive catalog of successes based ontheir extensive conflict with both the functional andthe poetical made the Bouroullecs known outsidethe design scene, and each new project is awaited bythe public with anticipation. The brothers perfecttheir interior design and production concepts to thesmallest detail and, unlike many designers, theyfocus on subtle human sensations. jr1971 Ronan Bouroullec is born inQuimper1976 Erwan Bouroullec is born inQuimper1996 Ronan graduates from the Écolenationale supérieure des artsdécoratifs in Paris; sets up adesign agency1997 Presentation of DisintegratedKitchen at the Milan furniturefair, first industrial commissions1999 Erwan completes his studies atthe École nationale supérieured’arts in Cergy-Pontoise; partnerin his brother’s agency2000 Commission to create the showroomfor the A-Poc fashioncollection by Issy Miyake inParis, start of the long-termcollaboration with Vitra2001–11 Various experimental designprojects, which are presented tothe public at four exhibitions atthe Galerie Kreon in ParisSince 2004 Designs for the Italianfurniture manufacturer Magis2006 Architectural project FloatingHouse2011 Designer of the Year Award forNow! Maison & Objet in ParisPortrait of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

140 | 141Alcove, 2006Worknest, 2006

142| 143AppleJonathan IveDieter Rams1925 Invention oftelevision1939–1945 World War II1975 Pol Pot comes to powerin Cambodia1966 Barnett Newman, Who’s Afraidof Red, Yellow and Blue1983 Civil war breaksout in Sudan2001 First same-sex “marriage”in Holland1995 Toy Story is first movie producedentirely with computer animation1985 Live Aid concert for Africa2007 iPhone launchedApple – Jonathan Ive1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025It is simplicity that drives him. No gimmicks, no frills, not a single superfluous button. The products should be elegant andintuitive to use. They should have style. We are of course talking about Apple products: the iPod, iMac, iPhone, and iPad.Their success is down to Steve Jobs, who died at too young an age. However, neither Jobs nor his successor, Tim Cook, werebehind for the design of Apple products. Since 1997, it has been down to a British man: Jonathan Ive.Apple, iPod classicWhen Jobs was alive, Ive was one of his closestcolleagues at Apple. In 1997, when Jobs returned tothe company, which was in crisis at that time, hewas so impressed by Ive’s studies that he put him incharge of design. It is even said that Jobs told thecompany that: “No one can tell him what to do.”There couldn’t have been a greater recognition ofIve’s work for, as well as his flair, Jobs was alsoknown for his company credo: “Apple, that is me.”And Jonathan Ive, who was born in northeastLondon in 1967 and first worked for a British designcompany, repaid Jobs’s appreciation. Afterbecoming the head of design at Apple, he createddesign icons that sold in their millions.One product, however, stands out from Ive’sdesign oeuvre because it is so different. It was,nevertheless, Ive's first success: the candy-colorediMacs from the late 1990s. They already showedwhat Ive and Apple considered to be important:they emotionalize their products, load them withvalues. An Apple product is purchased because it isattractive and valuable.Jonathan Ive, who lives in San Fransisco, said inan interview with the BBC: “There is beauty whensomething works and it works intuitively.” He thusfalls into line with the Braun designer Dieter Ramsand his “Ten Rules for Good Design,” whichincluded: “Good design makes a product understandable.”When talking about Ive’s work, Ramsonce said that Apple was one of the few companieswho still worked according to his ten rules.Ive’s homage to Ram’s pragmatic aesthetics andhis reduced designs can be clearly recognized in oneparticular product that accelerated Apple’s rise atthe start of the new century. The pocket transistorradio T3 from 1958 with its characteristic rotarywheel served as a blueprint for the Apple MP3player. Forty years later, Ive designed the firstgeneration iPod as a legitimate successor to theBraun device, including the scroll wheel. With theiPod, Ive thus designed a product that turned themusic industry on its head. Ive’s newer products,the iPad and the iPhone, are also based on the iPoddesign, and they were partly responsible for settinga new standard in the mobile telephone and computerindustry.By this time, the rather shy and retiring Ive wasone of the most important contemporary productdesigners on the planet, although he himselfsays: “People’s interest is in the product, not theauthorship.” The Queen of England sees thisrather differently. She recently honored Ive with aknighthood for his outstanding contribution todesign and entrepreneurship. So Jonathan Ive hasindeed made a new name for himself. The latest is:Sir Jonathan. mm1967 Born in Chingford, a suburb ofLondon1987 Marries Heather Pegg1989 Graduates with a degree inindustrial design from NewcastlePolytechnic Art School in thenortheast of England1992 Employed by Apple1997 Steve Jobs returns to Apple;the iMac goes into production ashort time later. Since then,Ive has been lead designer at thecompany2001 Presentation of the iPod designedby Ive2011 Awarded an honorary knighthood(KBE) by Queen Elizabeth IIJonathan Ive lives in San FranciscoleftApple, iPadaboveApple Store in New York

144| 1451930 Luis Buñuel,L’Age d’OrNaoto FukasawaKonstantin Grcicmuji1965 Beginning of Vietnam War1941 Bruce Nauman is born 1955–1968 Civil rights movement in the US1970 Willy Brandt’s WarsawGhetto genuflection1999 Columbine High School massacre1986 Jeff Koons, Rabbit2005 Founding of YouTube1991 Conflict breaks out2010 Mass panic at the Love Paradein the Balkansin Duisburg, GermanyMuji1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025“Muji is good for you,” claimed the British product designer Jasper Morrison in 2003.The Japanese chain of lifestyle department stores with their non-branded products combines quality and functionalitywith minimalist design at a reasonable price.Founded in 1980 in Japan, Muji sees itself as acritical response to the consumer behaviorinfluenced by the economic boom of the time. Themarket was defined by the popularity of foreignluxury brands as a status symbol on the one handand low-quality, cheap, no-name products on theother.The company name “mu jirushi ryô hin” (consistingof four Japanese characters in the corporatecolor, bordeaux) and abbreviated as Muji, literallymeans “no brand, good products.” The focus here isjust the high-quality product, not the label, and thecustomer should be attracted by the favorableprice/quality ratio. The careful choice of material,environmentally and resource-friendly manufacturingprocesses, and elegant packaging also play animportant role.“Less is more when you are creating somethingvery simple,” explains Kenya Hara, creative directorat Muji. The concept of “reduction to the bareminimum” is apparent in both the design and thecommunication and restrained presentation of theproducts. Muji articles are characterized by astandard and subtle color palette and clearminimalistic shapes with a focus on simple functionality.The interior architecture of the Muji stores isstrictly purist and consists mainly of shelves andtables made of wood, glass, or steel. With theexception of catalogs, posters, and specificadvertisement campaigns, there is no extensiveadvertising. At the same time, with this philosophy,Muji connects with the Japanese ideal of “shibui”(elegant, subtle, simple, natural), a key concept ofJapanese aesthetics.Although many products were designed byinternational designers such as Naoto Fukasawa,Enzo Mari, Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, SamHecht, Shin and Tomoko Azumi, the designers alsoremain anonymous in accordance with the “nobrand” approach. The Japanese company has wonnumerous design prizes, including five “iF ProductDesign Gold Awards” from the International ForumDesign in Germany (2005) and the “Good DesignAward Japan.” One of most successful and bestknownexamples, the wall CD player by NaotoFukasawa/IDEO Japan, is part of the collection atthe Museum of Modern Art in New York. aw1980 Founded as the house brand forthe Seiyu Ltd department storewith 40 everyday items (ninehousehold items and 31 groceryitems)1981 Expansion of the range to includestationery and textiles1983 Opening of the first direct Mujibranch in Aoyama, Tokyo1989 Muji becomes independent fromSeiyu Ltd.1991 Opening of the first Muji branchabroad (London)2003 World Muji Project: increasedcollaboration with internationaldesigners2006 “Muji Award 01,” first internationaldesign competition2012 Represented in 20 countries with509 retail outlets and over 6,000products from groceries andstationery to household andhygiene articles to clothing,furniture, and electronicapplicancesIn Japan there are also Mujihousehold and entertainmentelectronics, Muji florists, Mujiopticians, Muji cafes, Muji kiosks,Muji campsites, and Muji houses.left pageMuji, Wall CD radio by Naoto FukasawaaboveWall CD player-radio remote control

146| 147Mimmo Paladino1939–1945 World War IIKeith Haring1945 Auschwitz concentration campliberated on January 271952 Samuel Beckett,Waiting for Godotswatch2004 Islamist terrorist attacks in Spain (March 11)1969 Woodstock festival1998 Construction of international space station (ISS) begins1973 Pablo Picasso dies1991 Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility ofDeath in the Mind of Someone Living2010 Catastrophic forest fires1984 Civil war breaks out in Sudanin RussiaSwatch1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025From the “impossible” watch to the “inevitable” sales success: swatch transformed the watch from a device formeasuring time into a fashionable accessory.Display in the Swatch store in Zurich, 2007In the 1970s, cheap Asian digital watches wereforcing high-quality Swiss chronometers from themarket, plunging the local watch industry into aserious crisis. In Switzerland, around half of the120,000 employees in this sector lost their jobswithin five years. There was a feverish search foran option to serve the lower price segment.The first audacious solution finally came from theGrench clockworks factory ETA SA. In March 1980,the director, Ernst Thomke, received a request tobuy an injection-molding machine for more than halfa million Swiss francs. The request came from theplastic technologist Elmar Mock, who, together withthe mechanic Jacques Müller, had developed aradical concept to produce a plastic-based watchand needed the machine for his experiments.Enraged, Thomke summoned Mock to his office,but when he saw the rough sketches of the plasticwatch, he recognized their appeal. The first designcontained a plastic housing from one mold intowhich the basic clockworks and the clock face wereset and permanently welded together with a Perspexcover to make it waterproof. The robust watch wasworn on a plastic strap and, unusually, built up fromthe lower side to the upper side. This enabledautomated production that was much more costeffective than manual assembly. In addition, theplastic permitted adventurous color combinations,which were perfectly suited to the extrovert 1980s.Mock and Müller were allowed to develop theprototypes with the utmost secrecy and FranzSprecher became responsible for the marketingconcept: they were to be marketed as a fun acces -sory and under their own brand, which would becompletely separate from the “timeless” and costlychronometers. The fact that this idea had the potentialto help the entire sector to get back on its feetagain was recognized by Nicolas George Hayek. Atthe time, the business consultant was working onthe restructuring of the SMH SA mother group andhe now approved additional funds to quickly launchthe project. He also devised the name for the newbrand: the fast-moving watch was to be calledswatch, a combination of “second” and “watch.”In 1982, the first 10,000 swatch watches weredelivered to the US as a test, but they were un -popular with customers owing to the uninspiringcolors. Only when the idea of creating half-yearlycollections was introduced and the Zurich designersRobert & Durrer reworked the design of the watchwas a completely integrated concept created. Theimpossible plastic watch became an individualfashion accessory and a sensational commercialsuccess. Thanks to automated production, in 1984,one year after the launch in Switzerland, the millionthswatch was manufactured and this numbergrew to 3.5 million in the same year.This led to cooperation with artists such asMimmo Paladino, Kiki Picasso, and Keith Haring,who each designed a swatch collection. The watches,originally very trendy and designed for young people,became more attractive to an older audience and acollection culture quickly developed around the cultwatch. It became the most important flagshipproduct for the restructured SMH SA, which hadchanged its name to The Swatch Group Ltd in 1998,and helped the entire Swiss watch industry to developa young, fresh image. Other projects launched inthe wake of this success included the concept for thesmall city car smart and in the 1990s, Swatch evenbriefly tried to introduce a new time concept called“beats.”Although the popularity of the swatch reached itsclimax in the 1980s, it is still a popular accessory andSwatch has also become the sponsor for variousextreme sports. The Swatch Group’s product rangeis constantly being expanded and the models fromthe collection of swatch originals are almost toonumerous to count. As before, the group hasambitious plans for its flagship brand: by 2033, theyplan to sell the 1,111 millionth of the colorful watchesthat saved the Swiss watch industry. jr1980 Elmar Mock and Jacques Müllerdevelop the concept of a low-costand fashion-based plastic watchat the clockworks factory ETA SA1983 The swatch is launched on themarket1984 The 3.5 millionth swatch isproduced1990 At an auction, a model from thespecial collection by the artistMimmo Paladino fetches a priceof 56,000 Swiss francs1990s Swatch tries to establish otherproducts under the brand swatch,but the attempts fail1992 The 100 millionth swatch is sold1994 Swatch expands its catalog toinclude a range in metal, Irony1998 SMH SA changes its name to theSwatch Group2006 The 333 millionth swatch is sold2010 Nicolas G. Hayek dies, hisdaughter is elected to the supervisoryboard of the Swatch Group

148| 149Marcel Wanders1948/49 Berlin Airlift1939 Germany invades Poland;World War II commencesHella Jongerius1965 Joseph Beuys action: “How to explainpictures to a dead hare”DROOG Design1982 Michael Jackson, Thriller1973 Chilean coup d’état; elected presidentSalvador Allende dies1992 Founding of theEuropean Union2005 Founding of YouTube1999 Columbine High School massacre2010 Mass panic at the Love Paradein Duisburg, GermanyDroog Design1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025With their sharp ideas, the Dutch designer group Droog Design have been causing a stir for years. Luxury is nota question of money or precious materials; it is the sole result of thoughtful ideas.Droog (Jurgen Bey), Tree-trunk benchDroog Design (“droog” is Dutch for “dry”) is aninternationally renowned Dutch designer collectivelocated in Amsterdam. Droog Design develops andproduces furniture, lamps, accessories, and objects.Many internationally well-known designers work forDroog, including Marcel Wanders, Hella Jongerius,Tejo Remy, Richard Hutten, and Jurgen Bey. Someproducts from the company can also be seen inimportant international design collections, forexample in the Museum of Modern Art in New York(MoMA) and in the Central Museum of Utrecht.The 1980s can be considered both the peak ofpostmodern design as well as a low point in designhistory. Lamps had ornamental protuberances,furniture took the form of body parts, and the Alessiteapot had a golden metal lid with a knob that couldburn fingers. Then at the start of the 1990s, a movementsurfaced that confronted ostentatious everydaydesign with a provocative dryness: Droog Designwas founded in 1993 by Gijs Baker and the designhistorian Renny Ramakers with the aim of opposingthe prevailing formally playful and elite under -standing of design with a conceptual, pragmatic butoften also subjective and rugged design. At theMilan Furniture Fair of 1993 the founders of DroogDesign presented objects from young Dutchdesigners that were like aesthetic explosions amongthe artistic offshoots of 1980s’ designs: a bookshelfmade of strips of brown paper, and Tejo Remy’s“Multiplex,” a chest of drawers that consisted ofnothing but old drawers held together by a juteband – a crude mixture of the pioneer spirit of theearly Ikea boxes and the improvisation-ready junkcreativity of the 1960s. Droog Design did not create anew style but instead they developed a new attitudewhereby postmodernist gimmicks were accompaniedby a new objectivity and also dry humor. Sincethen, the Dutch designers have frequently presentedtheir products at fairs and in renowned design storesand they generate at least a few smiles when, forexample, a tree trunk is fitted with antique armrestsand thus becomes an aesthetically memorable pieceof furniture – albeit not the most comfortable.Last but not least, the products from Droog liveon the idea of recycling: for example, twelve emptymilk bottles are provided with lightbulbs andbundled together into a minimalist sculpture (TejoRemy). Such associations are reminiscent both ofthe Ready-Made movement of Marcel Duchamp andthe everyday culture of pop. The seat made of rags,held together by packaging tape, belongs in therepertoire of the design factory, which now workswith over 100 independent designers throughout theworld.Since 2004, the designer duo has had its offices inan old factory building in Amsterdam. There is ashop, a showroom, a library, and a kitchen in whichevents are held. Droog Design sends its productsthroughout the world from Amsterdam and today isone of the most recognized international designlabels with over 180 products in the categories oflight and lighting, furniture, kitchen, bathroom,tabletop, and accessories. hd1942 Gijs Bakker is born onFebruary 20 in Amsterdam1993 Establishes Droog Designtogether with Renny Ramakers;presentation of the first furnitureitems at the Milan Furniture Fair1996 First cooperation with a company(dry tech)2000 Own factory for designs inAmsterdam2004 Droog Headquarters in Amsterdam;Simply Droog. 10 + 1 YearsAvant-garde Design from theNetherlands, Haus der Kunst,MunichPortrait of Droog

150 | 151Tejo Remy, Multiplex, chestof drawers, 1993Tejo Remy, Rag chair, 1991

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IndexAalto, Alvar 46Alessi 86Apple 142Arad, Ron 112Barber, Edward 134Bill, Max 64Bouroullec, Erwan 138Bouroullec, Ronan 138Brandt, Marianne 38Breuer, Marcel 52Carwardine, George 32Castiglioni, Achille 80Conran, Terence 96Le Corbusier 30Day, Lucienne 72Day, Robin 72Dixon, Tom 114Droog Design 148Eames, Charles 62Eames, Ray 62Gray, Eileen 24Grcic, Konstantin 130Gropius, Walter 26Henningsen, Poul 44Hoffmann, Josef 22Ive, Jonathan 142Jacobsen, Arne 56van Lieshout, Joep 126Loewy, Raymond 40Mackintosh, Charles Rennie 18Magistretti, Vico 82Maurer, Ingo 102Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 28Morris, William 16Morrison, Jasper 116Muji 144Newson, Marc 122Noguchi, Isamu 60Osgerby, Jay 134Panton, Verner 92Ponti, Gio 36Prouvé, Jean 50Putman, Andrée 90Rams, Dieter 100Rashid, Karim 118Rietveld, Gerrit 34Saarinen, Eero 66Sottsass, Ettore 76Starck, Philippe 106Swatch 146Thonet, Michael 12Vitra 108Wagenfeld, Wilhelm 48Wirkkala, Tapio 68Yanagi, Sori 74Marc Newson, ATMOS_566_FRONT

156 | 157farbe wird noch festgelegtPhoto credits© Alessi: p. 86, 87, 88, 89© Alessi/Carlo Lavatori: FrontispieceCourtesy of Karim Rashid Inc.: p. 10/11Thonet GmbH: p. 12 (Michael Gerlach), 13, 14 (ConstantinMeyer), 15 (Michael Gerlach), p. 29IAM/akg-images: p. 16, S. 31akg-images: p. 19, 43Cassina, Mailand (Mario Carrieri): p. 20, 34TECTA, Lauenförde: p. 26, 28, 32, 52, 54, 55Jacek Marczewski © 2003 The Museum of Modern Art,New York: 30Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin (photo: Gunter Lepkowski): p. 38© Raymond Loewy Foundation, Hamburg: p. 40, 41/42belowakg-images/Paul Almasy: p. 41 above© Louis Poulsen: p. 44, 45Artek: p. 46Ensio Ilmonen and Lehtikuva: p. 47Wilhelm Wagenfeld Stiftung, Bremen: S. 48© Vitra: p. 22, 50, 51, 61, 108, 110/110© Vitra/Andreas Sütterlin: p. 60, 74© Vitra Collections AG: p. 62© Fritz Hansen: p. 56, 57, 58, 59© Eames Foundation: p. 63© Manufactum (www.manufactum.de)akg-images/Angelika Platen: p. 69Mid Century Modern Gallery, Kapstadt: p. 66akg-images/Tony Vaccaro: p. 67Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam: p. 68Maaria Wirkkala: p. 69Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation: p. 70, 71Victoria and Albert Museum, London: p. 72Alberto Fioravanti: p. 76Barbara Radice Sottsass: p. 77Memphis, Mailand: p. 78Studio Ettore Sottsass srl: p. 79Studio Museo Achille Castiglioni: p. 80Mauro Galligani /laif: p. 81Courtesy Studio Magistretti Archive - Vico MagistrettiFoundation: p. 82, 83, 84, 85Studio Putman: p. 90Raphael DEMARET/REA/laif: p. 91Verner Panton Design, Bern: p. 92, 93, 94, 95Studio Conran: p. 96, 97, 98, 99Procter & Gamble Germany: p. 100, 101© Ingo Maurer: p. 102, 103, 104, 105© Philippe Starck: p. 106Thomas Bilanges: p. 107Ron Arad Associates: p. 112, 113Vitra/Hans Hansen: p. 109Tom Dixon Studio: p. 114Pierre Olivier Deschamps/VU/laif: p. 115André Huber: p. 116momoko Japan: p. 117Courtesy of Karim Rashid Inc.: p. 118, 119, 120/121Carin Katt: p. 122Tom Vack: p. 125Courtesy of Mark Newson Limited: p. 123, 156Tue Schiorring: p. 124© Atelier van Lieshout: p. 126, 128, 129Merlijn Doomernik/Hollandse Hoogte/laif: p. 127Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design: p. 130, 132, 133Tibor Bozi: p. 131© Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: p. 138, 140, 141© Ola Rindal: p. 139© Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby: p. 134, 136, 137© Linda Brownlee: p. 135© 2012 Apple Inc.: p. 142, 143© Muji: p. 144, 145© Gaetan Bally/Keystone Schweiz/laif: p. 146© Droog Design: p. 148, 149, 150, 151textsHajo Düchting (hd): 23, 35, 51, 61, 65, 77, 81, 91, 97, 119, 123, 127, 131, 149Claudia Hellmann (ch): 13, 19, 25, 39, 41, 57, 63, 67, 69, 103Nina Kozel (nk): 17, 27, 29, 31, 37, 45, 47, 53, 73, 87, 93, 107, 109, 115, 135Marco Maurer (mm): 143Johannes Rave (jr): 33, 75, 83, 101, 113, 139, 147Josef Straßer (js): 49Annette Winkler (aw): 117, 145

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