Highlights of 75 years - Hettich

For two decades, Hettich
Australia has been supplying
its customers with product
information via the F+A
catalogue. Now Hettich is
appealing to designers and
discerning consumers with its
Living Worlds series. The
publication of Kitchens and
Bathrooms, the first volume in
the series, was timed to coincide
with the designEX show
in April this year in Melbourne.
lot of customers were delighted that the
A catalogue has got bigger. They liked the
wider choice of products in the Kitchen and
Bathroom section, and the additions to
Residential and Office sections. The completely
revised catalogue is 1,080 pages long. It provides
detailed information about almost 3,000
products, 1,100 of them new additions in this
issue. All the products in the catalogue are
available ex stock from the central warehouses in
Sydney and Auckland.
The catalogue was reworked for the Australian
and New Zealand markets. The index, for
example, now includes local names for fittings, so
that even non-specialists can find their way
around.
Australia and New Zealand
Living Worlds
for kitchens
and bathrooms
Today we have virtually limitless choice
in the way we furnish our homes. So
what drives our preferences and personal
tastes? Some people want a cosy cocoon,
where comfort is the priority, a degree of
untidiness is acceptable and everything is
a little bit tatty, like a pair of well-worn
jeans. At the other end of the continuum
are the people who love pure design,
shades of white, uncompromisingly stark
lines, and strictly functional organization.
Probably most of us would admit to being
somewhere towards the middle, although
exactly where is an interesting question.
Some design psychologists identify four
categories depending on the home environment
that best suits us: the starkly
modern, the classical ideal of perfect
organization and aesthetics, the comfort
of familiar surroundings, or the need for
contact with the natural environment.
These four categories can be labelled:
modern, classical, domestic and natural.
An individual might not fit exactly into
one category, there could be overlaps or
mixes, but basically these four categories
can be used to predict choices people will
make about their home environments.
Despite the huge number of products, the
catalogue is far more than just a list of order
codes. It contains functional diagrams and
detailed construction drawings, complete with
dimensions, to aid selection and installation. The
wealth of information makes the F+A catalogue
an essential tool, not only in the field, but also in
training programmes for designers, distributors
and furniture manufacturers. In short, the
catalogue has become a reference work for
furniture design and construction, making it
child‘s play to select the right fitting for every
application.
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The idea for the Living Worlds series
evolved against this background. Kitchens
and Bathrooms is the first volume in the
series. The publications are intended to
provoke an interesting and ongoing
discussion. And to trigger a creative
dialogue between customers and professional
designers about people‘s preferences,
habits and tastes. At the same
time, they provide ideas for applications
and designs that are only possible
through the use of innovative furniture
fittings. Living Worlds is not intended to be
either a design manual or a style guide. Its
primary purpose is to assist in identifying
different styles and in finding out what
moves people to choose particular
furniture and furnishings. Building on
this, the booklets illustrates how consumer
needs can be better matched by using
Hettich fittings to achieve a design with
still more functionality. As always, the
goal is satisfied customers.
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