Background information
From volcanoes to the Alps – when Mexican design meets Swiss expertise
by Pia Seidel
The Swiss Biennale for the architecture and design scene
9.11.2018
Translation: machine translated
Last week, I attended "Designer's Saturday" in Langenthal and have summarised the highlights for you.
Fashion has Paris, interior design has Milan - er no: Langenthal. The inspiration and meeting platform known as "Designer's Saturday" has been held in the canton of Bern since 1987. It is attended by an international audience of professionals and onlookers. As a mixture of work show and theatre play, this exhibition, unlike the annual "Salone del Mobile" furniture fair in Milan, is dedicated less to the end product and more to the design process, materials and manufacturing.
For an entire weekend, visitors are given an insight into the production halls of five different manufacturers: Création Baumann, Girsberger, Glas Trösch, Hector Egger Holzbau and Ruckstuhl open their doors and give students and established manufacturers a space for their exhibition and for an exchange with design enthusiasts. Find out what there was to experience here.
Water march
At the first stop of "Girsberger", I am greeted by lifeguards in shorts. They accompany the exhibition of the oldest Swiss chair manufacturer "Dietiker". Floating bubbles, diving boards, the sound of running water and an ice cream stand take me back to summer.
In the next hall, I feel like I'm in a park crowned by a fountain. Behind it is the sanitaryware specialist "Keramik Laufen". Instead of staging its shower toilets and taps in a bathroom, it uses typical materials such as chrome and utilises them as a design element for an installation.
Fine feeling
This time, the "Depot for Design" is focussing on Japan as the guest country. Together with a friendly translator, I am introduced to traditional and contemporary product design room by room. I am particularly impressed by the copper vessels from the manufacturer "Gyokusendo", which are made on site by a craftsman. In the typical position, he precisely hammers a single piece of copper into a bowl. His hammer never hits the same spot twice. "This takes months of practice," the translator explains to me.
A few steps further on, I marvel at Naoki Terada's miniature worlds. From weddings to tennis matches, there are various scenarios and landscapes on display. The models seem to come to life when I imagine what the little figures in them are doing. In comparison to replicas, they are not intended to imitate something, but stand for themselves.
In the (Christmas) bakery
In addition to local and international manufacturers, universities are invited to showcase their working methods and design processes as part of the "Young Talents" programme under a so-called "Carte Blanche". This time, the "Exhibition Design" degree programme at the Peter Behrens School of Arts Düsseldorf was a guest from abroad.
The students used the Mühlehof location as an opportunity to explore the original purpose of the building. A long information board about the importance of flour and bread for our society is accompanied by a table on which flour is piled up.
While one of the students explains the exhibition to me in more detail, I am handed a piece of fresh bread on a string. A nice gesture, which is no coincidence: the exhibition in the next room requires a foundation in the stomach.
#Instaworthy
Another highlight of the "Young Talents" exhibition is the "Love Bar" by #LOOSLAB, the students of HEAD - Genève. It's cosy, has niches to sit in and a bar. Even though I feel like I'm in a bar, there's something strange about it. On closer inspection, I realise what: the supposed wood panelling, marble walls or floors are actually just printed foil. A very specific interior design is being imitated here, as I find out later: the "American Bar" by Austrian architect Adolf Loos. It is only supposed to look "real" in photos and have an "instagrammable" interior.
With this project, the students are questioning our relationship to material, to images, to our perception of the world and our relationship to social media. Did I make an Insta story afterwards? Of course I did. Because I wanted to know which of my friends would be the first to ask me which new bar I was in.😉
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Header image: Experience design in a different way - and shower toilets too: every two years, "Designers' Saturday" gives numerous brands such as "Laufen" a stage to show their specialty.
Pia Seidel
Senior Editor
Pia.Seidel@digitecgalaxus.chLike a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.
Interior
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