Willy Guhl Denken mit den Händen

As a pioneer of modern design, Willy Guhl created world-renowned furniture such as the Eternit beach chair and the first plastic shell chair in Europe. In the tradition of modernity and against the backdrop of the nationalist Heimat style, he developed a holistic design approach focused on people and their needs after 1945; functionality and a reduction to the essentials characterize his utility objects. In collaboration with Swiss companies like Dietiker, Eternit, and Aebi, Willy Guhl designed seating furniture, planters, and lawn mowers.

Willy Guhl's designs, his teaching methods, and his image archive testify to the innovations of the booming design industry in the post-war period and the evolving profession of industrial designer. As a teacher and later head of the specialized class for interior design and product design at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts from 1941 to 1980, Willy Guhl shaped generations of Swiss designers, including Robert Haussmann, Kurt Thut, and Andreas Christen. The trained carpenter and interior architect imparted his design knowledge hands-on, using demonstration objects, practical exercises, and memorable stories.

The first comprehensive monograph illuminates Willy Guhl's design legacy in the context of this design and teaching practice, as well as current theories in the design discipline. As a thematically structured catalog of works, it provides a complete inventory of all his designs and illustrates his research-oriented working method and passion for materials and technology through sketches, plans, and photographs, which also reflect in the selection of exemplary student works.