Furniture & Design Works by Atelier Steffen Kehrle

After a craft orientated week it seemed suitable to highlight work more rooted in the usual design process, and Atelier Steffen Kehrle has been on my list of ‘likes’ for a while now. Although I say ‘usual’, their work is far from it, with one of my favourite parts of their studio website being that they show how they make a lot of the furniture and objects, also where the ideas stem from. Since I have a particular interest in furniture making, I even have quite a few books on the subject, the way that they design their prototypes was quite astonishing and the use of different materials surprised/intrigued me.

Here I’m showcasing a mixture of different imagery that appealed to me on their site, as you can imagine there’s plenty more like this which I couldn’t pull across. I’d recommend viewing the making ones mentioned above, as it might give you an example of how to go about making your own. One that stuck out was the sofa they made titled ‘set’ which they prototyped out of cardboard to start off with, they then moved on to foam which was covered in fabric (seat covers) and made wooden boards with metal brackets for each side to hold the foam. It’s brilliant to see the crazy amount of steps taken and the variety of material used in combination, obviously these refinements add to a finished piece of furniture that is refined to the max.

The owner, Steffen Kehrle, studied industrial design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 2009 he has run the studio with the emphasis on product, display, and interior design, all the projects stem from a curiosity towards human interaction with things. His focus therefore lies on which objects evoke emotions and the context-sensitive orchestration of objects in unusual or everyday settings. I personally admire his simplicity in all the pieces that he designs, whether big or small. All of them are rooted around functionality and with form in mind. They’re obviously quite a creative studio considering all the ‘hands-on’ methods that they use, and I see some links between two particular designers, one being Isamu Noguchi and the other Enzo Mari (in fact I saw two books on these specific designers in one of their bookshelf pictures). Possibly the handmade feel behind the woodwork reminds me of Enzo Mari and his makeshift furniture, and the concrete pieces more Isamu Noguchi, although he dabbled in all sorts of endeavours anyway. Overall, I can’t wait to see what else will be added to the portfolio over the next few years. I’ll definitely keep my eyes peeled.

steffenkehrle.com

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