German designer Hannes Grebin has created a range of living room furniture based on 1970s German domestic decor.
The bizarre, angular forms are covered in patterns and detailing which Grebin claims were commonly found in German living rooms during the 1970’s.
He describes the pieces as “living sculptures, which puts the traditional views about comfort and taste into question.”
The collection includes a sofa, arm chair, sideboard, rug and pendant lamp.
Grebin completed the project in October while studying product design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.
Here’s some text from the designer:
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I was determined to make a complete redesign of the “German parlour/living room”. I limited the furniture range to the 6 archetypes of the ordinary German living room, the couch, the arm chair, the carpet, the wall unit, the ceiling lamp and finally the traditional German tile table (just now in design phase).
Especially on my research on the topic gemutlichkeit/cosiness I found out that terms as taste or comfort are a matter of learning, which are changing at any time and can easily be adapted.
Therefore, in an experiment I tried to dissect the familiar image of Cosiness like in movies or television, this very illustrative Cozy of the German 70s, to creatively rearticulate it. I wanted to dissolve the otherwise clear symmetry of furniture and it’s just visually coded function (A couch looks like a couch - is a couch …) .
The respective original object shouldn’t be reduced just to absurdity. I rather “zeroed” its geometry or sometimes I only rearranged it. A precise assignment of functions of the resulting un-or non-forms is now only possible through their texture (fabric) or applications (fringes, patterns, lace doilies), which are radiating neatness and a certain familiarity in spite of the predominant geometric dissonance. This creates the very disturbing effect of these. Despite its fractal and asymmetric geometry the furniture perfectly meet the demands of ergonomics. Thus I wanted to erupt from the everlasting symmetry of furniture.
Furthermore I can’t actually understand why at the current state of the techniques hardly one designer is experimenting sculpturally. It seems as if the opportunities offered by a sculptural, process-oriented, generated and unique furniture design (guided by “Design on Demand”, e.g. “Sinter Chair”, O. Vogt, H. Weizenegger) today, if ever, are to be explored somewhere in scripting ( “Vendome”, C. Weisshaar, R. Kram).
Quite differently, in my approach/production pipeline I’ve integrated a deliberately traditional modeling with clay as part of my design work and for a start I would like to place this project under the hybrid term of “digital craft” or “NEOCRAFT” .
And also in relation to a possible production of the pieces, especially in the current production discourse on craftsmanship, I can very well imagine a craft production.
Ultimately, it should be mentioned, that I didn’t want to make just furniture. I’t was much more important for me that although all objects work excellent as individual pieces, just in the specific arrangement of the “German living room, the design objects become objects for discussion, in order to lead the theoretical design discourse to new ways and approaches.
In my defense my supervising professor considered all of my designs as a “disciplined joke”. That frankly falls a bit short for me
“Perser”, oriental carpet
The carpet is an interpretation of the classical Persian rug. Just as all the other objects it is playing with the distressing effect reached by the contrast of broken geometry and square, retro texture, as it acts as a medium of coded experience values.
“Deckenleuchte”, ceiling lamp,
Revised, cleaned up version of a ceiling lamp from an ordinary german living room
“Schrankwand-Sideboard”, sideboard
To keep up with the times, and because today less is more, the wall unit as a florid storage system is overtaken and substituted by a sideboard. This piece of furniture is an arrangement of four different functional parts of a rustic wall unit for the purpose of German period furniture. To the formative tenor from deliberate, geometrical dissonance is also corresponded here.
“Spießer-Sofa”, couch,
With its 4 meters in length, the couch is the heart of this cosy ensemble. Here the popular image of comfortable seating is alienated, and merely by its texture and applications (lace doilies, fringes) its function becomes conceivable.
“Ohrensessel”, wing chair,
In spite of hard edges, a very pleasant seating. By composite construction and stuck upholstery fabric with flower pattern “Cosy Hard Edge” is entering the living room. Through my diploma I concerned myself with the subjects of cosiness, the typical German living room and bourgeois pieces of furniture. Applications like lace doilies and fringes both live of the comfortable character and encouraging the irritating image.
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Posted by Rose Etherington
January 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. These look like they were designed by a great grandmother who’d gone off her schizophrenia meds.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
very nice concept…the light and the rug are my favourite, but I am not so keen about sitting on the sofas, as they are not so comfortable looking aesthetically…
January 8th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
my grannie was a crack addicted, she used to spend her sleepless nights designing furniture…
January 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Well, maybe this is what we all have to do, and loosen up a bit…
January 8th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
These look like they were designed by a great grandmother who’d gone off her schizophrenia meds. AWESOME! i like this a lot
January 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
chuck you are a fool…
January 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I have been reading this blog for 2 years and this is the first thing i have seen that i felt need to comment on.
This work is fantastic. The man should get a distinction for the rug alone.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
brilliant. love the rug.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Giggle @ Chuck’s comment.
I think it’s quite unusual and funny. I tend to think that this is more artistic than design.
someone tell that grandma to resume taking her med. She may hurt herself otherwise.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Chuck, your grandma really sound like she knows her stuff, you should post pics… lets see if it measures up.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Yepp, Chuck,
there is an approach to the schizophrenia of reality called irony…
with an almost disturbing outcome.
Nevertheless, irony often tries to slip through the lense of criticism.
So, how do we approch this thing aesthetically? Give me a hint …
K
January 8th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I can dig.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Chucki, what an innocent comment…
January 8th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Not very practical, however, I love the concept. I think as a example of study, these may yield interesting design for future products.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
That’s what you may think when you’ll forget about the possibility of designing not so serious furniture. Not everything has to be pure white, honest and responding to the exact needs, sometimes design is about having fun and putting more intelligence than one may find.
Very nice designs! Even if i don’t like postmodernism for it’s architectural proposals, i think there’s a lot of postmodern background in this design and it works just fine.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
and that’s why I like it
January 8th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
CHUCK HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAH!!!!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
i thenk they are great
and they will go verry well
with you cats……
January 8th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
tight
January 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
OMG, are ANY of the comments on this site EVER NOT from haters?
January 8th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Chuck: That is “exactly” how they did it.
Remember when Front design enslaved cute animals and put them to work to fulfill our addiction to daily rss design porn ?
Well the creative process has evolved one next step further.
It is about time those people get put to work. Confiscate their medication and let them play with wood, fabric, and power tools.
For those who make a living of not reading between the lines, I’m being sarcastic.
Stop taking design so seriously. This is experimental.
Nice lamp.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Love the juxtaposition of discombobulated and seemingly archaic geometric form dressed in the traditional garb of comfort. Great Pieces, truly the first unique re-interpretation of furniture pieces I’ve seen in a long time. Much more inventive and playful than more than half the other crap that always tend to resemble those déjà vu. This is pure deconstructivism, rather than design in the anticipated style du jours. Most of what is ‘modern’ today is really quite trite and hackneyed.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
amazing!! this is one of the most beautiful things i have seen on this blog. its like 70s homecooked transformers!
January 8th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I love this as much as I love schizophrenic grandmas on crack, which is a lot.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
“Stop taking design so seriously” - Please print t-shirts with this …
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Good stuff. Love it
January 8th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I don’t know why people still bother to comment, they look at the picture with a knife in their hands right before they click the post.
For real, it’s got potential, some o them more than others.
PS:If you want to continue to look at 21st century magazines century and still see corbusier and mies chairs all over the place go fot it.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
this are beautiful! i want to see more by mr. grebin.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I WANT THIS. NOW!
January 8th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
nice! I like it!
really, people, stop taking design so seriously…
what do you want??
another dull sofa in a row…
like all the others??
well, you’re on the wrong place, then…
once again, really nice work!!!
January 9th, 2009 at 12:13 am
The rug! How did they get the warp and the woof ?
I’d like to think they didn’t patch pieces together.
It’s great anyway.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Love it, great work. It sounds as though it has been meaningfully, thoroughly investigated and reinterpreted. The long couch would look fantastic in a public space as informal seating. Not the kind of thing to watch tv at home on. And the armchair actually looks comfortable.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Are you kidding me? How can this be called design? I think the real question is, who would actually be proud to put this in their own home…. Very brave though….
January 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Slater.
“Who would actually be proud to put this in their own home?”
This is just a bizarre comment. What make you think everyone shares your taste in furniture/design.
It seems that quite a number of people on this blog are forgetting that this is a student project. One has to master the craft and then push against established boundaries.
I find the ideas quite refreshing and thoughtful. This is what thoughtful designs are about. I’d rather look at this than just another banal pseudo-modern, minimalist block of plastic masquerading as a piece of furniture.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
The pieces certainly make me question things, but I can’t imagine anyone ever actually using the chairs or sofas - if you encountered them you’d probably be worried about damaging them (or yourself!) if you tried to sit down!
I agree with ‘Me’ above about the reaction of some of the other comments; it’s not necessarily the most practical option but design isn’t always about practicality, as a concept and a project designed to make people think I think it’s a very successful body of work.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Why do people keep commenting on the physical and visual comfort of these pieces when the whole idea of these artworks are to challenge the idea of them.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
its just what school of thought you subscribe to and if you believe in “design art” then this challenges our typical sense of aesthetic and proportions and would not be out of place in a museum.
For me, I think too many people are trying to do the shocking and bizarre and that you are actually more special if you try to get your proportions, ergonomics and functionality right rather than doing something “crazy”. Simply because so many aspiring designers are wrecking their brains out to do insane stuff for media attention, it is becoming more unusual for a designer to do things the way designers like Eames and Aalto used to do it - which is to achieve good form, proportions, and usability of products, through the innovative use of new materials and technology or otherwise.
If you followed the most recent season of American idol you would remember that after David Cook (eventual winner) sang “Music of the Night” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, he told the judges he sang it straight ( instead of his usual practice of rearranging the song), because it would be more of a surprise for audiences to hear it the way was originally sung, through the voice of David Cook, rather than doing another “rock rendition”.
In the light of the major clean up our financial markets is undergoing right now, (which was due to oversight, excesses and indulgence), maybe is about time our design world gets a clean up too.
So the bottom line for the young generation that are going to be the future stars of our design world as-we-know-it: when almost everyone is going new school, maybe you should think seriously about going old school.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Just to show solidarity…love the approach and attempt to reinterpret. Keep at it and look forward to more of your work.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
A young body in old clothing.
Awesome Lamps.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
that s the grand ma who played in “requiem for a dream!!!”
January 9th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
me
I can respect pushing boundarys and challenging standards in design, that is why I think it was a bold move. I think it is more of an art piece rather than a production piece, which is most likely the intent.
As a furniture designer/builder myself, I can appriciate the complexity of the construction/fabrication of all of the pieces in this collection. My only quirk with projects like these, and there are many posted on this site, is that there is no real basis/structure to the idea. It is simply a bunch of shapes consumed and then vometed back out into a mass and called furniture/architecture/design. Just my opinion and isn’t that what this forumn is all about, seeing new and innovative ideas, commenting and creating interesting disscusion. this collection certainly achieved that, so cheers for that accomlishment.
come on me, lets stick to discussion about the work
January 9th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Firstly I love the sofa. There is something, almost undulating about it and in that sense it does break away from quite ‘box-like’ or ‘linear’ pieces of furniture. However this comment/explanation puzzled me…
He describes the pieces as “living sculptures, which puts the traditional views about comfort and taste into question.”
To me I think we are way past the point of questioning taste and comfort in design with regards to furniture. People have done this for an age and although I think to some extent it has merit I don’t think it adds much to the progression of what ‘furnishes’ people’s lives at a basic level.
Pieces like this, however exciting are destined for galleries and to me that’s what’s quite sad about it all.
Beautiful work though.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:16 am
The carpet wins! For it is farthest from the acquired aesthetic taste of the c-c-c-c- computer.
The fabrics and familiar patterns are the eye nurturer in these works. Otherwise, there is simply an error found cad skeleton warmed by the memory of that old comfortable lady.
I feel the same way about the Trust Design interior which i will go comment on now.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Slater
I guess that’s fair enough.
As a designer I’m very much open to criticism, after all I’m designing for others and not just for myself.
I just prefer ‘constructive criticism’ that can be beneficial to my design process.
I think it’s fair to assume that most people on this blog are designers of some sort. I’m just saying that most of the criticism tends to be abrasive and counter productive.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
loving it!
January 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Excuse me “me says” for my poetics. If your furniture hadn’t stimulated something, I would have not been inclined to comment. My hatred is my love. They are one in the same. Trust me, your work is innovative and inspiring. You could’ve changed the color of a cube and called it new but instead you presented a concise form that finds itself welcome in the future and past in the same breath.
Onward and forward.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:06 am
I like the carpet.
I think the whole project is interesting but I would like to see how Hannes Grebin is going to solve the problem of weaving threads coming from different directions. It’s not a negative critic, but a design issue.
The sofas are avoiding this issue by using panels of applied fabric, it would not work for a carpet.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Thank you for all the overwhelming feedback! Makes my father very proud and me staying productive after a far too long period of procrastination. Good night to everyone from a frosty Weimar.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:58 am
in one word: juxtaposition
January 12th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Picasso would have the hots for this stuff
January 12th, 2009 at 9:27 am
that’s crazy and funny for me. I loughted while watching that and if I have something like this in my home every day would become funny from the beggining. In positive way of course!
January 17th, 2009 at 3:38 am
You are all wrong, these pieces don’t need your petty opinions - they party amongst themselves, and what a party it is.
You sir, have my envy!
January 27th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Excelent! Congratulations Hannes. This is the kind of concept I am searching for, a perfect combination
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Too old fashioned
February 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
THIS IS VERY STUNNING!!
I LIEKD THE IDEA, THE RUG LOOKS NICE…
April 25th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Hannes Grebin makes a great commentary on the combination of images that we are seeing only from a cultural standpoint in society; the goodwill kitsch, vintage, middle-class aesthetic, and the deconstructivist angles we often see in high-brow design magazines as of present. Having myself a vintage late 1960’s floral patterned faux-suede couch in my living room right next to a deformed alluminum coffee table that both ironically seem like one of a kind, I think these are very innovative pieces in themselves, if not great explorations.