Encouraged by the great success of the MONZA armchair, I have designed a smaller version without armrests, the stackable MONZA chair. Like its big brother the chair achieves notable comfort from its distinctive backrest in injection moulded polypropylene. The MONZA chair is made in solid ash (natural or stained black) which can be combined with different coloured backrests.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Plank

Last in the 360° family is an adjustable work table. Just like old technical drafting machines it has a central column which conceals a mechanism for height adjustment (73cm - 95cm). The base is die-cast in aluminium, the tops are made of laquered MDF (dia. 120cm or 140cm x 90cm).

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Prtoducer: Magis

Chair_B is the extension of last year’s Table_B project. The chair in solid wood features a flip-up seat which allows for horizontal stacking. The underside of the seat is covered with Abet laminate in a range of colours.

Project asssistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: BD Barcelona

BLOW is a set of small tables developed for Established & Sons and made by the Venetian glass manufacturer Venini. The project explores the physical boundaries of mouth-blown glass. The main body of the tables is conceived as a free form balloon onto which the table top of hand-made sheet glass is attached. The sensation of the piece lies in the large scale of blown glass as well as in the combination of translucent Venini colours.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Establised & Sons, manufactured by Venini

The key characteristics of CRASH are its generous dimensions; it is wide and spacious ... and extremely comfortable. To crash out is a nice English expression which comes to mind.
Something I’ve been concerned with for years is the way how upholstered furniture is made. There is a huge industry out there producing endless upholstered furniture all made in the same banal way; glueing foam onto cheap wooden structures, then stapling fabric over it. CRASH consists of the same elements, a supporting structure, a piece of foam and the fabric cover. However, we do not bond these elements together. There is a supporting framework made of tubular steel, very simple and straightforward and a loose piece of moulded foam that gets pushed over the frame. The fabric finishes everything off, it is streched over the foam like a jumper.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour
Producer: Established & Sons

Marsotto Edizioni is a beautiful collection of furniture made from CNC machined white Carrara marble. The project, which includes pieces by James Irvine, Jasper Morrison, Maddalena Casadei, Naoto Fukasawa and Thomas Sandell is art-directed by designer James Irvine and was launched during the 2010 Salone del Mobile in Milan.
My own contribution to the project are a reclined chair (SULTAN) and two different side tables (GALATA and TAKSIM).

Project assistant: Friederike Daumiller (KGID)
Producer: Marsotto Edizioni

Complementary to the 360° chair and stool comes a simple storage container on castors. The container consists of a singular plastic drawer unit which swivels out from a vertical pole to open. The 360° container in ABS is available with five or ten drawers and comes in various colours (black, white, orange, olive green, red, light grey).

Project Assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Magis

Art Institute of Chicago, Modern Wing
November 20th 2009 – January 24th 2010

"Konstantin Grcic: Decisive Design", on view in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago is the first comprehensive showcase of my work in a U.S. museum.
Curated by Zoë Ryan (Neville Bryan Curator of Design at the Art Institute of Chicago), the exhibition is conceived as a studio-like environment.
Extending over the full wall space of the gallery, the display processes content in a very didactical way, illuminating the objects through a variety of drawings, models, prototypes, photos, film, text etc. In addition there is an open stage in the center of the exhibition, which puts some objects out into use; visitors are invited to sit on furniture, touch material, experience the spatiality of the products, their geometry and scale.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, authored by Zoë Ryan.
Published as part of the A+D Series by:
The Art Institute of Chicago / Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-15104-6

Project assistant: Olivia Herms (KGID)
Exhibition curator: Zoë Ryan (Art Institute Chicago)

Serpentine Gallery, London
26.November 2009 - 07.February 2010

Like contemporary art, design both shapes and reflects our constantly changing society. Good design understands human behaviour, offers pragmatic solutions to problems and enhances our everyday experience.
Curating the Serpentine Gallery´s first design related exhibition DESIGN REAL my concept focuses on 'real' items, industrially made products that have a significance in everyday life.

Apart from showing the physical objects DESIGN REAL features an information space which expands on themes developed in the exhibition allowing visitors to investigate the origins and applications of the products on view. A dedicated internet site www.design-real.com, designed by Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni, is the exhibition´s central resource and integral to its concept.

A catalogue (designed by Alex Rich) is published on the occasion of the exhibition DESIGN REAL by Serpentine Gallery and Koenig Books Ltd. featuring essays by Emily King and Jonathan Olivares.
Koenig Books, London
ISBN 978-3-86560-746-1

Collaborators:
Kathryn Rattee (curator, Serpentine Gallery)
Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni (graphic concept, catalogue & website)
Friederike Daumiller (KGID)

A ULD (Unit Load Device) is a container used to load luggage, freight, and mail on wide-body aircraft and specific narrow-body aircraft. It allows a large quantity of cargo to be bundled into a single unit. ULD containers, also known as cans and pods, are closed containers made of aluminum or combination of aluminum (frame) and Lexan (walls).

"Almost all the objects that you can see have at some point been inside a shipping container. In fact, today, 90% of cargo travels by container."
Taken from: www.design-real.com

360° is neither a stool nor a chair, but something inbetween. Its name implies that it swivels around and that one can sit on it in all directions. It is meant for seated activities that require a constantly changing posture. 360° is not intended for long stints of work in a static position. Instead it encourages a form of dynamic sitting, short term, ad hoc, improvised - moving around.

360° comes in two types, as a chair on castors and as a high stool. Both versions have a gas piston for height adjustment.

"Konstantin Grcic´s radical take on the office chair shatters the ergonomists´monopoly on workplace design and turns a bumrest into a tool. Sitting on it in a traditional way is the least successful approach - you feel a vertiginous sensation that everything that should be there isn´t. (…) In its efforts to shake off the flattened, generic experience of traditional office furniture, Grcic has made something that asks us to think of a chair-as-tool, or chair-as-device. (…) What´s happening here is a strange trick - where by undoing the direct functional performance of a chair, Grcic makes the 360° somehow more functional. By un-inventing the normative perception of the chair, he asks its user to be party to the imaginative invention of sitting. (…) And somehow this provisional quality feels like a relief from a more conventionally comfortable chair. Sitting on it here in my office, it feels less like work, more like doing something."
(Excerpt form a text by Sam Jacob published in ICON magazine, September 2009).

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Magis

Following the projects MIURA and MYTO this chair embodies the further development and deepening of my collaboration with Plank. MONZA connects wood and plastic injection moulding and hence the artisan roots of Plank with the characteristics of modern industrial design.
The MONZA armchair is conceived as a simple wood-construction which formally refers to a typology of chairs originating in Scandinavia. The chair’s main character is defined by a back-/armrest in plastic moulding, which on the one hand serves the chair’s structure and on the other provides comfort and colour.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Plank

For years I have been longing for an opportunity to work with aluminium extrusions - an industrial technology which combines superior structural properties with an elegantly sleek aesthetic. Inspired by the work Oscar Tusquets and Lluis Clotet have carried out for Bd Barcelona since the early 80's I have designed a wing-like table top using extruded aluminium profiles. TABLE_B spans a maximum length of 3,6 meters and comes with three optional substructures in solid oak, stainless steel or artificial stone.

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Structural engineer: Jesus Jimenez
Producer: Bd Barcelona

Origionally designed in 1991 for SCP Ltd., TAM TAM & TOM TOM were amongst the first work of mine ever to go into serial production. After modest success in early years the pair of tables were re-released in 2009 featuring their characteristic sliding mechanism of the central beech wood column and wing nut fastening.

TOM TOM comes with turquoise circle top and square base. TAM TAM has a square purple top and round base.

Producer: SCP Ltd.

AUTOBAHN is the titel of a window display I designed for Maison Hermès in Japan to inaugurate the new spring/summer collection. Hermès' annual theme for 2009 is "The Beautiful Getaway".

The windows were on display from 22.January - 22.March 2009 at the Maison Hermès in Ginza, Tokyo.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID).
Commissioned by: Hermès Japon

Breuer and Bauhaus inspired me to study design in the first place, but they have both marked such untouchable territory in design, you don’t dare to go anywhere near it. Through a joint project between Muji and Thonet it suddenly became realistic to revisit this part of furniture history. PIPE is a series of tables/desks with matching cantilever chair based on the tubular designs from the twenties, produced by the same company as its inspirational source. Muji manufactured by Thonet.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Producer: Muji manufactured by Thonet

Working with Serafino Zani exposes me to a scale of industrial production which is typical for postwar Italian design. It is a culture which is especially attentive to contemporary design and technology while at the same time having strong links with artisan traditions.

Project assistants: Pauline Deltour (KGID) and Jan Heinzelmann (KGID).
Producer: Serafino Zani

KARBON is produced as a limited edition for Galerie Kreo in Paris.
The project exploits the structural possibilities of carbon fibre, creating an object that combines the element of high-tech with that of the hand crafted. I was intersted in achieving an extreme aesthetic which could only be realized using composite materials. The slight deflexion in the large surface, suspended only by four very thin legs, creates a visual fragility which seems to defy any experience of gravity.

"The KARBON long chair is tempestuous, perhaps even offensive. Here, we will find no calming orthogonality and the succession of straight lines is too curved to rest our eyes. The softness of the lines of the seat is endlessly troubling in its (supposed) submission to the laws of gravity. In its opposition to straight lines and to the deviant axis of the backrest, the chaise longue becomes an equivocal object. The rigidity that retains the memory of a certain suppleness (not without a certain rigor mortis), expresses a strange strength, an authority: it presents a type of threat, straight and precise. (...) KARBON is a resting place for warriors".
(Excerpt from a text by design critic and writer Pierre Doze, published in "GALERIE KREO, Sixteen New Pieces / A New Place", Archibooks 2008)

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Galerie Kreo
Technical consultant: Cem Koeylueer

CAST_1 is the start of my tenure as unofficial design curator of the 032c gallery space in Berlin. The idea behind CAST is to bring together new, forgotten, anonymous, commissioned, or reissued industrial objects and products.

On show were a special 032c edition of folded sheet metal tables DIANA_A & B (manufactured by ClassiCon) and a selection of eight historical and contemporary designs.

The lamps were: Fortebraccio by LucePlan (1998), BL_2 by Bestlite (1930), L-1 8155 by Luxo (1937), Pino T by Baltensweiler (1972), Hebi by Valenti Luce (1970), Cloe by Lumina (1975), Bill by Tobias Grau (2004), and Loft by Jieldé (1950). The special edition of DIANA tables can be inquired directly through 032c.

Producer: 032c workshop

PACKAGE is a stack of 2.000 DIN A4 sheets of plain white paper wrapped in pink craft paper. A quote by Charles Eames, taken from the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures in 1971, is printed on the face of the package.

"What you do really with paper can never quite come up to with what the paper offers. It's something about that broken package, in the way carton is torn, sort of invites you to come in. There's something about taking out that first sheet, that sort of changes that thing."

The work was submitted to a charity auction held by Miami design store Luminaire in December 2008. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Project assistant: Maria Jeglinska (KGID)
Project initiation: Luminaire

"Yii" is a collaborative project organized by NTCRI (National Taiwan Craft Research Institute) and TDC (Taiwan Design Center) and led by project creative director Jeff Shi. In Chinese philosophy "yii", meaning change and transformation, is believed to be the underlying law behind nature through the flow of time. Inspired by this understanding the project aims to create a new forum for traditional craft techniques in the contemporary context.

The cantilever chair '43 is comprised of fourty-three laminated bamboo slats (hence the name) utilizing the structural potential of this fast growing material to create comfort and flexibility.

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID).
Project supervision: Jeff Shi (Brainchilds Design Inc.)
Master Craftsman: Chen, Kao-Ming.

LUNAR provides an intricate solution for lighting big architectural spaces. Inspired by stage lighting the concept comprises of a tubular space frame or rig which can accommodate an indefinite number of light sources (neon, halogen, hqi, etc.) as well as classical designs, such as the Achille Castiglioni Taraxacum lamp.

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Flos

This documentation of the MYTO project shows the process of its creation in a time lapse of photos, drawings, computer diagrams, interviews. The project is told as a story in three chapters relating to the three partners BASF, KGID and PLANK. Cologne based art director Mike Meiré designed the concept and layout of this 80 page publication. The Dutch artist Viviane Sassen was commissioned for the opening sequence of photos.

Art direction: Mike Meiré
Text editor: Petra Schmidt
Production: Meiré und Meiré
Photography: Viviane Sassen and KGID.

In late summer 2006, BASF commissioned me to design an application/product using the BASF material Ultradur® High Speed. Its complementary characteristics led to the idea of developing MYTO, a cantilever chair conceived as monoblock plastic injection moulding. The design was significantly influenced by the material. Chemically speaking, this material belongs to the family of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). Its high flowability, coupled with the strength of this plastic, allows an elegant transition from thick to thin cross sections. The construction of the chair is based on a supporting frame which disolves seamlessly into the net-like perforations of the seat and backrest.

MYTO was presented for the first time on the BASF stand at K 2007, the world's biggest trade fair for the plastics industry. The fair took place from 24th of October until 31st of October in Duesseldorf, Germany. The official market launch of the chair took place at the Milan furniture fair 2008 (16.-21.April 2008).

In May 2008 MYTO was officially selected into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Commissioned by: BASF
Producer: Plank

In late 2006 Absolut Vodka commissioned me to design a series of glasses to be used by professional bar tenders.
Thinking about Absolut it is inevitable that the iconic bottle (designed by Carlsson & Broman in1979) comes to mind; it’s so simple but still cannot be mistaken for anything else. This is what I wanted to transfer to the glasses, without trying to compete with the bottle. The feeling of both simplicity and distinctiveness. When you hold the glass in your hand, see it in the bar or drink from it, it gives a feeling of natural elegance.
The result is a glass series that is modern yet timeless, in which the Absolut logo is discreetly embossed in the bottom of the glass without being invisible or unclear. We took great care to balance volume and weight into a perfect form.
The ABSOLUT GRCIC series consists of four types of glasses. With the exception of the cocktail glass, all come in two sizes: Long drink glass, 20 & 33 cl, Rocks glass, 20 & 33 cl, Cocktail glass with a stem, 16 cl, Shot glass, 3 & 6 cl.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Commissioned by: Absolut in collaboration with Family Business
Producer: Rastal

Serafino Zani (founded in 1963) is a family business located in the small town of Lumezzane (northern Italy). In 2006 we started to work on a three year program developing kitchen products and utensils made in steel. The first result of our collaboraton is a collection of laser cut products exploiting basic geometries, asymmetries and sharp cuts, like metal origamis of extreme simplicity.

Project assistants: Pauline Deltour (KGID) and Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Serafino Zani

LANDEN is a large freestanding structure which defines a place to sit/stay outdoors - in public. While rejecting the inappropriate patterns of domestic furniture it proposes a structure more accurately modelled on the context of its destination: the city environment. The main structure is made from heavy gauge steel profiles and metal grillage - all coated in plack paint. Its physical presence and strong visual reference engages the public in an immanent experience of urban reality. LANDEN is a meeting hub, a retreat/shelter ... an anchor point.

Users of LANDEN climb two steps onto an octagonal platform which is elevated 60cm off the ground. The platform is paved with industrial rubber matting to provide a resistant but comforatble surface for sitting. A large circular cut-out in the middle of the platform allows for open legroom onto a lower suspended platform. Four outward leaning metal shields form a protective fencing/enclosure around the seating area.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Prototype execution: Ludwig Michl GmbH
Produced by: Vitra Edition

The work MARMARA was made as a limited edition for the exhibition BLOCK, curated by Murat Patavi of Haaz Gallery in Istanbul.
Working with marble for the first time I was intrigued by the possibilities of carving a form out of a solid ... which complies to the most ancient idea of 'sculpture'. Normally I work quite in reverse - constructing/building a three dimensional form up from elements. Also I liked the fact that marble is 'heavy'. Again, I normally work towards making things light and mobile. This time the weight became an integral part of the design.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Execution: IMIB, Turkey

Somewhere between a curiosity cabinet and a multimedia treasure room the SPACE/-1 project is a suspended glass capsule housing the physical and digital collection of the museum´s (MUDAM) multimedia archive. The computer cables are not hidden but are integrated into a technological environment which is completely revealed.

Project assistant: Nitzan Cohen (KGID), Jonathan Olivares (KGID)
Commissioned by: MUDAM Luxembourg
Execution: Chloroform BVBA

The three-legged MIURA table was designed to accomodate the MIURA barstool. The table can be stacked by folding the top into a vertical position. The structure in powder coated metal is manufactured in different heights.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Plank

TOP adds to the family of waste management products for the Authentics catalogue. It can be used either as an individual waste bin or linking it up for the separation of plastic, glass, paper and bio-degradable or non-recyclable waste.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID).
Producer: Authentics

Sometimes it‘s more difficult to resist than to act. As designers we‘re easily tempted to renew, replace or change things. One of the virtues of working with Japanese no-brand Muji is using what already exists, simplifying, even leaving things alone, creating objects that blend into the environment rather than making a strong mark.
This idea is exemplified in the umbrella project we did as part of our long standing collaboration. The only intervention we made to an existing umbrella is drilling a hole into the end of the handle.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Muji

Design of a necklace strap/cap for an existing MUJI pen.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID).
Producer: MUJI

Hermès Japon commissioned me to design an exhibition for a collection of photographs taken by Kimura Ihei (1901-1974) in Paris in the 1950s. The 174 colour photos had been edited from the original analogue material and digitally printed on the newest generation of CANON ink jet printers. The photos show a very personal account of the Japanese photographer's travel to Paris just after world war II. I decided to have the photos printed in a rather small format (a size common at the time they were taken) and framed in white passe-partout frames. All photos were arranged freestanding on a series of steel/glass tables, which we had desigend reminiscent of the traditional French garden table. The tables, which were made in different formates and sizes, helped to group the photos according to various themes/sets.
The exhibiton was shown at 8F Forum (Maison Hermès, Toyko-Ginza) from Oct.28 2006 - Jan.21 2007 and at Hermès Midosuji Gallery (Osaka) from Apr.6 - Jun.3 2007.

Project assistant: Nitzan Cohen (KGID)
Commissioned by: Maison Hermès, Tokyo.

This project originates in an ideas workshop organized by Stylepark and Merten GmbH, inquiring into the future of domestic switches.

The simplest adjustment to Merten’s catalogue is the addition of a circular light switch to the square socket system. With a minor investment the circular light switch adds a spot of diversity to the existing square outlets. The distinction gives each function its own form; square outlets, circular switches. Creating diversity in such a place enriches all the products, giving those that used to look alike theri own identity.

A fork and knife both belong to the dinner table, however both maintain their separate function and respective form. Their forms tell us what we can do with them - lift and cut. The distinction between light switch and socket will now allow us to recognize each as individual pieces in a larger system of electrical management.

Project assistant: Jonathan Olivares (KGID)
Producer: Merten
Workshop supervision: Stylepark

JUNIOR & SENIOR are plant pots in rotational moulded polypropylene. Both designs are constructed of two parts - an upper vase/vessel and its matching base (for water drainage).
JUNIOR is the smaller type with a nose-like handle and a set of wheels . SENIOR, its big brother, has a crown-shaped base. Both products are suitable for use indoors and outdoors.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Tera Crea

For some weeks Puppy had been sitting in one corner of my office feeling bored and kind of under-challenged. Finally I trained him how to stand up opn his nose and spin around like those cool New York kinds doing break dance in the early 80s.

NOSE JIVE THREE SIXTY is an interpretation of Eero Aarnio's PUPPY stool for Magis.
The project was realized as a one-of-a-kind piece for an auction to benefit the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Project initiator: Luminaire

Commissioned by Stylepark in Residence, organizers of the Cologne Furniture Fair’s major fringe show, we created a kasbah-like temporary restaurant that became the social heart of the week-long festival. The ORIENT EXPRESS occupied the central atrium of the building (a former German Railway headquarter) and combined white chair_ONEs, OSOROMs seating elements and DIANA tables with Persian carpets, while MAYDAY lamps were hooked onto two huge, mosc-like chandeliers. By day the space was a hub of visitors sipping coffee, eating spinach quiche and admiring the lighting. By evening, the tables and chairs were cleared and the restaurant was transformed into a dancefloor, with partygoers swinging from the chandeliers (see film).

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Commissioned by: Stylepark

ON/OFF was the first comprehensive overview of my work as I see it – very subjective and free. Projects from almost the past ten years are presented in an order that adheres neither to chronology nor linearity but rather to my personal view of things. Finished products are accompanied by images and drawings that tell of their underlying development. By exhibiting photographs, which are arranged as image sequences or video clips, prototypes, cardboard and foam rubber models, sketches as well as excerpts from correspondence between us and our clients, the steps that led from conception to production of the designs are made visible and comprehensible. The exhibition was held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich from 16.03.-09.07.2006.

Project assistants: Nitzan Cohen (KGID) and Jonathan Olivares (KGID)

KGID (Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design) showcases a comprehensive portfolio of products and design concepts with especially commissioned photographs and original drawings. It also offers a rare insight into the design process by showing the various stages of a product’s development through sketches, models, computer renderings and snapshots at the workshops of KGID and several manufacturers. With texts by Konstantin Grcic, Pierre Doze, Francesca Picchi and conceived by Florian Böhm and Konstantin Grcic, this is the first publication on the work of Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID).

Project collaboration: Florian Böhm
Edited by: Florian Böhm
Published by: Phaidon Press Ltd.

Further info: www.kgidbook.com

Isn't the future of cars all about 'clean' ?

CLEAN MACHINE is an interpretation of the origional Playsam toy car. The project was made as a one-of-a-kind piece for a charity auction to benefit the World Childhood Foundation.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Commissioned by: Fitzsu Society

Hanae Komachi, a Japanese design journalist and friend, invited me to an unusual project. She asked me to design a new bottle lable for the 200 year old sake brewery Hachitsuru in which her grandfather had been the master-brewer of Hachitsuru-sake. In the long history of Hachitsuru (founded in the edo-period in 1786) I was to be the first non-Japanese designer to collaborate with the company.
There are many types of sake. In short, all sake can be divided into two groups: that with added alcohol, and that made with rice only. Most mass produced sake made today has pure distilled alcohol added to it. Cheaper sake has more added alcohol. The type of sake which is contained in the SAKE 8 bottles is ’yamahai-junmai’ - Hachitsuru’s artisans brew SAKE 8 in an authentic sake-making process using only 100% rice. For the lable I played with two circle elements and formed the number ‘8’ -in Japanese culture the ‘8’ is a metaphor for the flow of tradition, without a beginning or an end. Also Hachitsuru means ‘eight cranes’ in Japanese - even the city's name (Hachinohe) makes a reference to the figure '8'.

In October 2005 an exhibition at the origional Hachitsuru brewery combined examples of my designs with ancient tools for sake production, traditional and modern sake drinking wares and more than 100 photographs of the sake production.
The exhibition was curated by Japanese design journalist Hanae Komachi. The exhibition was also shown at the Kestner Museum in Hannover in 2006.

Project assistant: Ika Künzel (KGID)
Curated by: Hanae Komachi
Produced by: Hachitsuru

In 2002 we were contacted by the French Groupe SEB to conceive a range of products for Krups. If the microwave (CHEF) for Whirlpool was all about the future, our experience with Krups was all about today: technical and cost constraints, production in China, strategic marketing. The great thing about the work for Krups is that it was for real. We were building machines with a cable and a plug on the end. They have to function and be safe. The only way to achieve this was through research and development. The process is the laboratory situation I loved: testing rigs, transformers, electric wires, nuts and bolts. The work for Krups embraced the design of a whole range of household appliances: coffee machines, blenders, mixers, toasters, kettles. We were designing a set of formal codes, used across the different product typologies, that would rebuild the brand image. In a situation like this, design becomes a strategic tool for shaping a market identity.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)

The enormous public attention we received for chair_ONE unavoidably led to a certain categorization of my design. We were suddenly identified with the chair's angular/facetted style. Although I do love the its stealth-bomber aesthectic, I felt threatened by the trap of reapeating myself with this successsful formula. A commission from Plank to design a monoblock bar stool in plastic was the perfect opportunity for me to re-invent my vocabulary of shapes. I was keen to move on from the hard edge to a much softer design. The MIURA stool is strongly based on principles of construction. However, its shape was conceived by working in a much more sculptural manner. The complex free-form surfaces were all designed on the computer.

MIURA is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Producer: Plank

YOU ARE HERE is a permanent installation I realized for a collective art project curated by Salvatore Lacagnina for the Sicilian nature resort Parco delle Madonie.

Project assistant: Saskia Groenewolt (KGID)
Commissioned by: Parco delle Madonie

I believe that no object ever exists purely on its own. This way of looking at the world turns even the simplest little thing into part of a hugely complex system. It would be strange to speak of a doorhandle without talking about the door. In turn, the door relates to space –or rather, to two kinds of spaces: inside and outside. Every space has its own sound and light. Than there are all the things, the objects and furniture, that are part of the space. And of course there are the people who inhabit it. We can never speak about objects without imagining people using them.

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Producer: Colombo

It may only be a simple ball-point pen, but it took four years to design and develop Vivo for Lamy. In this time we ventured deep into the world of specialist pen making, which revealed an unexpectedly sophisticated macro-scale technology, usually employed in medical equipment or Formula-1 racing. The construction of our pen aimed to reduce the number of mechanical components from four to three. This may not seem dramatic, , but to build a mechanical pen with 25 per cent fewer elements is a considerable challenge. Producing it on a fully automatic robot added an extra thrill. Every design step we made on each individual component of the pen was rigorously monitored in terms of technical feasibility and production costs.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Lamy

In 2004 curator Didier Krzentowsky invited me to make a work for 'Missing Object', an exhibition at his gallery in Paris. A short text by Christian Schlatter provided the creative framework for the project. According to Schlatter, the Latin root of the word ‘object’ means something that is thrown in one’s way - a definition containing an inherent violence that I found intriguing. The 'missing object' would thus be something that had a strong physical presence, while at the same time being absent (missing). I was immediately attracted by this beautiful thought, but paralysed by what it would mean actually to design such an ambitious object. The result is a solid block of oak with two excavated handles. The purity of the wood, its weight and raw beauty, define its intense physical power. The carefully thought-out proportions of the wooden block and its two handles give the object the enigmatic charm of something that appears legible but whose purpose remains mysterious.

MISSING OBJECT is made as a limited edition by Galerie Kreo

Project assistant: Saskia Groenewolt (KGID)

Chair_ONE is constructed just like a football: a number of flat planes assembled at angles to each other, creating the three-dimensional form. I think my approach was a mixture of naivety and bluntness. Given the chance to work with aluminium casting I thought that I should take it all the way. The more we worked on the models the more we learnt to understand the structural logic behind what we were doing. What began as a simple sketch, a series of cardboard models, prototypes, is now a real chair.

Project assistants: Stefan Diez (KGID), Benoit Steenackers (KGID), Jan Heinzelmann (KGID), Sami Ayadi (KGID).
Producer: Magis

JET is a small system of mirror-cabinets, designed to be used in combination with washbasins. The lower part of the unit conceals a mechanism that enables the mirror to rotate, allowing easy access to the storage container behind. Single elements can be combined in various ways, emphasising either the vertical or horizontal dimension, according to the position of the surrounding ''satellite'' elements.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Agape

A fork for French-fries restaurant 3_Frits in Cologne was one of those small commissions that sometimes turn up out of the blue. I really enjoy these little projects, which I use to exercise my creative thinking. A good result is usually born out of a single idea or thought. Adding a fourth tine to the commonly used three-pronged pick gave the fork an unexpected charm. We used a laser to cut out the forks from the stainless-steel sheet and for engraving the floral pattern.

Project assistant: Ika Künzel (KGID)
Producer: 3_Frits

GRAN PRIX for Biegel is based on the most essential and basic element of jewellery: the chain link.
The necklace and bracelet are made in gold, white gold or platinum.

Manufacturer: Biegel

The entire Coup series is based on two elements: flat plates and bowls. We took great care to evaluate the proportions of each item according to its use. The second step was to link every plate size to a certain bowl type, creating a family of correlating pieces. Even the teapot was derived from a bowl, and its lid has the shape of a small plate.

Project assistant: Stefan Diez (KGID)
Graphic design: Valerie Kiock
Producer: Thomas/Rosenthal

LORD is a sledge made from an inflated tractor tyre (24") with 9 vulcanised rope handles.
The design is based on a hand crafted 15th century wooden sledge, made in the northern Italian region of Valle d'Aosta.

There is something beautifully simple about the old wooden sledge.
The craftsman, its creator, made the sledge according to a clear set of rules. The world today has lost this kind of simplicity and focus. Our life is no longer built around one single interpretation but rather allows for many different interpretations simultaneously. Objects have become a lot more complex and are constantly changing. Analogue to this experience my sledge no longer fits a set of rules, it is no longer made from wood, nor is it designed to run head down. The new sledge is inflated and round. It's out of control and dangerous !

The project 'La Forza delle Cose' was curated by Fulvio Irace for the Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta.

Project assistant: Ika Künzel (KGID)
Commissioned by: Valle d'AostArte

Made from heavy gauge sheet metal PALLAS makes reference to Jean Prouvé's 'Grande table' of the 1950s. I designed it shortly after the DIANA project, so it was a natural evolution to move on from the small tables to a much larger scale. Unlike with the DIANAs, we conceived the design relatively quickly. The project took us only two months from the first trials to the finished piece.

Project assistant: Stefan Diez (KGID)
Producer: ClassiCon

A good deal of attention went into the design of the lifting mechanism of this waste bin. Most pedal-bins on the market are built with a complicated assemblage of wires, rivets, washers and pieces of plastic. We started the design by breaking the existing construction down into its essential parts. By the end we were able to build the entire mechanism (including the pedal) with just two pieces of metal rod and a rubber hinge.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Authentics

GLOVE is based on a kind of self-reference. The simple vessel with handle(s) had already been a theme in my work for Authentics. Unlike plastic-injection moulding, slip-casting in clay makes it possibile to work with undercuts. This inspired me to design the glove-like handles protruding into the vessel.

Producer: CorUnum

The search for the right material and technology normally determines a project from very early on, often triggering the design process. With Osorom, a 2 metre seating element for four to six people, everything happened the other way round. The piece was completely designed on the computer, without consideration of how and in what material it could be made. Significantly, I called it Osorom, which is the back-to-front spelling of Moroso, the client.

Project assistant: Stefan Diez (KGID)
Producer: Moroso

Just like a font character, these tables are the result of repeated, careful reworking of the negative and the positive. Each line, each radius, each surface was examined again and again in terms of its proportion and form. This type of work is not based on any particular system. The only deciding factor is my subjective eye, my intuition. The first designs of DIANA were fairly complicated - some of the early versions even have a swivel mechanism for rotating part of the table top. The more I worked on the project the more I understood that even a few simple folds were sufficient to create a beautifully three-dimensional form.

A limited edition of two-coloured DIANA tables (type A & B) was made for German art magazine Monopol.

Project assistant: Stefan Diez (KGID)
Produced by: ClassiCon

Eigelstein 115 is a building in the centre of Cologne that was slotted into the narrow gap between two existing structures. Its width is only 2.47m. Every year the communications agency Rendel & Spitz, who occupies the ground floor, clear out their offices for one week in January and invite designers such as Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Ross Lovegrove, Timo Salli, Johanna Grawunder and myself to react to the space with an intervention or piece of work. I decided that rather than making something small and narrow for the small and narrow space, I‘d impose something huge in order to prove that the dimensions of the space, if turned into a positive volume, would be perceived as large. I commissioned an inflatable ballon, which had the exact diameter of the building´s section. Visitors had to push the balloon down the length of the space from front to back and back again, which was immense fun.

Project assistant: Juliane Witte (KGID)
Commissioned by: Rendel & Spitz

When in 1999 ClassiCon proposed to me a collaboration with a family-run upholstery workshop north of Milan, I decided, in a slightly reactionary way, to design an uncomfortable upholstered chair. What may at first sound cynical actually had a deeper meaning. I wanted to break with the conventions of correct, formal seating. The chair avoids imposing any particular posture on the sitter. Instead, it invites us to do what we do anyway: to perch, fidget, turn, shift. The chair´s volume is extremely narrow in profile, but its opulent front/rear elevation offers all the comfort and security necessary for sitting, even accommodating two people seated next to each other.

CHAOS People (see image file) shows people we invited in from the street outside my office. We asked them to sit on the Chaos chair, which was set up in front of a white paper backdrop. The photos were taken the moment they sat down, so that we could capture them in their first intuitive posture.

Project assistant: Stefan Diez (KGID)
Producer: ClassiCon

Since the 1960s we‘ve seen cities expand into the sky. Megalopolises like São Paolo, New York or Shanghai are unthinkable without an architecture that reaches out into vertical territory. However, the same cities are still characterized by traffic moving horizontally and by vehicles designed in a horizontal format. There are short cars, there are long cars and there are wide cars, but no concept has ever managed to provide a convincing answer to the problem of traffic congestion in cities. SKYCAB was a project for the exhibition Drive-In in Cologne. Based on a Fiat Panda chassis it is an attempt to exploit the third dimension in car design: the vertical car carries six standing passengers in a space that would accommodate only three seated.

Project assistant: Juliane Witte (KGID)

This proposal is the result of an invitation by Whirlpool Europe to work on a conceptual study for a microwave oven. My design, which was projected ten years into the future, aimed to put microwave technology on a par with other appliances, thus integrating it more fluently into the ritual of cooking. Instead of the misplaced box, I conceived CHEF as a built-in device, a station similar to an electric hob. All bulky technology is hidden underneath the kitchen counter. The cavity for the microwaves is created by covering the dish, placed on the station, with tools of various sizes (resembling upside down pots).

Project assistant: Clemens Weisshaar (KGID)

DIRTY OLD considering Ron Arad´s oversize 'Victoria and Albert' sofa for Moroso.

So many projects in the 90s were done like this: a producer asking a creative consultancy to invite a group of international designers to give their signature to an already existing product. In this case the producer was Moeve, the consultancy Vogt & Weizenegger. The product in question was a large beach towel which had only one constraint: its measurement. Simple questions often ask for simple answers.

Commissioned by: Vogt & Weizenegger

When I visited the Iittala factory for the first time, in winter 1998, I was most drawn by a machine for pressing glass. There was something so intriguing and beautiful about this alien-looking machine that it became the muse for my product for Iittala, a reworking of an already existing cone-shaped glass (Duralex). The subtle difference lies in creating a small step on the internal wall of the glass for better stacking. It‘s a detail that can only be produced by the two-part mould on my beloved machine.

Project assitant: Ascan Mergenthaler (KGID)
Producer: Iittala

This must be the simplest piece of furniture I‘ve designed. I wanted to throw out the high-tech, over-engineered pretensions of the furniture industry and ignore all of its rules. My shelf may have no firm structure, but it‘s still a shelf. It holds purely through the multiplication of its joints, not through their individual strength.

Project assistant: Clemens Weisshaar (KGID)
Producer: Moormann

The lighting designer Ingo Maurer had asked me to illustrate the opening page of the category 'Wall Lamps' in his product catalogue. This is what I did.

Mayday ... Mayday ... were the famous last words before the Titanic sank. The S.O.S. call originates from the French 'm'aider' (engl. 'help me').

I designed the MAYDAY lamp to be a tool. It has a practical handle which incorportates the ON/OFF switch and two spikes to wind up the 5 meter long cable. A big hook on the end of the handle comes in helpful to install the lamp wherever needed. The big white funnel is at the same time reflector and protector. Its smooth polypropylen plastic gives off a warmly diffused light and is strong enough to absorbe any bashing. MAYDAY is not designed for anywhere in specific. It rather comes in handy in all sorts of expected/unexpected situations: Taking it to the garage for work underneath the old Mercedes Benz. Taking it to the garden where it can hang from a tree. Using it on top of a ladder or lying on the floor trying to get the cat from behind the cupboard. Kids love MAYDAY inside their self-made cardboard house. I have one next to my bed for late night reading. Another one sits by the front door of my apartment ... just in case.

Project assistant: Klaus Hackl (KGID)
Producer: Flos

An exhibition at the Associazione Danese (Milan) in 1998 gave me the unique opportunity to collaborate with my sister, Tamara Grcic, an artist. The title and theme of the show was 'Intorno alla fotografia' (Around the Photograph). Instead of putting a frame around her photographic self portrait, I decided to do quite the opposite. Mounting a raw metal plate just in front of the picture deliberately blocked the image off from the viewer. Only moving up close and peeping behind the metal plate allowed an intimate glimpse of her face.

Project collaboration: Tamara Grcic

The coat-stand HUT_AB is based on a simple idea: stacking two tripods on top of each other offers 6 ends for hanging coates rather than just 3. Made from solid ash HUT_AB folds conveniently into a thin long stick.

Producer: Moormann

MOONWALK is a jewellery design project for Chi ha paura ...? The necklace is made of thin PVC film with screenprinted text. The words are taken from an interview with Lady Miss Kir of the former band Deelite:
"I´ll do anything to escape being boring, beige, la blanc - I wear different clothes all the time. Like, at the moment I am wearing a space-picnic-on-Venus gingham outfit. My latest fantasy is about jumping on a moon walk, you know, a blown-up trampoline thing in a dome. I fantasise about putting it on my roof and jump, completely loosing grasp of time, space, gravity. I´ll do anything to escape being boring, beige, la blanc - I wear different clothes all the time. Like, at the moment ..."

Produced by: Chi ha paura ... ?

One of the nicest compliment for a designer is to find one´s own designed product somewhere, accidentally. In 1997 I had designed this simple plastic bucket H2O for German producer Authentics ... years later I came across it on a street corner in downtown Chicago. The original bucket comes with a plastic lid which the old dude seems to have discarded as unpractical.

Project assistant: Ascan Mergenthaler (KGID)
Producer: Authentics

Prado was inspired by a shelf that I‘d built for my own office. It had the depth of a table, which inspired me to turn it into a desk. Even though it‘s made from wood and is reminiscent of a traditional desk, it‘s based on a very modern idea: it has a lot of open surfaces rather than closed storage space, which seems less relevant in the computer age.

Producer: SCP Ltd.

I started to work with Authentics in 1994, just when plastic was beginning to enjoy a huge revival. Authentics had a strong belief in mass production as a means to produce good design for a wide audience. It was a fantastic moment, both for Authentics and for me. Work felt easy and natural - and of course the best thing was that we were successful with it.
2-HANDS was one of my first products I designed for Authentics - a large open basket with two handles.

Producer: Authentics

JUNE / JULY 2010
Konstantin Grcic receives a scholarship from the German Academy in Rome. The 2 months residency at Villa Massimo provides a workplace for independent studies and advanced research.

FEBRUARY 2010,
The 360° chair and 360° stool are selected into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

JANUARY 2010,
Konstantin Grcic is winner of the Wallpaper* Design Award 2010 in the category "Furniture Designer of the Year" (jury: Pedro Almodóvar, John Galliano, Carsten Höller, Steven Holl, James Murdoch and Kelly Wearstier).
"Konstantin Grcic is a man who tirelessly experiments, reinvents and improves. Meticulous as an industrial designer by training, he applies the same level of attention and detail to all that he turns his hand to, from larger pieces of furniture to smaller accessories, leaving them all with an unmistakable Grcic stamp. (...)"

DECEMBER 2009,
Konstantin Grcic's Table B for BD Barcelona has been awarded a Silver Delta Award by ADI FAD, the most prestigeous Spanish Design Association. These prizes award the best industrial designs released during the last two years.

NOVEMBER 2009,
Konstantin Grcic is awarded Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (HonRDI) by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).
The title 'Royal Designer for Industry' (RDI) was introduced by the RSA in 1936 to honour designers of excellence and promote the important contribution of design in manufacturing and industry. Outside the UK, only a limited number of designers are given the award of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (HonRDI). These include Dieter Rams, Milton Glaser, and Yohji Yamamoto.

NOVEMBER 2009,
Konstantin Grcic curates an exhibition of contemporary design at the Serpentine Gallery in London. DESIGN REAL is opening on 26th November 2009 (until 07th February 2010).

Born in 1965.
1985-1987 Apprenticeship as cabinet maker at Parnham College, UK, 1988-1990 MA in Industrial Design, Royal College of Art, London.

Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) was founded in 1991. The office has established its reputation in various fields of design ranging from furniture and industrial products to exhibition design and architecture related work. KGID is collaborating with some of the leading names in the international design industry.
Many of Konstantin Grcic´s products have received international design awards (a.o. winner of the Compasso d`Oro for the lamp MAYDAY in 2001) and form part of the permanent collections of the world´s most prestigious museums (MoMA / New York, Centre Georges Pompidou / Paris, Die Neue Sammlung / Munich etc.).

In 2005 PHAIDON Press London published a comprehensive monography about the work of Konstantin Grcic. The 240 page volume was edited by Florian Böhm (ISBN 0-7148-4431-4).

Konstantin Grcic defines function in human terms, combining formal strictness with considerable mental acuity. Each of his products is characterized by his careful research into the history of design and architecture and his passion for technology and materials. Known for pared-down pieces, Grcic is often called a minimalist but the designer himself prefers to speak of simplicity.

The KGID office is located in Munich, Germany. Konstantin Grcic employs 4 product designers and 1 personal assistant.

Staff:
Sami Ayadi, Friederike Daumiller, Alexandra Fürstenhagen, Jan Heinzelmann, Olivia Herms.

Contact:
Schillerstr. 40
D-80336 München
Germany
Tel: +49 (0)89 55079995
Fax: +49 (0)89 55079996
Email: press@konstantin-grcic.com

Website:
Alex Rich & Jürg Lehni (FIELD TRIP)