In the winter of 1996, after graduating as an interior designer, me and some fellow students and
friends came up with the idea to form a design group in order to promote our furniture and lamps
together. Some of us came from Lucerne and some from Basel - the connecting motorway gave us the
name N2 (today A2).
Together with Valerie Kiock, I designed the chair "Spherize!" for this group. We wanted the fauteuil
to look like a three-dimensional icon. And because we didn't want it to be powerful, we made it
small. It has the seating of a camping chair, but it appears bigger with its outward curving
surfaces. Hence the name "Spherize!", a Photoshop command that visually curves surfaces like fish
eyes.
The first chair was made of 4mm poplar plywood, mounted with corner strips fixed by hundreds of
small screws. After our classic modern training (show construction etc. ), it was fun to cover up
hundreds of screws with knifing filler. In our view, the icon chair had to be light, so the
construction was extremely light and fragile. Therefore, support was needed: we inserted an
invisible sitting ball that carried the weight of the person sitting down. In the back and armrests,
bed springs pressed the surfaces outwards. When lifted, the chair felt like a cello under pressure.
Later, "Spherize!" was manufactured and distributed by the Dutch company "hidden" in rotationally
moulded polyethylene. The serial version was also equipped with a valve on the back to increase the
air pressure. Later, I added an ottoman and table called "Cooler" to go with the single chair.
Unfortunately, „hidden“ went bankrupt around 1999. Today, "Spherize!" is still produced and
distributed in a very small edition by the Belgian company "feek".
Valerie
Kiock is now a freelance graphic designer in Munich.
Photo: Designsammlung, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich ZHdK.
Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich
Inflatable armchair named after a Photoshop filter.
Graphic designer and furniture designer meet in the design process.
Read in more detail on a large desktop screen.
Design: 1996 Valerie Kiock and Kuno Nüssli
2001 Swiss Federal Prize for Design
Link
The idea for SASOSU was a meandering steel tube which performs all functions of the bed: bed leg -
curve - longitudinal support - curve - bed leg - curve - traverse on the floor - curve - bed leg -
curve - central support - curve - bed leg - curve - second traverse on the floor - curve - bed leg -
curve - longitudinal support - curve - bed leg - finished.
Square steel makes square corners, round tube makes a curve. Round tube calls for a galvanic finish,
and so I decided to give the bed a chrome-plated finish – just like many tubular steel pieces of the
modern period. The bed slats are placed on skewing flanges welded to the longitudinal supports, so
no middle support is needed. However, connecting rods to the central support are necessary in order
to create the required stability.
Thanks to Leo Zimmermann, SASOSU was for sale in some Theo Jakob stores in 2003, and Beat Heuberger
of Punkt 1 also sold several pieces. However, there were several warranty cases, and the high
production costs brought the project to a close.
Photo: Designsammlung, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich ZHdK.
Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich
Further development of the ANANA bed in widths from 140 cm.
One bent steel tube for all functions of the bed structure.
A new bed was created as a consequence of the design.
Please read in more detail on a large screen.
I have already told the story of the Container DS above. In 2015, some components of the system were
purchased by the Swiss government and can now be seen in the collection of the Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich.
Photo: Designsammlung, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich ZHdK.
Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich
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