[Translate to english:] Innenarchitekt und Möbeldesigner, Schöndorf am Ammersee / Bayern [/]

 

For him, the home is where we can “withdraw from the hectic pace of the times”. Cosy security and self-determination are the anchoring ideas behind his design concept. In short, furn i t u re must “have a soul”. The man who is not put off by this apparently old-fashioned dictum and thus pays tribute to the “Gemüt”, or disposition, that untranslatable quality of the soul, is one of the busiest members of his guild. But although Jan Armgardt is undoubtedly one of the most productive designers, his work as well as his name are a well-kept secret amongst industry experts. He counts international furn i t u re companies as clients, along with numerous German manufacturers including Egoform, Müller Möbelwerkstätten, Nils Holger Moormann, Seefelder Möbelwerkstätten and WK Wohnen. The trained cabinet-maker is regarded as being both traditional and unconventional. In fact, he is one of the few who, alongside series products, still occupies himself now and again with freely designed individual pieces. The environmentally aware designer has attracted attention with a project for woven furniture as well as with paper furn i t u re, a theme that he also explored experimentally – 40 years after Peter Raacke. The career of the Bavarian-based Armgardt has likewise been rather unorthodox, including a stint as photographer. Following studies in interior design and experience working as a locksmith, an upholsterer and in furniture stores, he designed his first piece of furniture in 1970: the foam blocks he dubbed Quadrat. Armgardt subsequently founded various furn i t u re companies, until he finally decided to work as a freelance designer. Since then, he has hardly left a furniture genre untouched. Designs exhibiting an understated, familiar formal vocabulary such as the upholstered furniture programs Rio and Jolly (2003 and 2006, for Wittmann) are juxtaposed with highly expressive models such as the easychair Gänsefüsschen (1991 for Proseda), a bit of whimsy on runners. The shelf units Vision Street (1991 for WK Wohnen)
and 1543 (2000 for Nils Holger Moormann) likewise diverge starkly in their irritating irregularity from what we are accustomed to. The quality of many of his designs is demonstrated by the fact that they have in some cases remained in production for decades. One of these long-lived hits is the folding easychair Tattomi (1985 for Mobilia). Armgardt began using intelligent mechanical elements early on – and not only in his many sofa beds. His oeuvre is every bit as diverse as furniture design itself.