In various eras, the name Colani has been synonymous with design in Germany. From car to camera, from fountain pen to teapot, the designer left hardly a stone unturned, even designing his own person. Following brief art studies in Berlin, he matriculated at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he delved into aerodynamics. He received numerous contracts in the 1960s, particularly from the furniture industry, which allowed Germany’s first star designer to set up his studio in the early 1970s as befit his rank in a country castle: one of the nation’s first design agencies. Harkotten Castle is located in Westphalia, where Colani had important clients. The renegade anti-linearity crusader designed his spherical kitchen for Poggenpohl in 1968 – a bit of practical science fiction that, although never produced, brought him overnight fame. His material of choice was plastic. What he shaped out of this malleable mass could by all means stand up to comparison to the designs of Scandinavian and Italian creative talents such as Eero Aarnio or Joe Colombo.