[translate]Möbel- und Produktdesigner, Berlin[/]

 

“While metal, stone or glass exude coolness, plastic can give a warmer, softer effect”, says Werner Aisslinger, explaining why he likes to use a mixture of natural materials and acrylic polymer for surfaces. For Aisslinger, who was an assistant in Jasper Morrison’s London studio in 1990 – like Konstantin Grcic, with whom he is almost coeval – dealing with new materials is a fundamental working principle. Only when design reacts to rapid technical advances and taps all the possibilities these offer can it be truly innovative, might be the Berlin-based designer’s credo. As a case in point, his chaise longue S o f t was the world’s first serially produced furn i t u re to use a kind of gel that was originally developed for medical purposes. The reformer based his grid chair Soft Cell on the same material. Similarly, a striking grid structure in the backrest and seat gives the plastic chair Nic – an updated version of the cantilevered chair – its characteristic look. The use of the gas injection technique ensured increased stability coupled with weight reduction.

 

Aisslinger’s design-world ascent began in the mid-1990s. His very first product, the additive shelving system Endless Shelf, was already a best-seller and launched a career that has made the designer – alongside Grcic – one of the leading figures of a new generation in German furniture design. This soon became evident when Italian anufacturers began taking up his designs as part of their own programs. In the German showcase discipline of cabinet furniture he followed in the footsteps of German modernists like Herbert Hirche and Peter Maly, designing systems for companies including B e h r and Interlübke. In his Level 34 system (2005 for Vi t r a), the idea of freestanding modular furniture was applied to the office. Another focus – along with store furnishings and exhibition architecture – is chair design. Here as well he managed to make a spectacular debut. The Juli chair of 1996 was not only notable for its feminine lines – with marked echoes of the 1950s – but also because of the synthetic foam used. Aisslinger’s domestic visions go beyond individual furniture pieces, however. His project Loftcube, a flexible room unit that can be hoisted onto the flat roofs of city buildings, is geared toward the nomadic lifestyle of today’s metropolitan residents.