The furniture produced by Sanktjohanser is simple and cubic, with precise edges and perfect surfaces. Only on second glance does the refinement come to fore with which the form always fulfils the function, usually in a new and unexpected way. The folding stool, for example, is not only one of the lightest in weight of its species, but is also a startlingly adaptable and portable piece of furniture. Likewise exemplary of the firm’s creativity is the Socialbox, a one-of-a-kind tilting cabinet suitable for a variety of uses and the incarnation of what the pioneers of classical Modernism once proclaimed as open living. The combination of clarity and deeper meaning, something that would surely have found favour with Otl Aicher, coupled with a selection of materials in which wood, multiplex and felt play important roles, gives rise to unconventional designs that are aesthetically convincing and yet just the opposite of obliging. If the often-misused term “design philosophy” ever makes sense then here. The manufacturer from Pfaffenwinkel belongs to a new German domestic aesthetic whose clear-cut and sometimes rather dry charm is being moulded by young brands like e15, Nils Holger Moormann or Performa. Sanktjohanser offers something for nearly any type of living space. From the multipurpose Slow chair and the sleek Dinavier dining table, to various shelf systems, occasional tables and beds, to the universal furniture called Socialbox. “Design for me has to do mostly with seeing, with an ability to perceive things clearly”, says Hubert Sanktjohanser, son of a carpenter, who after completing secondary school learned a trade and started his own company in the 1980s. Since 1992 he has been living and working with his wife, an architect, and their three children in the combined home and workshop they planned and built together in a village in the foothills of the Alps. There is the kind of silence here that is conducive to “getting to the bottom of things” – although this is by no means a purely rational process, but often more like a chain of associations.