The head office in the lake-dotted landscape of Upper Bavaria already has an appeal all its own. Originally a subsidiary of Brühl, the Seefelder Werkstätten became independent at the beginning of the 1980s and soon developed an attractive, by now quite wide-ranging production program, which today runs the gamut from modern upholstered pieces to stools and dining ensembles all the way to coffee and pullout tables and carpets.
Another new start was necessitated by a restructuring following insolvency and subsequent take-over by marketing director Gabi Meyer-Brühl and production manager Heinz Schrewe, two thirtysomethings who stand for a forward-looking orientation. The focus of the current product line is on sofas, such as the model Joy, an ingenious pullout couch in which the perpendicular backrest and armrests lie down flat to form a reclining surface. Joy was developed by the company itself, although normally working with external designers is the corporate policy. The enthusiastically received Janus folding table with its patented mechanism (by Luzius Huber and Florian Steiger) is likewise an example of miraculous expansion. It not only doubles its length, but also changes colour. Additional folding artists are the sofas Shift and Layla. They are at once sofa, bed and recamiere (both by Volker Laprell and Volker Classen), achieving their metamorphosis through an invisible mechanical substructure – each in a different way. A plethora of possibilities is likewise offered by the upholstered puzzle called Play (by Jan Armgardt). One of the newer sofas, also by Armgardt, is Alfa, as sleek as it is adaptable, changing its appearance, chameleon-like, to match its surroundings. Consisting of a modular system of six combinable basic units, its composition, cover and cushions can be exchanged to give it a look that is by turns classic, opulent or cosy.