The current of Swiss design has been strongly influenced first by Le Corbusier’s presence, subsequently by Bauhaus’ followers and by the artist architect Max Bill. Due to its favourable geographical position in the centre of Europe, Switzerland has absorbed stylistic contaminations especially from France, Italy and Germany. This is how the rigorous and elegant “Swiss Style” originated, which embraces different design fields in the visual arts in general, starting from Helvetica, the main font used since its creation in 1956
Mario Botta
A pupil of Carlo Scarpa, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, the Swiss architect devoted himself to design as from the 1980s.
Alias’s Second and Fifth, now on display at the MoMA in New York, are an example of the ephemeral Matt-Black style. The compositional and formal attitude is the same used in his architectural work, with references to architectural geometry and his preference for the circle and its curves.
The seat structure is in painted steel and the language echoes high tech constructions.
“Building is in itself a sacred act, it is an action that transforms a condition of nature into a condition of culture; the history of architecture is the history of these transformations, which pushes man to confront himself with the dimension of infinity; it is a primordial necessity in the search for beauty that has always accompanied man in the construction of his own living space”
Shogun table lamp by Artemide perfectly represents Botta’s philosophy, with its body in black and white stripes, and a metal diffuser made from a square perforated sheet and another semi-circular, adjustable surmount.
Alberto Häberli
Although he was born in Argentina, he has always lived in Zurich. He runs his own atelier and, at the same time, works with several prestigious Italian companies, such as Alias, with much of his work being heavily influenced by his childhood in Argentina. His deep knowledge of materials leads him to work with lightness and ultra-thin shapes, thus maximizing their mechanical characteristics. He has an on-going collaboration with BMW and in 2014 he received the prestigious Swiss Grand Prix of Design prize from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.
In 1997 he designed the container system with modular elements SEC for Alias, a versatile product that over the years has been enriched with new variants and upgrades.
Always for the Bergamo-based company, he has designed the unique set of Segesta / Selinunte seats, and, above all, Legnoletto, an innovative bed with modular wooden tops, which allow different headboard and footboard configurations.
The collaboration with Alias is still on going. To add further prestige to his career, the Time armchair, one of his latest projects, for which he received the Archiproducts Design Award in 2019 for his experimentation in product development, research and innovation, ability to combine aesthetics and functionality, combined with a creative and intelligent use of materials and shapes. It consists of a single, very thin sheet that, artfully cut and folded, manages to create a “shell” for a surprisingly ergonomic seat.
Atelier Oï
“Encounters and life experiences nourish the know-how of our atelier “
Founded in Switzerland in La Neuveville in 1991 by Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Raymond, Atelier Oï is a design studio that ranges from architecture, to design and scenography.
For this reason, their language is fresh, young, and above all transversal. There is a great desire to experiment and to give innovative answers to design issues. At Atelier Oï, the idea of multidisciplinary is indicated by the word “atelier”, regarded as a place of creation, intellectual knowledge combined with manual know-how.
With Louis Vuitton they have created two products for the Objets Nomade line: a hammock with leather weaving and a bag that, by only using one hand, turns into a stool.
For Artemide and Danese they have designed Decomposè and Les-Danseuses, a sort of suspended openwork skirt that twirls on itself, like a tango dancer.
The amazement element is always present: in “E La Nave Va” sofa by Alias the backrest where there the padded cushions live is made from a system of exposed slats, inspired by the structures of the wooden nautical hulls, made with always diverse radii of curvature.
Herzog & De Meuron
Due to the importance and influence of their work, Herzog & de Meuron are nowadays counted among the world’s leading architectural firms. Their studio was founded in 1978 in Basel by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Among the many international awards, the Pritzker Price in 2001, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the Praemium Imperiale in Japan (2007) stand out. The central theme in all their projects is the external building envelope; the “skin” becomes the innovative and characterizing element that enters in close relationship with the internal environments.
This design attitude also applies to Artemide lighting bodies. A first approach was given by the flexible and adjustable Pipe lamp. The lamp body is a single tubular steel structure, consisting of a rigid lower part and a soft adjustable upper part. The stem is covered by a silicone sheath and ends with a conical shape of the diffuser. It was awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 2004.
In 2017 they proposed Unterlinden, a suspension lamp made with aluminium or bronze die-cast and characterized by three-dimensional streaks on the surface. Given the commercial success, the tabletop version also went into production.