Glass with a system

“RGB” is the system’s name – and it premieres at the coming imm cologne 2019 at the burgbad booth. Red, green, blue – the name already clearly points in the direction the designers have taken. Just in time for the start of the new year, Stefan Diez and burgbad, world market leader for bathroom furniture, have joined forces to introduce a splash of color. And not just to bathrooms. As the modular system means that the panes of colored glass can be turned at the flick of a wrist into units that can be used in a multiplicity of ways, from chest of drawers to shelf to washstand. “RGB” is the first project in a planned “Capsule Collection” that will mark the beginning of a new focus for the burgbad lines.

The transparency of the units posed a challenge to Stefan Diez and his team, as the visible technical items (such as hinges and screws) had to be formally integrated or simply avoided. “The simple things are often the hardest,” Stefan Diez comments. The sense of visual lightness is supported by the color of the glass that ensures the interior of the volumes seems uniform. “Order is created by the monochrome color of the content,” Diez explains.

His approach, which centers on revisiting given processes, thinking his way carefully and assiduously into complex tasks, and translating the insights into aesthetically and intuitively comprehensible results really appealed to Sabine Meissner, who heads marketing at burgbad. She provided him with a precise briefing for the project: Assembling “RGB” had to be as self-explanatory and simple as possible. Formally strong, waterproof, uncomplicated, modifiable and sustainable. Otherwise, burgbad gave Diez carte blanche: “Actually, it’s always the details that make a large step forward possible in the first place,” Diez remarks. The system will first go on view at imm cologne 2019 – but will not be completed in its entirety until the end of the year.

Just how much energy and sheer joy in creativity drove the development of “RGB” can also be witnessed at the Diez Office: “Yesterday evening we finished soldering the stainless-steel drawer racks,” says Stefan Diez and leads us to the welding table in his workshop in Munich’s Glockenbachviertel. Next to it, aluminum rails are being drilled on the CNC system. His assistant, industrial designers Tobias Lugmeier is busy fixing two rails parallel to each other on a wall. On the floor colored panes of glass stand upright, in protective blue foam mats. On the large worktop in the center of the room there’s a still life with tool, metal and glass.

The designer takes an example to explain the function to us: two profiles of extruded aluminum are fastened vertically to the wall at the holes created using the drilling template. With a simple turn, the two panes of laminated safety glass click into the profiles. The surfaces then form the side walls and can be fastened to the wall without a rear wall being required. You then suspend the top, shelves or drawers in place in the glass profiles. If necessary, the unit can then be closed using a glass door. “The logic of the product can be changed completely using only a few pieces,” Stefan Diez concludes. Instead of shelves, for example, you can simply hang laundry baskets made of stainless-steel mesh between the two surfaces, or aluminum drawers. In fact, you can even hang stone slabs between the panes of glass. If you screw the wall profiles on horizontally, then you can fasten a mirror or aluminum shelves to them. The unit turns into a freestanding item of furniture by using a base element.

“RGB” cannot only be assembled quickly, but the elements taken apart again just as speedily. A decisive advantage for clients, Diez avers, as it means any desire to modify or expand the system can me swiftly met. The product’s flexibility will be on clear display at the international furniture and interior design fair – as the Burgbad booth concept was likewise devised by Stefan Diez. We’re allowed a glimpse of initial sketches for it – in the form of the presentation on his laptop: “RGB” in subtract, very homely rooms that emphasize the universal nature of the modular system. Elegant and pared down to the essentially, the modules look like standalones. “We want ‘RGB’ to radiate its full appeal at the imm cologne,” Sabine Meissner comments.