Holistic mindset

“I find it exciting not just to take the first idea I come up with, but rather to analyze a need and then consider it from a different angle. Like a mirror that is the right shape to be leant against the corner of a room. That way there’s no need for a frame,” Christoph Hauf says. “Lean” is the name of the frameless, trapezoidal mirror that can be positioned in a corner. thereby creating new spatial perception. Having been presented for the first time in the Pure Talents Contest at imm cologne 2017, Schönbuch subsequently realized the design. Since then he has not only graduated from Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe but two years have gone by in which Christoph Hauf has advanced his formal idiom and expressed his search for clarity in product design. A prime example is the open shelving system “Domino”, for example, which in terms of construction was intended to be as robust as it is straightforward.

“You don’t need any tools to put it together, you can extend it as you wish and there is no way of telling how often it has been assembled and dismantled,” Hauf says. Because each of the four bars acts as a large clamp, various materials such as stone, wood, or glass can be used for the shelves. In addition to the user-friendly construction, another matter was of importance to Hauf: During his time as an assistant at Ransmeier Inc. in New York City he was inspired by the careful manner in which US artist and architect Donald Judd presented various belongings, from crockery to a small boulder, on wooden shelves in his home. By means of “Domino”, Christoph Hauf subsequently researched a way to present possessions more consciously, more appreciatively, and such that they are easy to see. “It is far more our relationship with our things than with the shelf itself,” Hauf says. He will shortly also be demonstrating his appreciation for Karlsruhe, the place where he studied: Together with artist friends he founded the artists’ collective “Fan” there with a view in future, through exhibitions, events, and performances, to focusing on a specific topic and thoroughly exploring it across artistic disciplines, from graphic design to exhibition architecture. The first project is entitled “Fan Fiction #1” and is intended to be an ode to the diversity of Karlsruhe, which Hauf and the other members of the collective consider underrated. Another event is also being planned for Salone del Mobile 2020.