Moormann: Greetings from Bavaria

(jiří macek) Tables fine-tuned with a wooden spoon, omnipresent wires, and a wheelbarrow full of books are just a few tit-bits from the collection of the German brand of Moormann, which ranked among my biggest discoveries in Milan this year. The collection was designed by Moormann - i.e. Nils Holger Moormann, Tomás Alonso, Takashi Sato, and Max Frommeld.

This furniture manufacturer from the Bavarian town of Achau im Chiemgau, situated close to the Chiemsee lake, focuses primarily on simple wooden furniture – chairs, tables, coat racks, and shelves. This year’s collection – much like the previous collections – contains unexpectedly witty moments and associations. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the Moormann installation was located in one of the two most visited halls at Salone del Mobile. Apart from a wide range of German designers, the creators also included many interesting foreign names that push the brand among global producers.

Tomás Alonso, whom we have mentioned in relation to the OKAY studio based in London, has designed the 5° family of furniture pieces. Its basis is self-standing plinths and tripods, which could also be found in Tokyo last year in his wonderful presentation at Design Tide. The tripods represent both the bearing element of the table and individual seats on which you lean more than sit. Thus, one can move more freely around the table. Apart from oak wood, the young Spanish designer also used a string that provides stability and enables the chair and table structure to weigh less both visually and materially to a high degree.

A string has become the essential recognition sign for the 2009 collection. Max Frommeld, a very interesting young British designer, has applied it in the structure of the Strammer Max stool when he substituted the traditional connecting line of the sides with a string. Moreover, the stool has been fine-tuned with an elaborate tension by means of a wooden spoon or a branch that hold the whole structure together. Nils Holger Moormann proceeded in a similar way – the entire structure off the Kampenwand table and bench leans onto a tightened string.

However, this is not the end of this new line of elaborate structures from Moormann. The Steckling coat rack, designed by Japanese designer Takahashi Sato, is just a stick with notches into which simple hangers are attached. The Stellvertreter coat rack, designed by Stephan Schulz, is abstracted into the form of a mere branch thrust into a plinth with a place for one’s wellingtons and a shoe brush. The Easy Reader reference library, designed by Nils Holger Moormann, is for avid readers and comes in the form of a wheelbarrow - it shifts, one sits down, and starts reading. Thus, one could stay up to read far into the night.

The Moormann company presents traditional furniture on its own unique fashion, always discovering something new – including very interesting designer talents from all over the world. However, they can be allegedly found in the most conservative region of Germany – Bavaria.

www.moormann.de

< back