Nature & Architecture: A Beautiful Synthesis
March 26th 2021
Christie's International Real Estate, Great Britain
Luxury Defined Live Webinar, Kamilah Ramji
Christie’s International Real Estate is proud to launch an exclusive series of webinars in 2021: Luxury Defined Live. Luxury Defined Live is conceived for today’s global and hyper-connected audience, joining insights from the world’s real estate, art and luxury lifestyle experts, business leaders and trend forecasters. As the luxury real estate industry continues to be disrupted by the ever-increasing digital trends, shifting consumer behaviours, and a global health and economic crises, our webinars curate exclusive insights into luxury property markets, art, and luxury lifestyle trends. Join us to explore the best of Christie’s International Real Estate. Check out the recording of our first webinar «Nature & Architecture: A Beautiful Synthesis» with panelists Kevin McCloud, TV Presenter & Designer, Robert Lumme, Architect, and Alfredo Häberli, Designer.
Giocare è una coas Seria
February 19th 2021
Edizioni Condé Nast S.p.A., Italy
Casa Vogue on page 120, Alfredo Häberli
When my family moved from Argentina to Switzerland in 1977, my personal luggage consisted of a shoebox full of my toy cars. My favourite was «Matchbox N°14», an Iso Grifo. I still don't know why. Was it the turquoise colour? The soft suspension? The distinctive lines or the fact that the doors could be opened? I soon stopped playing with the model, but the passion for cars and tracks remained. Years later, when the question of my career choice arose, Giorgetto Giugiaro with his drawings of cars, like the VW Golf or the Fiat Panda, and Achille Castiglioni with his designs became my models. It was only later that I found out that the Iso Grifo had been designed by the young Giugiaro at Bertone. Today I know practically everything about that story. But was it a coincidence? A few years later, I had the good fortune to meet Castiglioni, and with Giugiaro I even spent three days together on a jury. These anonymous objects from everyday life, industrial products and toys from the pens of certain designers, fill my studio and make me dream. They help me to feel the colours, to talk to the shapes, to see the techniques. It was a toy, Matchbox No. 14, that guided me into the infinite universe of design. Since I opened my studio, just 30 years ago, the Iso Grifo has been sitting on a shelf in my office.
Agitador con causa
February 9th 2021
RBA Revistas, Spain
Arquitectura y Diseño, Alfredo Häberli
My Guest-Column on an article about Enzo Mari in the latest issue of «Arquitectura y Diseño». Many thanks to Soledad Lorenzo & David Quesada for the opportunity to write about «El Hombre que me hizo observar el Mundo»:
I am a great admirer of anonymous objects. These are artefacts that have evolved over time or objects that someone has invented to improve or invent something very specific because it was not there before. I am also a great admirer of people who are constantly searching for truth and honesty and who fearlessly take up this challenge. I am also a great admirer of people who can give their creations a soul, with a beauty and poetry that needs no language, even if there is much to say. I am an admirer, and I am blessed to discover and experience these wonders again and again - and I have been able to meet people who see and understand this in the same way. That is why I am a great admirer of Enzo Mari and I have had the time to study his enormously complex, multifaceted and distinct oeuvre. I have had the pleasure of meeting Enzo Mari in person.
On my wall hangs a signed serigraph with hammer & sickle, on the bookshelf are countless books, including some that Enzo Mari photocopied for me himself. Putrella lies on the table, the 16 Animali are stacked in the glass cabinet, a marble vase and his ashtray stand on the sideboard - with me as a non-smoker. I occasionally sit on the «Box Chair» or «Sof-Sof Chair», certain furniture fragments, such as the table leg of «Filo di Ferro», serve as a reference for me and the magazine Domus No. 807 from 1980 lies on the «Thinking Man's Chair» in my field of vision.
I am a great admirer of the work, the person and the human being Enzo Mari. In between, however, I had to distance myself from our meetings and discussions because it was too touching for me, because his observations on our world made him incredibly angry. Enzo Mari commanded me to look out of the window and look at the world, the world at Piazza Baracca 10 by his studio, and let him know how we were doing...! I was lucky to have just seen the exhibition in Milan – and my happiness remains in having made Enzo Mari smile.
Textile Eleganz
February 1st 2021
Jahreszeiten Verlag GmbH, Germany
A&W Spezial on page 20, Ulrike Wilhelmi
How can a homely ambience be achieved despite functional requirements in the hospitality sector? AW Designer of the Year Alfredo Häberli provides a brilliant, sustainable example with the complete design of the 25hours Hotel Zurich West. He gave the restaurant a new face last year.