Interview by Anniina Koivu. Photography by Anja Wille.
Argentinian-born Alfredo Häberli is a 55-year-old, Swiss contemporary industrial designer. Häberli manages to unite tradition and innovation in his design, much of which is influenced by his early childhood in Argentina as well as his curiosity about everyday life. We meet with Alfredo to discuss his ongoing collaboration with Iittala.
In 2006 Alfredo Häberli was a guest of honour at the Kortrijk Biennale Interieur in Belgium, where he was invited to create a large personal exhibition. He decided to not only show his own work, but to showcase the long tradition of Swiss design, as well. Thus, he brought more than 380 exhibits from the design collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich to Belgium for the exhibition. To commemorate the occasion, he also published the ‘Design Live’ book, which gave seven Swiss artists carte blanche to play with Alfredo’s design pieces. One of the artists was Roman Signer (1938), who is known for his witty sculptures and performative actions, which often include countdowns, explosions and objects flying through the air. For the artwork ‘De-Signer’, Signer took an Essence glass, filled it with red wine, and placed it on the ‘Move It’ (Thonet, 1996) table, with a tilting top. The table, in turn, was standing above an electrical ventilator, of the kind typically used in agriculture to blow dry air into the barn. A shot of air catapulted the tabletop up and the wineglass fell to the ground. Alfredo recalls receiving a phone call from Signer with a single message: “Alfredo, you are right, the glass did not break.”
AK Two years later came ‘Senta’ (2003), another glass collection. Designed for everyday use, Senta was not as tall as Essence, but more feminine, and featured a very nice facette detailing that makes the glass seem to hover over the table.
AH At the time, we feared that Essence was too elegant. But by the time Essence and Senta were sitting next to each other on the shop shelves, people had already fallen for Essence. Let me also give away a little trick that, in my opinion, might contribute to Essence’s popularity, particularly—but not only—in places like Scandinavia. Because Essence is so big, a glass looks almost empty, but the amount of wine poured in the glass is actually a lot.
AK You expanded the catalogue even further, mixing materials and bringing in a whole new clientele: children. Just a year later, in 2003, Kids’ Stuff was released.
AH Around that time my son Luc was about two years old. The project came naturally. I understood many things, simply by observing him. For example, his hands were too small to hold a glass with one hand. But the solution was not to down-scale a regular glass by 20%. Rather, the problem was the vessel’s shape. So, I created a curvy silhouette. Similarly, the cutlery has an elevated bow, which allows for a child to easily grab a fork, knife or spoon and hold it securely. The tilted end keeps it secure on the edge of the plate and prevents it from sliding into the food.
AK You wanted to treat children seriously.
