In our recent conversation with Birgit Severin and Guillaume Neu-Rinaudo about their Heimat Lamp project they told us that the lamp was not only their first joint project but in many ways a test joint project to see how well they cooperated. Or perhaps better put, if they could cooperate. And was a test which they obviously both passed, for at Salone Satellite 2016 in Milan Birgit and Guillaume presented new, joint, projects, and a new, joint, venture, the design studio "Proof of Guilt"
For us the highpoint of the new Proof of Guilt collection is and was the Hangout family. Initially inspired by the mundane, if universal and wholly unavoidable, need for hanging space in a bedroom, Birgit and Guillaume developed a collection of hanging solutions suitable for kitchen, hallway, conservatory, office, or indeed bedroom, and based on traditional school sports equipment, specifically a Hula-Hoop, Climbing Bars and a Wall Bar.
Presenting themselves as very accessible, uncomplicated yet not uninvolved or uninvolving objects, the highlight of the collection for us is and was the Climbing Bars with their offset bars: which is not something we are aware of having ever experienced before in such an object, yet which is an eminently sensible solution. As in patently obvious. Bars arranged one above the other mean that objects hang over those below, offset the bars and they hang in front of or behind. Which just makes sense.
The one concern we did have with the collection was the question of stability and durability: the wooden rods are relatively thin, the metal brackets even more so. However, having had a chance post-Milan to investigate things a little more closely and unhurriedly our concerns have proved unfounded. We wouldn't recommend actually climbing on the bars or swinging from the hoop, that would be genuinely foolhardy, but for the everyday storage of clothes, belts, jute bags, dog leads et al, the Hangout collection offers not only robust solutions but very civil, visually appealing, harmonious, and anything but mundane, solutions.
And also very nicely demonstrates that despite being Eindhoven graduates both Birgit and Guillaume can develop projects which originate in context of a real, everyday, problem and not an exploration of an abstract concept.
And that despite the claims of the Bröhan Museum Berlin's exhibition, in terms of design it needn't always be "Germany versus France", "Germany with France" is possible.
Full details on Hangout and Proof of Guilt can be found at: www.proof-of-guilt.com
