Switzerland A Confoederatio; A Range; A Context For a great many centuries the lands of the contemporary Switzerland were unknown, locked as they were behind and between the towering, daunting, peaks of the Toblerone cordillera; but then a fearless explorer by the name of Heidi, together with her cook Thomas, broke through the once impenetrable Toblerone and discovered a region of vibrant, viridescent valley pastures populated by cows, sheeps, goats, marmots and innumerable quadrilingual
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If you thought you'd seen the epitome of kitsch, we give you..... An olive bowl in the shape of Celine Dion's swimming pool. Just writing that sentence makes us want one. And of course the accompanying bowl for sun-dried tomatoes in the shape of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's swimming pool. Created by Zurich based designer Damian Fopp the Celeb Bowls collection is a series of porcelain bowls based on celebrity swimming pools, or to be more precise the swimming pools of Frank Sinatra, John
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Following on from our interview with Nikolas Kerl - a designer/producer at the very start of his career, we continue our exploration into the current state of the Swiss designer furniture industry with a producer who have "a little more" experience. Born out of a family carpentry and shop fitting business, Röthlsberger Kollektion effectively began producing their own collections in the late 1970s through collaborations with Swiss designers such Trix and Robert Haussmann, Susi and Ueli Berger
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The final stage of our 2011 autumn tour took us to Neue Räume Zurich, Switzerland's largest designer furniture trade fair. And quite possibly Switzerland's most bemuddled designer furniture trade fair. We do appreciate that the organisers are trying to make Neue Räume all things to all men, and offer a wide range of products, producers and design directions. And we really liked what the organisers were trying to do. But somehow squeezing so much into such a relatively small space just
read moreFor most people naming Swiss designer furniture producers is as much of a challenge as naming famous Belgians or happily married English footballers. USM Haller being the equivalent of Belgium's Hergé. However the Confoederatio Helvetica has a lot more to offer than Fritz Haller's genial system. And a lot more to offer than modular steel and chrome. One of the greatest contrasts to USM Haller is the cabinet maker Röthlisberger. Founded in 1928 Röthlisberger's first contact with the global
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