Timothy Alouani-Roby: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us! Perhaps you could tell me a bit about the history of your work with Wittmann? 

Jaime Hayon: It’s a very beautiful history because I actually started to work with them in the way I love to work with someone, which is basically out of love. I discovered Wittmann through books, you know – I was looking at the furniture that was made in the Secession and work that was done in 1905 or 1903 by Josef Hoffmann and then I discovered that Wittmann was producing that. And so I went Milan and I said, I have to meet these people… I want to know who does that! 

I was totally like happy to buy something from them, so I went there and acquired one piece. When I said that I want to buy it, they said to me: ‘well, we also love what you do – why don’t you come and visit us and we’ll see the factory and who knows, maybe we can do something together!’ This is how I started about ten years ago and, well, now I’m part of the history of the company. It’s quite cool. 

So what are these furniture pieces that we’re standing between right here? 

This is the new collection I’m doing, it’s called KOLINAS. ‘Colinas’ means ‘hills’ in Spanish, and obviously Austria is full of them. My idea was more the sensation that I wanted to give – like the first piece I did with them, called Vuelta, which is a circular design, and which right now is one of the best sellers in the company. When I made it, I also gave them the emotion, the sensation of what I wanted. And I think with this new collection was the same. 

I said: I want something like a hill. Colinas are not the mountains, let’s make that clear. Colinas are more softened mountains, the ones that have the grass and are quite organic. So, these are the foothills you find before arriving to the big mountains, you know? I wanted the same sensation. 

Everything is circular. Everything is organic. Everything is upholstered. And this emotion, I wanted to give it to the different sizes. So, one-seat, two-seat and three-seater sofas – this is the progression we’ll be doing. As with everything we do, it was done out of a conversation, out of an emotion, and then I went to the atelier and started to work with them until today. 

I read about how you’re balancing that emotion with pragmatic things like function, comfort and ergonomics. Tell me how those two poles of emotion and pragmatics work together in the design.

I think it is really important to have an idea behind story-telling. I think that’s part of my work in the past thirty years, always bringing up a new way of looking at the design you’re making. Without story-telling, there’s no piece – or it would be a piece that doesn’t touch your heart. There’s always a story that you want to tell about it. 

So, I start with that always. And I think once you have that, the exercise of understanding where the idea comes from [follows]. Everyone gets excited, but obviously then there’s the other part. The expertise of an incredible company that has been there for so many years and is able to make every detail you want perfect. But there’s a lot of compromises. There’s a lot of things that are not working, things that I thought were great [but they said]: ‘no, it’s impossible, it’s going to cost way too much or it’s going to be way too hard to make something!’ So, I’m always trying to find a compromise with the conversation, but this is what design is about. It’s complicated. It’s industrial. It’s not easy. You have to discuss and bring the good and the bad and try to get the right compromise to get the piece on the market. 

Are there any details or small favourite moments that you’d like to draw attention to? 

This is a very complicated piece, believe me! I mean, if you take any of them, just the way it’s done because it’s upholstered on the foot, it has this character, you know… this impression and idea of volume that stands in a place, but it’s also light. There’s this elegance and there’s a lot of curves going on. There’s the little pipe in leather. There’s a very, very careful way in how this is done. 

Something I want to point is that Wittmann doesn’t make furniture in the easy way of today’s industry. No, they do things in the old way, with a lot of discipline and with a lot of layers inside. You know, in the last show I did, I cut one of these pieces in half and let people look at what’s inside. It’s crazy. I mean, they are real artisans!

Today, I work with some of the most important companies in the world of design. I love them all, but they are adapting themselves more to the new methods. Wittmann still works in the old method, which is the best one – but it takes a long time. And they’re probably the only ones that do that today that I know, still doing it in the old way and they do it everything at home, which is fantastic. I think it’s very unique.

Wittmann is available in Australia through DOMO

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