The forgotten drawing
What is your relationship to the hallway?
None in particular. I'm rather more object-oriented than
room-oriented.
Is it true that the hat rack Funk was actually designed many years ago but hasn't come into production until now?
I sent over a drawing to Essem Design in the nineties that I forgot to get back from them. They found it and suggested that we should put it in production.
You have a special relationship with stainless steel. How did you get into this material?
Firstly, many materials require a consideration for surface treatment. One of the joys of stainless steel is than it doesn’t require any surface treatment. Secondly, chromium – which is an alternative material – is poisonous and our society face big problems in taking care of it. This will lead to its eventual ban. Stainless steel is a bit like the end of the road — you can’t really find a better material.
You are a collector of many things. Does this affect your design?
I look at my collection in the same way as a writer gathering material for a book. It is all about gathering information. Keeping those physical objects means a lot to me when it comes to design research gathering. But I also have a lot of reference books with a focus on different materials.
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In the picture is Funk shoe rack as well as Funk hat rack.
Mats Theselius, b. 1956
Furniture designer