designer | ish special | interview
“Our homes have countless charging points for our mobile phones and gadgets, but where do we recharge?”
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not least because consumers’ tastes have developed from basic functional needs to a much more ambitious requirement that takes account of different materials and styles.
“I’m glad that we now have materials in the bathroom that people feel they can trust in that space and that they can use. At our house, we’ve had wooden floors in the bathroom for 15 years and never really worried that this was not waterproof or might not be generally considered as suitable for that kind of use. People need to learn what can be possible and that takes time.”
Michael adds: “Design is just an answer to the overall needs of society, so inevitably it’s strongly linked to the habits and tastes of consumers. For example, our father – an architect and a man with a very modern outlook – moved into his new house 10 years ago but insisted he didn’t want the kitchen to be open-plan like almost everyone else is doing, because he doesn’t want guests to be watching while he cooks, or have the cooking smells everywhere throughout the house.
“But the fact that more widely the kitchen has been opened up within the home is a result of a broader trend and a greater understanding of communication and socialising within the home.”
He adds that the logical next step was to open up the bathroom to the bedroom, which he did in his own home to remove the physical barriers between these areas. The changes to the way in which the bathroom is used also requires a re-think about the role of bathroom products themselves.
Christian says: “They become less about being functional items for
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washing or cleaning and more important as items of furniture in their own right. That’s why we strive for this more elegant look, something that’s a little more sculptural, so that you enjoy looking at it rather than trying to find ways of hiding it away because it looks ugly.”
Michael sees a further drastic shift in the way we look at bathroom furniture in the future, envisaging a point in around 20 years where the bathroom of a new house will typically start off empty, because people will move their bathroom fittings around like furniture – a more flexible, modular approach than is predominantly the case today. “People have become more mobile, so it makes sense to have a more mobile approach to important domestic items. Why not have a mobile bathroom to take to your next house?”
Sieger Design has spent many years exploring some of these ideas in collaboration with Duravit. The brand has a reputation for working with established design names. Indeed, at ISH, new products from Philippe Starck and Matteo Thun were also launched.
In an otherwise transient and often volatile business climate, it is encouraging to find a creative partnership that continues to stand the test of time. But what makes the link between manufacturer and design studio tick in the way that it does?
Christian says: “There are not that many business relationships that have this certain DNA. It is a feeling, respect and understanding that is hard to describe. It is kind of like a marriage – you have good times and bad times. In all the time we have worked with Duravit, we’ve had many challenges, one or two projects that didn’t go as
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well as we had hoped, but thankfully many more that have been successful.
“The divorce rate is high in society and it can be the same in business, but it’s good that we have been able to work together through the challenges rather than just go our separate ways the first time something didn’t go as well as we would have liked. It pays dividends in the long run because I think we have something like a 90/10 success ratio so clearly something is right in that relationship.”
He adds that Sieger Design’s approach with Duravit is very much a partnership, to the extent that the financial side of their collaboration is royalty-based, so the majority of their potential earnings from design work for the brand is linked to its commercial success.
“It can mean it takes quite a long time for us to get our investment back,” Michael explains, “because we normally work at least two years on a new product range, and then it can be a year in production so we can have three or maybe four years before we begin to earn any money from the products that we design.
But he adds: “It helps to focus and define our role as designers in that our main objective is not to act as some kind of cultural influence, to win design prizes, or feature on the cover of magazines – nice though that is – but rather it is to work with our partners to ensure that the products fulfil the needs of the market.”
So what of those market needs for kitchens and bathrooms? The brothers see a further elevation in the importance of these spaces within the home. Michael says:
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