news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9.2023 - 21.7.2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 01.06.2024 - 30.03.2025
    exhibition, adapted project

    A utopian insect swarm based on our 'curiosity cloud' developed with 13 children from Dresden swirls during the Kinderbiennale in the Japanische Palais. The participatory process resulted in 24 fantastic, colourful insects.

    Children's Biennale "Planet Utopia"

  • 30.05 2024 - 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    All in! Re-Designing Democracy - Every aspect of democracy has been designed, therefore it can be designed differently. A new "Themis" claims in the exhibition for rights for Nature.

    Bundeskunsthalle

  • 10.05. 2024 - 23.06.2024
    exhibition

    20th anniversary international exhibition and series of events. Our glass project "access" is part of the exhibition.

    design without borders

ephemerā

three interactive kinetic furniture pieces that represent the dialogue between mankind and nature

Nature is bound by momentum and instinct. We have all experienced the reaction of a snail when we lightly touch it, or if we approach a wild animal. The snail instantly retracts, and the animal runs away.
We react to nature and nature reacts to us, in an ongoing dialogue that proves the other’s existence. From a distance we can watch the species in nature for a very long time and enjoy their liveliness. This fleeting moment, and sense of untouchable closeness is at the heart of the ephemerā installation. The installation consists of a big oak table and two mirrors. Observed from a distance the pieces’ floral decoration appears alive. The plants grow and move, following their own gentle choreography. However, when someone approaches the table, the plants and insects hide. ephemerā interacts with the audience, inviting participation, discussion and questioning. Each piece of the installation uses traditional craftsmanship and advanced technologies to create a completely new typology. The large, simple table is inlaid with a complex collection of botanical motifs on its surface, a contemporary take on marquetry. The chosen species are based on existing ones, either extinct, widely spread or newly discovered. Each individual plant or insect reacts if someone comes too close, retreating into the table, returning to be a functional and simple object. The companion mirrors hang from the walls. From a distance one can see flowers grow across the glass, up and even out of the wooden frame, extending into the room. On closer inspection, the plant will retract, and the mirror becomes, just a mirror.

main image above: ephemerā for Perrier Jouët during Design Miami 2014, image credit: Oliver Manzi

explanation video about the project by dezeen

detail of the table at design Miami in 2014, image credit: Gesi Schilling

ephemerā interacts with the audience, inviting participation, discussion and questioning.

ephemerā with one of our smaller visitors at Design Miami, image credit: Oliver Manzi

detail of a flying moth as part of the ephemerā installation, image credit: Oliver Manzi

the table reacts via ultrasonic sensors to people and the floral elements hide in the table's surface, image credit: Gesi Schilling

detail of the table's floral elements – the plants hide, once somebody comes too close, image credit: Gesi Schilling

From a distance one can see floral elements gently grow and move on the objects, but on closer inspection, the plants will retreat and the table and mirrors become functional.

ephemerā mirror, image credit: Gesi Schilling

additional frames showed all the selected plants and insects in detail, image credit: Gesi Schilling

portrayed buckwheat

book about all the species selected for ephemerā and their 'technical' translation

small 1:10 scale model of the ephemerā table with active and inactive surface, image credit: Thomas Albdorf

various floral elements before assembly - one side always in vivid colours, the other one stained in black

see the team working on the ephemerā installation

Since 2017 the ephemerā - table is permanently installed at Perrier Jouët´s Maison Belle Epoque in Epernay

work in progres in the studio

  • material

    table:
    oiled oak, laser-cut veneer, water-jet cut spring-steel species, various mechanical pieces, motors, custom made electronics

     

    mirrors:
    oiled oak, screen, water-jet cut steel species, various mechanical
    pieces, motors, custom made electronics

  • dimensions

    table:
    304 x 94 x 95 cm

     

    mirrors:
    75 x 130 x 17 cm

  • electro-technical development

    Simon Laburda (DKIA)

  • special support

  • team

    Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Maria Bauhofer, Benedikt Steiner

  • special thanks to

    our great carpenter Jacqueline Pehack