IDFuel, the Industrial Design Weblog - Post details: In Memoriam: Willy Guhl

In Memoriam: Willy Guhl

10/06/04

Willy Guhl, the Swiss furniture designer, died over the weekend at age 89. He was one of the original importers of industrial design into Switzerland, and is in large part responsible for the high interest in furniture design in the country today.
Guhl Rocker

He belonged to the Neo-functionalist school, which advocated, in his words “achieving the most with the minimum of effort”. He was an early proponent of flat-pack furniture, like his "Guhl Chair", which influenced later Swedish designers, which eventually lead to Ikea.

One of his most famous designs is for a groundbreaking rocker made of fiber-reinforced concrete. The design was originally made as an alternative product for the Eternit Building Materials Company, a manufacturer of synthetic roofing tiles. This unconventional design partnership was a standard mode of operation for Guhl, who worked the later part of his life as a design instructor at the Zurich School of Applied Arts.

His enthusiasm for simplicity and usefulness, as well as his continued interest in learning are things we can all aspire to.

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In Memoriam: Willy Guhl

10/06/04

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