"I do hope my products will outlive their creator" - Jaïr Straschnow

The usual stuff, I guess! My addictions are, not in any particular order, music (all day), reading (all sorts), caffeine (Turkish coffee), beer (IPA) and football (Liverpool!). I try not to take myself too seriously, which is not very difficult. It takes half a life to realize that you’re not so clever, unique or original as you thought you were earlier in life. You’re almost like everyone else. 

Probably my flip chair, which has been in the making for so long it almost became a hobby! It is a dining chair that converts into an easy chair, made out of a single material. It has simplicity that looks obvious, but actually took a long time to distill. What is the most important aspect of a design to you? There is not only one, there are many aspects. But at the core, a design needs a reason to exist, an alibi. It should come from a real need. If we are still sitting on chairs next to tables and desks, and not on the floor or whatever, that is a good enough reason to keep designing tables and chairs. The big difference today is, knowing what we know about climate change, that we have to think and produce in a different way than before.

My work is normally driven by a fascination for a material or a technique. In recent years it has also been sheet metal bending. The fun part is that you create a sort of puzzle on the screen, and then sometimes the parts even fit in reality! If you choose to make outdoor furniture out of metal, you are on a very beaten track, as lots of it already exists. It is a saturated territory. This makes it a double challenge: How do you find a fresh angle and not just re-style existing systems? And how do you make friendly and inviting items out of a material that is perceived as cold and sharp? In the case of the Bended Series, the new angle was literally an angle: forty-five degrees…

To ignore climate change and the ecological crisis we experience nowadays is uncivilized, not to say almost barbaric. To do so as a designer, to me is not really an option anymore. However, things are complex, and it is not always clear what the right thing is to do. Recycling is only a temporary stage we are in and economically it does not really pay off. It makes us feel good however, and it raises awareness to the subject, which is important. Most collected materials are down cycled. For example, recycled paper is not really white, glass cannot be clear glass again. Aluminum is a different case. It is one of the few materials in the recycling stream that more than pays for the cost of its collection. Did you know that 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today? And even more important, it retains its mechanical properties indefinitely. 

Real change can only happen on a political level, but the revolution always starts in your back yard. Ultimately, we want to create things that do not need clumsy logistic systems. Something which can probably be achieved by developing new materials. For now, using common sense is a good start I guess. Work with “good” materials, either biodegradable ones or ones that can be re-used, and avoid toxic ones. Make products that can be (dis)assembled easily and think twice before making something. Try to make things that will last, avoid repeating old mistakes and try to fail better.