Erika Winters: Chair Redesigner in Mexico City


Silver chair before redesign

About Erika Winters

Erika Winters has worked for several years redesigning used furniture.
There are endless possibilities when reconditioning furniture, no matter its state of repair. Furniture and people are similar, daily wear and tear takes its toll. Values taught to us as children become outdated, and although they lose relevance as time goes by, they quietly keep their memory, marked by use and the passage of time. Her furniture shows the longing for what we have passed by, left, thought, lost or let go, that old warmth of certain values that have been lost. When rescuing a piece of furniture, Erika makes it as vivid and modern as its surroundings, picking up on something that she had or felt near – so that anyone who can identify with it and its history can enjoy it again, converting it into something unique and important for their house, something that no-one will find ever, anywhere else.


Erika Winters Silver Chair After Redesign

Bio

Erika Winters grew up in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, opposite a beautiful palm tree lined avenue, in a house built in 1935, where her great-aunt who is 101 years old still lives. She spent her teenage years on Calle Amsterdam, a few blocks from Parque Mexico which was like an extension of her house, like the Bosque de Chapultepec and the Museum of Modern Art  which had no railings in those days. Erika remembers walking through the woods with her mother, going to open air concerts in Ciudad Universitaria and The Amazing Lagunilla Market, That’s also like a museum for me. It was a different Mexico City back then.

These are the roots of some her influences which have left a spiritual mark on her and which definitely inspire her way of working.


Erika Winters Golden Chair before Redesign

In the 1990s Erika Winters founded Alquitrabe, a brand of lamps using everyday old and antique objects, placing them in the best department stores and interior decoration shops in Mexico. Alquitrabe products were exported to Argentina, Spain and Switzerland; they were exhibited and sold in Costa Mesa California and inSOHO  (New York), in La Galeria Mark Shapiro. She occasionally still works with lamps but not for such large customers, but on a more exclusive and smaller scale.

Portfolio
Founder of Alquitrabe, 1992-2004, Mexico City;

  • Design, coordination and supervision of 385m2 of office space for Marriott Ownership Resorts Int, Zona Rosa, Mexico City;
  • Shop window design for Telafashion  electrodomestic stores, Mexico City;
  • Initial projects and remodelling of De Maurice beauty parlor, Marriott Vacation Club Int offices in Mexico City, and for the Gestalt Institute, Lomas Verdes, Mexico City
  • Design, PR and sales for Alquitrabe lamps. I promoted these lamps in various parts of the world, Mexico, USA, Spain, Switzerland and Argentina

Erika Winters Golden Chair After Redesign

Founder of Erika Winters Design, 2005, Mexico City

  • Recovery and restoration of different types of furniture
  • Remodelling, design and adaptation of an apartment for the “Circle of Existential Studiesa Institute, Colonia Del Valle, Mexico City
  • Restoration of Izote Restaurante in Polanco, Mexico City
  • Interior Decoration and remodelling of Hacienda Mamey Domingo, Morelos, Mexico
  • Remodeling of a house in Reforma Lomas, Mexico City
  • Shop window design for Ma Maison, CAD Ciudad de (Centro de Arquitectura y Diseo).
  • Remodeling of a house in Balmori Building, Roma, Mexico City.

Via
Coroflot Portfolios pointed me to Erika Winters Design.

The Hara Chair by Giorgio Gurioli

 

I came across this chair while writing about BAD, an Italian Design B&B on my other Blog and didn’t know about its origins until I saw a photo somewhere else.

The Hara Chair
is a 2002 design by Giorgio Gurioli for Kundalini of Italy. It is a bio-energetic seat, handmade in lacquered fiberglass. It is ideal for outdoors thanks to a treatment against ultra-violet rays and the strong resistance of the material to temperature changes. It looks beautiful indoors as well. Available in 4 colors, 2 of which I show here. Dimensions: 31.5″w x 35.5″h x 31.5″d

About Giorgio Gurioli
He began his career as planner and designer for companies such as Motorola, Rockwell, Digital and Teko. He worked with companies manufacturing electro-medical instruments, robotics, etc. He is involved in the design of office furniture. In 1991 he was co-founder of Syn Design. In 1995 he founded Mix Experience. He planned and designed in various sectors amongst which were: Luxo Italia, Out Look Zelco, Martini and Viceversa. In 1987 he was elected for the 14th Golden Compass (Compasso d’Oro) for the design of Filly the folding chair, for the workstation XYZ. At the 1989 Office Design Competition, he won an award with honours. At the 1990 Tecnhotel ADI for his umbrella stand Oyster, at the 16th Compasso d’Oro (Golden Compass) he gained recognition for both the Oyster umbrella stand and his paint gun system Zeus,he was present at the 17th Triennale in Milan with the design of a robot in collaboration with ET Engineering Team, he took part on the Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design show, at the MOMA in New York, in 1995 he was once again called up with Syn Design by the 17th Compasso d’Oro for the book-holder Tra. He is lecturer of Planning and Design Methodology at the ISIA of Faenza.

Via Unica Home

Feichtner Design: Axiome Chair

The Axiome Chair, 2006, aluminum, powder coated.

About Buchegger, Denoth and Feichter Design

The Austrian designers Bernhard Buchegger, Michael Denoth and Thomas Feichtner, based in Linz, Austria, understand “Axiome” as a counter strategy to an economically motivated concept of design. Instead of creating objects according to economic criteria, they search for a strategy apart of globalization and mass production. Their work is dominated by cultural and artistic aspects of design, by formal development as well as a break with the concept of design as a function of purpose. According to them the future lies with products having a regional and cultural reference, fabricated by way of small-scale manufacture.

Buchegger, Denoth, Feichtner declare the definition of “industrial design” as being obsolete and predict a movement back to “manufactories”.

Via Elit Alice and Elit Alice | Trendhunter

More of them him to follow.

Update November 17, 2009:

Somebody informed me that there was a mistake here: BD and F are an advertising agency and Thomas Feichtner has his own site

Last edited by gje on November 17, 2009 at 11:32 pm

Sand and Birch: Softpipe Lounger

Softpipe
The Sofpipe Lounger

If you look at this chair, seating on it is as if you are going to take place on the lap of an elegantly long legged lady. I featured Sand and Birch earlier with their Velvet Sofa. They are Trendhunters (albeit with a typo in their port folio which is named: “Snadbirch”) like yours truly.

A Porcelain Chair Teapot

Cardew Royal Albert Wicker Chair Teapot
Paul Cardew Royal Albert Wicker Chair Teapot
Paul Cardew Pormierion Chair Teapot
Paul Cardew Portmierion Chair Teapot

I didn’t know china chair teapots existed, but they do.

About Paul Cardew, Master Teapot Maker
Over the last fifteen years Paul Cardew has established himself as the world’s preeminent designer and producer of collectible teapots.

His talents have also been widely recognized by museums art galleries and the British Tea Council for whom he designed a special range of teapots in the late 80’s.

His obsession with producing ever more imaginative and intricate designs has remarkably not sent him “potty”. His youthfulness and energy bear witness to the naturally reviving qualities of tea.

You can find more about Paul Cardew and more of his chair teapots at the site Cardew Club

Via
The photo’s of this post are borrowed from Trojan Horse Antiques & Collectibles