AWESOME FOR 25 YEARS
Wogg 17 only got a chance at second glance. Others won the design competition. We thought Benny Mosimann's design had huge potential! To this day, the Ellipsetower is one of our great success stories.
THE ELLIPSETOWER WOGG 17
The designer Benny Mosimann has put a lot of thought and just as many sketches into his container furniture collection since the first draft - Wogg 17 in 1996. He has already designed a total of eight types for this furniture family. The height, for example, depends on the use: While the low version can be used as an ordering table, the higher version as a bedside table fits perfectly with today's overly high beds.
It's not for nothing that the Ellipsetower Wogg 17 the reputation of the furniture with its changing appearance: The sliding doors, guided in aluminum profiles, play around the elliptical basic shape and make the furniture appear open, half-open or completely closed. Thanks to its wheels, the Ellipsetower remains mobile and is always used wherever it is needed: as a sideboard or cupboard in the living room, as a bedside table or laundry chest in the bedroom, as storage furniture in the office or much more. It fits everywhere and impresses both visually and functionally.
“SPANOVAL” BECAME WOGG 17
Benny Mosimann dared to go public with a piece of furniture that he called “Spanoval”. In the special exhibition of a series of prototypes, his design using wood was unable to convince the jury. But we thought the idea had potential. The Bernese designer revised the construction and dared to use plastic and aluminum as materials. The result: A piece of container furniture, built like Le Corbusier's Pilotis houses with pillars, a base plate and a shell that is as light as possible. In order to maintain lightness, the central problem had to be solved: How can the semi-transparent sliding doors be guided through narrow metal strips? There was no technology for this. We ultimately developed the machine ourselves to ensure that the edges of the shelves are perfectly wrapped and the doors slide around the column structure without resistance. There are now eight variants of Wogg 17. And we're not running out of ideas for new shapes!
BENNY MOSIMANN
Preliminary course and training to become a product designer HfG at the Zurich School of Design, internships and activities at home and abroad. One-year journey around the world. Further training in graphics at the Basel School of Design. Since 1995, he has worked independently in the areas of product development, exhibition graphics, interior design, graphic design and signage in his own design studio in Bern. From 2002 guest expert at the HGK and the Basel School of Design and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, 2007 teaching position at the Basel School of Design. Nominator Furniture Design, Swiss Design Prize since 2009 and member of the Swiss Design Association since 2013.