"The customer is his own architect"
Behind every design is a creative mind, whose ideas and drafts form the basic building block of every product. One of these people is Bastian Prieler - the designer of our VARIA shelving system. Together with Christian Diemer, he founded the prieler design studio in Detmold in 2021 and specialized in industrial design. For about a year now, the 33-year-old native of Lower Bavaria has also been designing for
Bastian, what design philosophy do you follow when designing your products?
"My approach is to design furniture that allows the customer to be their own architect and to realize themselves. This requires that a product is not assigned to a singular purpose or a specific space, but remains versatile and can be used in different contexts. Flexibility is playing an increasingly important role in our lives. We often move, change our workplace more quickly.Furniture that is variable and versatile, adapts to new room situations, and can be redesigned afterwards, is thoughtfully sustainable. This keeps them alive longer and allows them to grow with time and life situations. Many designers leave out the emotional aspect. However, I believe that the emotional benefit of a piece of furniture is also a function: If I design furniture to be timeless, but sterile, then I will not find anyone who loves it. A piece of furniture must always create the possibility that it is either loved or hated. It must have character so that it is not too normal or interchangeable. However, this does not mean that it should be overdesigned. Rather, it must have a joke, a story, a materiality."A shelf, for example, should be recognizable as such, but still be designed in such a way that it serves as a stage for the things I want to display."
By the way, what makes the VARIA shelving system so special in this context?
"Primarily, it fulfills exactly the purpose that any other cabinet fulfills: storage. It only becomes special through what the customer makes of it, because he can configure the furniture as he wants. And in doing so, the product remains flexible and variable, as it can be changed, rebuilt or expanded by purchase at any time. In my opinion, there is a certain maximum of innovation that a designer can deliver.The term innovation is generally difficult because a design is ultimately not innovative. I would therefore rather use the term evolution or evolutionary: There has always been a chair, a shelf, a cupboard - all of this has just been further developed. We do not completely reinvent a product. A piece of furniture, for example, should be 90 percent self-explanatory at first glance and only ten percent new. No more. Otherwise, it is either not understood or too much transformed into something artistic. This way, you miss the chance to generate something sellable."
VARIA is configurable: How would you design your personal shelving system?
"I am someone who has a lot of stuff that can be read.Many books and design magazines, architecture and art publications, because I like to browse through them in the evening and let myself be inspired. I would therefore choose a volume of drawers and design it as high as possible so that all books can find a place in it. Kept very straight."
