Dunja Weber

visit www.gate-08.com

I am pleased to present online the five products I exhibited at the Salone Satellite 09.
Fancy Fency a flexible roomdivider
Soba a stacking armchair
Shoo a modular shoe rack
Twist a minimal coffee table
Hulahoops a set of stacking glasses
Please find the articles related to each product by clicking on the names above.

The work has already been featured on a few blogs. Please find the links below:

internimagazine
designboom
3rings

Participating at the Salone Satellite was a wonderful experience but also a huge effort. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many wonderful people around me to whom I would like to say a very big THANK YOU!

Alberto Colzani for his generous help and technical advice for the prototypes of Soba
Alessio Mazzola from Komunicart for printing my postcards in just one day
Andrea Gregnanin for all his moral and technical support and advice
Ezio Manciucca for the wonderful photography of my products
James Irvine for letting me use his workshop
Kyoko Inoda and Nils Sveje for their patience and design advice
Mauro Bianchi for preparing the bamboo strips of Fancy Fency
Silvia and Lino Gregnanin for helping with the transport of prototypes
Valentina Folli and Arihiro Miyake for helping me with the stand building

The most important new piece I presented at the Salone Satellite is Soba a stacking chair with armrests. The frame is constructed from steel rod which has been powder-coated. The seat and backrest are made from taut PVC strings which create a three-dimensional seat-shell. Soba can be used indoors as well as outdoors.

The fine structure and very open net contribute to an air of transparency and lightness while offering the comfort of an upholstered chair. Everyone who tried the chair at fair agreed that it is comfortable indeed - and this I am very happy about since I could verify my theory only once the chair was ready - just a few days before the fair started.

Fancy Fency is a flexible room-divider made from bamboo strips connected with ribbons of felt. It creates fluid and intimate spaces inside big open spaces or lofts.

Fancy Fency can be made to any length.

Twist is probably the most minimal object I have ever designed. In fact only very few people notice the twist in the table leg which connects the square and the circle in a smooth joint. Those who did notice however enjoyed the detail.

Twist is a coffee table made from powder coated square section tubes and a glass table top.

Of course the project of the stacking glasses Hulahoops designed for Gate-08 couldn’t be missing from my Salone Satellite show. For complete story click link

The fifth element in my Salone Satellite was Shoo. I have designed this product a few years back but since it is looking for a manufacturer again I thought it was worth showing.
for the full story click link

As part of an exhibition called Do-it-yourself organised by atcasa I exhibited the vases Senzafondo, designed together with Monica Ferrigno, at the Space of Rossana Orlandi.

Senzafondo means bottomless - infact these vases are made of a tube of felt which simply covers a PET bottle when used as a vase and disappear flat in a drawer when not in use.

atcasa
yatzer

from left to right: Kyoko Inoda, Dodo Arslan, Cristina Cher, Maddalena Casadei, Alessia Cusinato, Emmanuel Gallina, Kensaku Oshiro, Dunja Weber, Philippe Nigro, Jim Hannon-Tan.

My friend Pia Bianchi who is a fashion journalist had the idea to use the Gate-08 designers (www.gate-08.com) as models for the Spanish fashion company Desigual. We spent a whole day with make-up artists, hair-stylists and fashion photographer Stefano Babic. The photographs will be on show at Bar Basso during the Salone del Mobile 09 (22-27 april) and will be published in the april issue of the magazine Velvet.

The pictures above are the result of a hard day of work - yes - being a model is surprisingly hard work and maybe being a designer isn’t so bad after all.

Snapshots taken during the shooting.