Vienna Design Week 2014: Passionswege – Pedrita Studio @ Glaserei Stiefelmeyer

We’re spending an awful lot of time at Vienna Design Week 2014 photographing mirrors.

If we were at all competent at what we do we would now wax lyrical about how mirrors are the “top tr**d” at Vienna Design Week 2014, an indication of contemporary designers desires to reflect the ills of modern society, to make us face up to our own social responsibility and question the increasing narcissistic nature of the human existence as exemplified by the ubiquitous selfie, and for all the daily flood of “celebrity selfies” to which we are all exposed everyday.

But we’re not.

And so we’ll assume it is all just a coincidence.

Assume that a lot of designers have worked on projects in recent months which in one sense or another have to do with mirrors.

Such is and was certainly the case of Pedrita Studio’s Passionswege project with Glaserei Stiefelmeyer.

Established in 1917 Glaserei Stiefelmeyer are the sort of good old local glass company who can repair your broken window, build you display cabinets, frame your pictures or indeed supply you with a mirror.

Rita João and Pedro Ferreira from Lisbon based Pedrita Studio decided to take the opportunity presented by their Passionswege project to add to Glaserei Stiefelmeyer’s portfolio. To move the portfolio on from the traditional product groups. To this end Pedrita have combined a range of standard glass types with coloured felt to create a very simple range of storage boxes.

In addition to presenting the very clear and open aesthetic on would expect from a collection of glass storage boxes, the clean, uncluttered lines of Pedrita’s design also bestow the objects with an easy universal appeal that means we can well imagine them in a range of domestic and commercial settings.

The use of mirrors in the boxes meanwhile not only breaks up the quadratic geometry but also, weirdly, makes the objects appear more robust and stable than would otherwise be the case.

In addition to the storage boxes Pedrita have also created two small mirrors, one featuring a 90 degree bend which allows it to stand unsupported, the other with an apparent “fold.” As with the storage boxes both also feature coloured felt.

One of the real highlights of the project however is the rectangular mirrors Rita João and Pedro Ferreira have attached to the spines of the A4 folders in the office. An almost guerilla act that happened spontaneously and which functions majestically.

Through that uncanny knack mirrors have of reflecting light, the solution is perfect for small offices and/or offices with only limited natural light, creating as it does a sense of space and increased illumination. A lovely architectural intervention as much as it is an example of playful design thinking.

We’re admittedly unsure as to the long term practicality of such, how great the risk of having to regularly sweep up broken glass actually is, but it is certainly something well worth investigating.

And so it is to be hoped that Glaserei Stiefelmeyer leave the mirrors on the folders and keep Pedrita Studio updated as to their experiences.