IMM Cologne 2015: Müller Möbelfabrikation

Contrary to popular legend, a change is not as good as a rest.

It’s better.

For whereas after a rest one just carries on ploughing the same furrow, change means new experiences and the gorgeous, invigorating, uncertainty of not knowing where the new path will take you.

After neigh on 18 years of producing refreshingly individual objects from sheet steel, and sheet steel alone, in 2014 Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation began a flirtation with wood in context of their Stack sideboard/room divider. Nothing serious, just a few oak panels and doors innocently scattered throughout the familiar steel.

Yet also unquestionably something new.

At IMM Cologne 2015 Müller Möbelfabrikation presented the logical fruition of that original, discreet, fling: objects in which wood dominates over steel and in particular the PS 03 and PS 04 secretaries from Hamburg based design studio Kressel + Schelle.

Essentially the same object – the PS 03 is a wall mounted version, the PS 04 trestled – both secretaries effortlessly combine a solid oak work surface with a sheet steel frame in a very well proportioned and intelligently thought through design to produce elegantly simple yet very refined objects.

And whereas the aesthetic may have altered, what remains very much the same is the focus on usability and a practical functionality. Both secretaries, for example, come with an optional storage box and an optional “electrics” box: the former providing simple drawer storage the latter cleverly hosting a multi-plug and cable organiser.

Although we’ve long been ardent adherents of Müller Möbelfabrikation’s no-nonsense sheet steel furniture, the company’s singular approach to only working with sheet steel, and if we’re honest never actually wanted that to change, the reassuringly familiar way in which they have integrated wood into their programme and the extra dimension the addition of wood brings to the products is for us a clear indication of a company who not only understand their craft but who have understood both the nature of the changes they were making and why the changes were needed.

And that of course makes us curious to see where the next turn will take them.

PS 04 by Kressel + Schelle for Müller Möbelfabrikation. In the background the PS 03 wall mounted version.

In addition to presenting the PS 03 and PS 04 Müller Möbelfabrikation also used IMM Cologne 2015 to launch the modular furniture system Modular by Jan Armgardt.

Or better put, re-launch the modular furniture system Modular by Jan Armgardt.

Originally presented at IMM Cologne 2014, Müller Möbelfabrikation and Jan Armgardt have now extended the system and the component units are now available in two heights, four depths, as floor based or wall mounted versions and, and most importantly, with a range of internal drawer, cupboard and shelving options, including new oak modular elements, and thus allowing each and everyone of us to create the unit(s) that fit to our requirements. And to determine how much “nature” we allow into our homes and/or offices.

And although a styling change rather than a design change we were also very impressed with the new RAL “pearl colours” being offered. More metallic, glossier, than the standard RAL colours the pearl colours allow one to enjoy familiar Müller Möbelfabrikation objects such as Delphin Design‘s V44 side table or Wendelin Müller’s RW 106 roll container in a whole new light. Literally.

As we always note in posts about Müller Möbelfabrikation, although a company who do what they do very well and with a high degree of professionalism and an almost innate understanding of what is required, they are not a company who have done or, we imagine, will ever do, anything truly revolutionary.

But then why should they?

Did the revolutionary’s revolutionary Leo Tolstoy not say, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Müller Möbelfabrikation have changed themselves.

And demonstrated that with change comes enrichment.

A few impressions from Müller Möbelfabrikation at IMM Cologne 2015.