Objects and the Factory: exploring industrial heritage

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Elisa Strozyk. Photos by Alexander Böhle


Running in Cologne until Sunday, Objects and the Factory brings together a collection of new furniture, lighting and tableware that references the city's industrial past and explores the materials, tools and processes that we associate with factories.

Elisa Strozyk


Inspired by the messy surfaces and foggy air of ceramics factories, Elisa Strozyk's Ceramic Tables are decorated by pooling liquid glazes together and mixing them using blown air. The smoky patterns are then solidified in the kiln, creating a fluid surface effect.

Thomas Schnur


Thomas Schnur's Construct Table takes the classic bistro table and traces it back to its construction in a factory. The result is efficient to cut and build, made of laser-cut and spot-welded sheet metal.

Kai Linke


Kai Linke
Kai Linke's galvanised K Tables are inspired by the I-beams that are used in industrial manufacture and the building of structures such as bridges.

Karoline Fesser


Karoline Fesser's Wooden Workshop Stool converts the typical wood and metal stools found in workshops into a domestic product that's made completely out of wood - with the nut-and-bolt style mechanism giving a further nod to the workshop environment.

Mathias Hahn


Mathias Hahn has designed a hand-blown opaline glass set that mimics the 'louche effect' that occurs when spirits such as absinthe and ouzo turn cloudy in water.

Mark Braun


Mark Braun's Ninja bowls combine the beauty of porcelain with the practicality and non-slip properties of silicone. Each bowl is made of fine porcelain with silicone feet.

Daniel Lorch


Daniel Lorch's table lamp considers the huge network of resources and technology that lies behind each factory-made product.

Torsten Neeland's wardrobe, Urban Nomad, fits into mobile modern-day lifestyles with a flatpack design that fits together and comes apart without any tools or screws.

Torsten Neeland






Reinhard Dienes' Rebeca uses teak and lacquered metal, two of the materials found in a traditional Columbian factory and applies them to making an outdoor chair.

Reinhard Dienes

Samuel Treindl
Samuel Treindl's Construct Table Shelf is a parasitic object, made from the leftover metal produced by laser-cutting machines. The size, thickness and shape of each piece is decided by what has been left behind while making another object.

Samuel Treindl
Lastly, a series of prints by Sven Lützenkirchen 'excavate' the factory as an object, presenting it from a new perspective so that we can admire its complex mechanisms in the manner of a Rorschach print or exotic flower.

Sven Lützenkirchen
For more on how changes in industry and manufacture are impacting on design aesthetics, Homebuildlife subscribers can see our macro trend, Industrial Evolution.

See our post on last year's edition of this exhibition, Objects for the Neighbour, here.

Sven Lützenkirchen