Saskia Hübner, product and
furniture designer
Saskia Hübner graduated in Interdisciplinary Design at MSD Germany in 2016 and moved to Copenhagen the same year. This is her first time exhibiting with Danish Design Makers.
Feels like shaping clay
Saskia is excited about her brief, feeling it encapsulates emotional qualities and articulates well what the design must express. With experience in designing for the contract market, she understands that lounge furniture typically needs to be large and voluminous.
It is important to me that design tells a story. The description in the brief of a friendly and open expression immediately made me decide the name for my design. It’s called “ven” which means friend in Danish. I want my design to hug you when you sit in it”.
The idea came to Saskia quickly, but the journey from concept to reality has been more challenging.
“Pulling and pushing curves in 3D feels like creating in clay to me. It’s this tactile sense of sculpting digitally. Combined with my artistic works, I could shape the soft, organic forms I could feel the company envisioned in their brief and translate them to the manufacturer.”
Attempt to eliminate the core
The thought of reducing the environmental impact of a massive lounge chair struck her suddenly:
“Why do we even use foam? What about just having a hollow chair? I wanted to make it possible, and luckily a German textile company had the same idea. They had already developed a special kind of textile with the specific purpose of making the foam part redundant in upholstered furniture. So, we quickly agreed on a collaboration.
With an experienced development team handling both the textile and swivel base components, Saskia is in good hands, but she also knows she is heavily reliant on her partners.
“In the end, there will be a prototype, and this design will come directly from the manufacturer to the fair– it can’t be changed. That is for both timing, but also climate impact reasons. There is no reason to ship it from a German manufacturer to Denmark and back again. I cannot test, feel, or see my design, but I trust my 3D shaped curves and the professional skills of the manufacturer partners.”
Focus on the commercial potential
”My job is to create something that can communicate my message. I really believe that the shapes I created are describing the emotional qualities of my blind date company. If they do to? We will see, when we meet at Orgatec in October.”
Saskia has been busy developing her design and has focused so much on eliminating the foam part that she hasn’t used Målbar’s screening tool. She feels that with her bold decision to eliminate a vital component of the lounge chair, she has taken a major step tapping into the topic of reduction. For her, the tool is also a limiting factor for her creativity.
“I have felt this big barrier towards even opening the tool. To me, it is hard to quantify something as nuanced as design, while there are so many emotional, functional, and environmental qualities that can’t be captured in one single CO2eq number. However, sustainability and reduction are always at the core of my work, and I believe ‘VEN’ embodies those values more than ever.”
Determined to show her client the commercial viability of her design, Saskia is confident that she has created a look and expression that live up to the requirements of a tough contract market.
Finally, Saskia thinks that the ‘blind date’ experiment can have a significant influence on the whole industry. She believes that all the participating designers will spark fresh inspiration for the companies and that their opportunity to make some bold decisions will pay off.
The lack of feedback is exactly why daring concepts often get shelved too soon. This project could change that.”
Stay tuned..
For the prototype exhibited at the fair, Saskia succeded in eliminating the foam in the backrest and armrest shell but not in the seat. She is now working with experts on finding a solution for a chair where the final version will be fully foamless, also on the seat.
Context
Målbar participates in Danish Design Makers’ 2024 design challenge, The Blind Date experiment where 19 designers and design duos answer furniture briefs from anonymous European furniture companies. The designers use Målbar’s climate screening tool to gain insigths into the climate emissions of materials and production processes, learning about the climate impact of their design choices. Ultimately, the total climate footprint of each design will be calculated and presented at ORGATEC in Cologne on October 22nd-25th 2024.
This article reflects the designer’s own opinion and Målbar does not necessarily agree with their statements about materials, processes, etc.