Kosock: There would definitely be no wall cabinets.
Golpira: We hate wall cabinets. [Laughs.]
What bothers you about wall cabinets? I need to say something in their defense—they’re totally practical.
Kosock: Absolutely practical, yes. But wall cabinets have a certain provincialism about them. Imagine if you had just the kitchen worktop and were to hang a huge painting above it! We try to avoid using wall cabinets in our projects. Some clients, of course, worry about losing storage space, but we’d never suggest it if we didn’t have good alternative ideas at the ready.
So, it’s a sacrifice for appearance. In what other ways do you opt for a minimalist look?
Kosock: Instead of a TV in the living room, we have a projector so we don’t have to stare at a black hole. In the future though, we’d like to have a piece of furniture that hides the TV. I don’t get why there are roundish, space-age TVs, but not really any kind of furniture that elegantly hides them. Like back in the days of the Gelsenkirchen Baroque. [Edit note: this is an ironic name given to a style of popular heavy and ornamented furniture mass produced in Germany from the 1930s onward] That should come back.
Gelsenkirchen Baroque is a good reference.
Kosock: I remember it from my grandmother. She had very good taste and was from Bochum-Gerthe [in northwestern Germany], a place where you’d see a lot of people using walkers as they make their way along the streets. Ever since coal disappeared, life is gray there. My grandmother’s pride and joy was a wall unit with a TV and a glass display case with side lighting, little crocheted doilies, and small figurines playing flutes, for example.
We were just talking about practicality. What is impractical to you?
Kosock: Definitely the dining table stools. We used to have great ’80s chairs from Cør that were super comfortable, but they didn’t really fit in. The dining table itself is still a prototype. Gisa, your studio chairs are impractical too. That was a decision made for looks.
Golpira: I don’t know about that. My customers don’t visit me for longer than an hour. Isn’t aesthetics also about functionality after all?
Gisa, has anything changed in your relationship with your label since you started living with it?
Golpira: I think so. It’s much easier for me now to convey my world digitally too. My showroom aesthetic has become a theme that I can continue to share electronically. But in the evening, I close the door. Nothing goes on in that room when I’m not working. I designed the desk myself and had it made by the Raumwerk carpentry workshop. I sent them the design…
Kosock: I wasn’t even asked. [Laughs.]
Golpira: I didn’t want to be talked out of my idea.
Kosock: I think that’s great actually.
Golpira: I wanted the table to be just as it is. I knew that anyone could come along and criticize it. Raumwerk thought my idea was great. David only saw the table for the first time when it was delivered.
link