There are few things more pleasing in the world of furniture design than seeing a designer successfully replicating a winning form in a new object from another product genus.
Seamlessly translating an idea developed for one project into a new context.

A particularly good example of such a translation can be seen in the PS 07 bureau by Berlin based Delphin Design for Müller Möbelfabrikation.

If we’re honest, when we saw the PS 07 on the Müller stand at IMM Cologne 2013, although we noticed a certain familiarity in the almost wave like, steel curve, we couldn’t quite place it.

Only in conversation with the Müller team did our 1 and 1 finally make 2.
It’s taken on from Delphin Design’s 2010 V44 roll container/side table!

In the V44 the curve is somewhat more exaggerated and deeper, intended as it is for newspapers, magazines and the like.

In the PS 07 it has been ever so slightly flattened to allow it to function as a storage space for all those bits and bobs you need/want close at hand but not necessarily on the desk surface. Or of course as a cable trough.

We know several desk systems with a similar storage space, most however are fully open meaning that not only is dust likely to accumulate, but the risk is that the ease of access means it inevitably gets used as a general storage space. Or a makeshift paper bin.

With the PS 07 the largely closed form should help ensure a little more order and cleanliness than is the norm, while the “back-end” of the curve can be used as a raised shelf. As a further storage level on your desk.

Aside from the repetition of the curve the other striking similarity is of course between the PS 07 and numerous classics of the Bauhaus era.

However while we’re fairly certain that no Marcel Breuer or Mart Stam would ever, in their opinion, sully a piece of pristine sheet steel with such a wantonly decadent organic form, we’re delighted Delphin Design choose to.

Not least because in doing so they have created a very modern, practical object that although probably not suitable for all day, every day work is perfect as a casual desk for all those domestic tasks one has nowadays and/or for occasional home office stints.

And as with all Müller Möbelfabrikation products the PS 07 is available in an almost limitless range of colour combinations meaning it can fit in any space.

IMM Cologne 2013: PS 07 Bureau by Delphin Design for Müller Möbelfabrikation

IMM Cologne 2013: PS 07 Bureau by Delphin Design for Müller Möbelfabrikation

And here - on the left - the V44 (next to the grandiose TB 229 desk)

At Orgatec 2012 Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation introduced their new WORKSPACE product range(s).

Developed in cooperation with Andreas Struppler and Sebastian Frank from Munich based Struppler Industriedesign, WORKSPACE is technically two ranges – WORK and SPACE, or “Labor et Spatium” for any scholars of historic furniture design who may be reading – that combine to create a modular office furniture system.

WORK is represented by two height adjustable desks, one electronic the other manual, which can be combined with end/middle consoles and acoustic panels/sight screens to create individual work-spaces. An important feature of the desks is that the cables flow through the structure; inbuilt plugs, DSL sockets and USB ports allow for easy connection of all normal office hardware.

If we’re honest, with our wanton disregard for the universal rules of spatial order we’d probably be capable of disarticulating WORKs carefully considered, crisp geometry. But for all normal users, WORK should allow for an uncluttered work environment.

SPACE is devoted to storage and includes various sideboards and roll container options.

Particular highlights of the WORKSPACE system for us were/are the electronic height adjustable table, an object that is just as pleasing technically as visually, and the end/middle consoles, units which not only function as dividers but also as storage and memo boards in one practical body.

It will come as no surprise to learn that steel is the principle construction material, or that the individual WORKSPACE elements can be ordered in any combination of RAL colours.

Those after all are two of the features of the Müller Möbelfabrikation philosophy that makes them so engaging and their products so interesting.

That, and as we know since we visited the Müller Möbelfabrikation factory, production based on good old, time-honoured handwork.

In our Augsburg Text we noted that “The initial “Classic Line Collection” of self-designed fairly beefy office furniture has been supplemented and complimented over the years by new, and lighter, collections… ” This trend is very much continued with WORKSPACE and that in a very polished, innovative and charming fashion.

Here a few impressions from the Müller Möbelfabrikation at Orgatec 2012.

Established in 1996 by three friends with a shared passion for classic metal furniture, Müller Möbelfabrikation has grown steadily over the last decade and a half into one of Europe’s most interesting contemporary furniture manufacturers.

They don’t do anything especially revolutionary, and there is certainly no danger of them ever redefining the fabric of furniture design.

However, they are currently producing some of the most interesting, brash and accessible furniture on the market, and proving that quality craftsmanship and good design will always triumph over trends and fashions.

The initial “Classic Line Collection” of self-designed fairly beefy office furniture has been supplemented and complimented over the years by new, and lighter, collections created in co-operation with design studios such as 040studio, Lippert Studios or Delphin Design.

And all produced via old-skool, hands on production in Germany.

Reason enough for us to take a closer look.

And so ahead of Orgatec 2012 we visited Müller Möbelfabrikation at their Augsburg factory to check out the production process. Suffice to say it sparked. A lot.

A drawer. Honestly that is all it takes and you’ve got us. A desk with a drawer. Or even better multiple drawers.

As if Müller Möbelfabrikation could read our minds, we were met on their stand in Cologne by the most fantastic sheet steel desk. With soooo many drawers.

If that’s not a guaranteed to way to get our attention!

The TB 299 from Müller Möbelfabrikation as seen at IMM Köln 2012

If we did have one slight criticism it would be the decision to display a version in orange.

If there is one colour that is real hard to photograph under exhibition lighting……

But then orange was very much the trend colour on the Müller Möbelfabrikation stand.

And Lippert Studios, although not responsible for the desk, very much the dominant design studio.

Following last years delightful davenport PS 08, Lippert Studios were present this year with 3 new products.

The davenport PS 10 is an open version of the PS 08 with a slightly larger usable surface area, the ST 08 is a makeup table version of the PS 08 and….

No honestly. It is.

Kitted out with an illuminated mirror, deep-set storage spaces and a drawer, the ST 08 resembles how we romantically imagine makeup tables in the dressing rooms of provincial theatres look.

They probably don’t. But certainly should.

Maintaining the same basic form as the PS 08 parent, the ST 08 has a more understated frame, which gives the whole construction a much more sophisticated air and, perhaps most importantly, when closed you’d never guess what was inside.

Which of course means it is a wonderful accessory for all modern urbane girls living in a modern urbane one room flat.

The makeup table ST 08 by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation. Here in use.

Despite our unconcealed joy at the ST 08, the stand out item for us was the LS 05.

Closed the LS 05 is an innocuous side/couch table.
Extended it is a delightful laptop table, complete with a drawer.

What really appealed to us was the simplicity of the “sliding” solution.

OK we can see a few space problems; you need to make sure that you have enough space behind the unit to allow the top part to slide out.

But if you can organise that you have in the LS 05 a wonderful, 3-tiered laptop workplace in the most enchanting retro-futuristic optic.

Or simply use it as a side table, bedside table, telephone table. Whatever.

It’s fair to say the LS 05 was one of our favourite discoveries at IMM 2012.

And all in all it was genuinely very pleasing to see the the way Müller Möbelfabrikation and Lippert Studios have successfully developed the basic idea contained in the original, and multiple award winning, PS 08 to create a very innovative and modern family of tables.

Now we just need a kitchen version…..

The LS 05 laptop side table by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation. Here full opened...

The LS 05, PS 10 and St 08 by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation at IMM Köln 2012

The colourful world of Müller Möbelfabrikation.....

... in which ever direction you look

The PS08 desk by Lippert Studios for Müller Möbelfabrikation @ IMM Cologne

One of the unfortunate weaknesses of IMM Cologne is the general lack of new products on show – either at the fair itself or out and about at the fringe events.

That’s not 100% IMM’s fault rather the collective failing of a furniture industry that continues to focus, almost paranoid, on the Milan Design Week.

Fortunately there are one or two producers who are prepared to use IMM to launch new products – including Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation.

Perhaps most eye catching of Müller Möbelfabrikations new products was the desk PS08 by Berlin based Lippert Studios. Appearing to have its origins in memories of the same era of school desks as My Scool by Ulrich Merz, PS08 is designed as a workplace for those who like to – physically – close their work for the day.
Or for those who don’t want others to see the state of their desks.

Such as us!

Available with or without plug and a light PS08 has a convenient drawer, has space to contain a laptop …. and features “soft close” technology which means that is shuts with a gentle, cushioned, motion rather than a sharp snap.

Meaning caught fingers shouldn’t be a problem.

Hamburg based 040studio and Leipzig/Berlin Delphin Design meanwhile have further expanded Muller’s wonderful range of mobile storage/side table elements.

The new V44 by Delphin Design (l.) and Rw 700 by 040studio (r.) for Müller Möbelfabrikation @ IMM Cologne 2011

The RW 700 by 040studio is a delightfully simple roll container that uses nothing more strenuous than waves in the metal sheeting to create the storage bays.

Equally minimal and innovative is Delphin Designs side table and newspaper holder V44.

As you all know we are big fans of chairs where newspaper/magazine storage space is built in to the structure.
Or better put where possibilities in the frame are used to create newspaper/magazine storage space.

Thomas Wagner and Dirk Loff from Delphin Design have therefore set our heats racing with their wonderful “concave corner creates storage space” solution for the V44

The result is side-table where the interior space can be used for longer term storage, the top can be used for a cup of tea, and when your finished reading your magazine it can be conveniently curled up and stored within reach.

For us all three new products not only beautifully compliment the Müller Möbelfabrikation collection; but more importantly prove that one can release new products in Cologne and get attention.

Müller Möbelfabrikation at IMM Cologne 2011