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HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 2 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 3 PORTRAIT 2019 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT HEINZ WITTHOEFT STATIONST LEBT UND ARBEITET AUF POSITION Ö.L. 9°9’36’’ N.B. 48°46’57’’ GEBOREN 1935 KIEL PROJEKTE / BETEILIGUNG / AUSWAHL DE-TAILE 1959 STATION A STUTTGART 1001 ARCHITECTURTAILE 1960 STATION A STUTTGART 5 WEISSE STATIONEN 1971 STATION A GERLINGEN EINE STATION 1979 WÜRTTEMBERGISCHER KUNSTVEREIN STGT GRAFICTAILE 1984 STATION A STUTTGART PROFESSUR 1992 AKADEMIE DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE NÜRNBERG ARCHITECTUR TAILE 1997 BAUHAUS WEIMAR TAILE EINER UTOPIE 1999 DESIGN CENTER STUTTGART TAIL V2A 3602 X 8 + 723 1999 JAHRESGABE WÜRTTEMBERGISCHER KUNSTVEREIN STGT GROSSFOTOARBEIT 2001 BIBLIOTHEK OLG STUTTGART SONNE MOND + STERNE 2001 GRAPHISCHE SAMMLUNG STAATSGALERIE STGT TAIL 15-30/15-60/15-30S 2001 EINRICHTUNGGRAPHISCHE SAMMLUNG STAATSGALERIE STGT STIPENDIUM DES LANDES B.-W. 2002 CITE INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS IN PARIS STATION A LAGEPLAN 2003 CITE INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS IN PARIS TAIL V2A 3602 X 8 + 723 2003 ART BASEL GALERIE LAHUMIERE PARIS TAIL 10-30 2004 EINRICHTUNG DES KUNSTMUSEUMS DER STADT STUTTGART MIT VERWALTUNG UND WERKSTÄTTEN RETOUR DE PARIS 2004 INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DE STUTTGART URBANITÄT ALS REALITÄT URBANITÄT ALS VISION TAIL 10-30 2005 EINRICHTUNG DES RESTAURANTS CUBE IM KUNSTMUSEUM DER STADT STUTTGART ARCHITECTUR TAILE 2006 ENTWURF GROSSSKULPTUR UNIKLINIK FREIBURG ARCHITECTURTAILER +STATIONIST 2007 GESELLSCHAFT KUNST+GESTALTUNG BONN ARCHITECTURTAILE 2008 GALLERY CLEMENS TISSI BERLIN TAIL 13 2010 VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM THE ESSENCE OF THINGS VERÖFFENTLICHUNGEN SEIT 1960 IN INTERNATIONALEN PUBLIKATIONEN ANKÄUFE SEIT 1960 FÜR PRIVATE UND ÖFFENTLICHE SAMMLUNGEN
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HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 51 TAIL 13 A . FRAME HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 50 TAIL 13 A . FRAME Words Sophie Lovell Photos Andreas Körner A Life Less Ordinary In the seventh in our series on designers who’ve earned their spurs, Heinz Witthöft – who denies being ‘a designer’ – reflects on his utopian quest. Heinz Witthöft says he is most definitely not a designer. He is, as he explains in German, an Architecturtailer and Stationist, and it is very important to him that we understand the difference. His Stuttgart atelier is also his home, packed to the brim with archive material, works in progress and drafting equipment. The only sign that anyone lives here is a mattress in the corner with a few blankets piled on top. ‘My dog bed’, says Witthöft, a sprightly man in a black polonecked jumper and heavy-rimmed ‘architect’ glasses. He looks and moves far younger than his 76 years. Since 1959, Witthöft has devoted his professional life to a city system of his own devising, a place with its own manifesto, social ideals, systemic structure, furniture – even its own nomenclature. ‘To this day,’ he says, ‘modernism has failed to provide us with an urban model suitable for our society.’ And so he has spent over 50 years fashioning one of his own. All his furniture systems, drawings, photographs and graphic designs have gone into this utopian urban ideal. Although strictly reduced and almost severe in form, they have an attractive emotionality about them that is far from cold. Witthöft’s contemporaries belong to the great German post-war generation of functionalists, but he’s never been part of it. The shapes and proportions of his furniture designs are powerful and iconic, yet hardly anyone outside a small circle of insiders in his native city, Stuttgart, has heard of him. Nor has any of his work – not a single piece of furniture – ever been picked up for serial production. Where did it all begin? Heinz Witthöft: I became a shipwright’s apprentice in Kiel at the age of 14. After three years of that, I worked as a carpenter for the following three years. I had no qualifications, as schooling was scarce in those days because of the war. I think I went to school for only about seven years. I did well at trade school, though. My teacher encouraged me to pursue my studies, so I went to evening classes before applying to the Muthesius Werkkunstschule [school of arts and crafts] in Kiel. I can’t say my time there was formative, but the school was based loosely on Bauhaus principles – you could take courses in everything from textiles, carpet weaving and working with paper to painting and photography – and I found it very stimulating. It helped me to develop as a person. Were you aware of key figures in German design at that time, such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld and members of the Ulm School? Did their work influence you? I had practically no role models in that respect, and I didn’t find my professors’ work particularly interesting. I don’t know where my first influences came from, but I did meet a drawing instructor outside of college – Peter Rühl – who was formerly at the Bauhaus in Weimar. He was part of the Kiel art scene and often invited me to his house, where he and his wife taught art to children. They had interesting furniture, like some of … Heinz Witthöft Architecturtailer + Stationist Lives and works at 9° 9’ 36” E 48° 46’ 57” N 1935 Born in Kiel, Germany 1949 Works as carpenter 1956 Attends Muthesius Werkkunstschule, Kiel 1959 Moves to Stuttgart 1959 De-Taile, Station A, Stuttgart 1971 5 Weisse Stationen, Station A, Gerlingen 1978 Interior of district chief executive offices, Esslingen 1979 Eine Station, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1984 Grafictaile, Station A, Stuttgart 1992 Professorship, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg 1997 Architecturtaile, Bauhaus, Weimar 1999 Tail V2A 360ˆ2; X 8 + 72ˆ3; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 2001 Grossfotoarbeit, graphic collection, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 2001 Tail 15-30/15-60/15-308, interior, graphic collection, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 2003 Station A Site Plan, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris 2004 Tail 10-30, interior of Kunstmuseum der Stadt Stuttgart 2005 Tail 10-30, Cube restaurant interior, Kunstmuseum der Stadt Stuttgart 2006 Architecturtaile, large sculpture design for Uniklinik Freiburg 2008 Architecturtaile, Galerie Clemens Tissi, Berlin 2010 Tail 13, The Essence of Things, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein 2010 Limited-edition scale model of Tail 13 A in stainless steel ‘I’ve always felt that I was different’ 194 Heinz Witthöft Talk
HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 52 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 53 TAIL 13 A . FRAME Witthöft with studies for an Architecturtaile construction kit. 195 Heinz Witthöft Talk TAIL 13 A . FRAME nature. I grew up as a street kid, and that has stayed with me. I wouldn’t call myself a dropout, but I’ve never been a social climber. I’ve always felt that I was different. That’s why I’m not so financially successful; my ambitions don’t point in that direction. People tell me I should be rich, but I feel more like a black sheep in a special family. You’ve been searching, you say, yet your work has centred on the same theme for over 50 years . . . Part of my attitude is a refusal to play it safe. I need to feel a degree of risk. On the other hand, I’m very loyal – and that sense of loyalty applies to my work as well. I still care for and work with some of my earlier pieces, such as my picture frames. Can you explain your approach? I see no boundaries between fine art and applied art. I’ve made both sculptural pieces and practical objects. I am anything but a designer. In my opinion, design is orientated towards commerce and acceptance in the market. My work is the exact opposite. The overriding strategy that directs your work has been there from the start. It dictates what you ‘I see no boundaries between fine and applied art’ make, how you make it and even how you name your pieces. How would you describe this strategy? Even as a student, I had this idea of another kind of city as a complete entity. I have now arrived at the conclusion that the city is, for me, the only conceivable form of Gesamtkunstwerk [total work of art]. I want to achieve a city of human culture – ‘culture’ in the sense of a hive of bees, which concerns both a built structure and the existence of its inhabitants. I call this idea Station rather than Stadt [station rather than city]. My goal is to build the entire thing from carefully defined, individual components that are densely packed within the urban structure. Just as bees have a surrounding area from which they collect their food, my city lies within a ring where inhabitants collect and produce their own food. This model is also a statement that addresses all the world’s problems. I try to live this way; I don’t fly or travel by car – only by foot, bicycle or train. How do your furniture pieces and systems fit into your conceptual city? Are they all part of it as well? Yes, that is my goal. My city – and its architecture – is made of building blocks and elements that I call ‘tails’, a reference to both detail and Teil [piece]. Variety among these ‘tails’ replaces surface ornamentation. Modernism and modern architecture have failed to recognize the qualities of the city and to develop a new form of urbanism for our society. But today’s cities are all chaos, complexity and communication. They are more organic than structured. Isn’t the formulated model that forces people into a given structure – a utopian city as suggested by Le Corbusier, among others – now outdated? A friend of mine once said that I am creating a paradise for criminals. But I like what Socrates says [in Valéry’s Eupalinos ou l’architecte]: ‘The greatest freedom is born of maximum rigour.’ There is a very high level of substantial differentiation in my city, horizontally as well as vertically. Today’s urban development is, to a certain extent, a kind of anarchy; whoever has the money builds a house – wherever. How would you describe the philosophy behind your city? My goal is to attain a kind of republic – a place that is relatively autonomous. My city has only one solitary [public] building at its centre: the ‘house of civil culture’. There are no banks, skyscrapers, religious edifices, car museums and such – no manifestations of power. What about the people? There will be no majorities that are defined by religion or wealth. From the outset, it will be a place centred on human culture, in the broadest sense of the term. Let’s talk about your furniture, all of which is based on the same format. To what extent were you influenced by other designers of furniture systems – … Limited-edition, 1:5 scale model of Tail 13 A, an armchair made from two sheets of 6-mm-thick stainless steel. … Marcel Breuer’s early wooden chairs. They made me feel that I was something special. I was like a sponge back then. In Kiel it was impossible to get hold of a single design magazine, so this kind of contact was very important. You moved to Stuttgart after finishing your studies. What drew you there? I got a tax refund from work that I’d done during the holidays. It was just enough to make it to Stuttgart by train, so that’s where I went – with my portfolio under my arm. I originally wanted to go to Switzerland or Milan. To this day, I still say I’m just passing through. I’ve never really identified with the city, which is why I always provide the geographical coordinates of where I’m based rather than the name of the place. The problem was that I never really knew what I wanted or where I wanted to go, but I was always searching, trying to reach an idea I had in mind. I am very freedom-orientated by 196 Heinz Witthöft Talk
HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 54 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 55 TAIL 13 A . FRAME Witthöft flicks through a Tail 13 catalogue. In the foreground is the Tail 11-50 angled table. Posters from his various exhibitions lean against the wall. Tail 14-30 armchair. Tail 14-30 table detail and Tail 5 stool. 197 Heinz Witthöft Talk TAIL 13 A . FRAME … people who are essentially your contemporaries, such as Hans Gugelot, Dieter Rams and Fritz Haller? As a student, the first designers I found interesting were Herbert Hirche and Helmut Magg. Visually, I am drawn to simple aesthetic structures like a cat is to movement. Later on I got to know the work of others, but I always wanted something different. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I would call myself an artist who realizes his work in a highly subjective way. If you look at my Tail 14 chair, you’ll see that it has nothing to do with design; it’s miles from anything made by Dieter Rams. His work belongs to a particular movement that was never relevant to me. But the principles behind his work, specifically his modular furniture, were theoretically geared towards giving greater freedom and flexibility to the user . . . Yes, freedom is also a major theme of mine. My early furniture systems were put together with carriage bolts, because I wanted people without much money to be able to make cheap furniture. Unfortunately, it turned out that people with little money tended to have little taste for these pieces. My furniture was often bought by more affluent people, and as it was not mass-produced, it was actually not that cheap either. Would you say that modernist principles are still valid in today’s world? I see myself as a representative of the timeless modern. It is not an invention of the past hundred years. You can see the modern aesthetic and its systematic qualities, for example, in an antique Arabian tiled floor. There comes a point when you find you have been allocated to a particular tradition. I am honoured when people categorize my work as Bauhaus or Ulm, but my work emerges from my perception and my thoughts. It has just as much to do with the fact that I grew up barefoot near the sea and felt real hunger as a child. I experienced these very elementary things at an early age, and they have influenced me the most. Is your work orientated primarily towards the user or towards your internal need for expression? I do have a strong drive to make something that is my own, but when I’m involved in a project like an office or museum interior, I come up with a solution and dedicate myself to its realization. By that I mean I implement not only my system but also myself in order to achieve a result. As I work, I disregard neither the contractor nor the user. What kinds of clients do you work for? I don’t work on just anything. I am not a service provider. I have worked on one project all my life, and I’m striving to bring it to the service of society. Have your chosen direction and your career as a Gesamtkünstler, or total Station models A, B and C made of individual ‘tails’ at a scale of 1:1000 (foreground). Architecturtaile studies for a Tail 10-30 stool (background). artist, proved difficult to follow? No. Compared with the work of most others, mine has a well-confined theme. My ‘tails’ – the building blocks I mentioned earlier – form the heart of my entire philosophy. Let me give you an example: A window ledge is a detail, but it is not really a removable detail. Each of my ‘tails’ has a relationship with the greater whole but can also be removed. This is a radical aesthetic viewpoint. Everything I do is within this context. I have created a network, or grid, and all the individual components can be arranged within it. What would be a dream project for you? What would you like to make or work on? At the moment, I would like to make scale models of my Station architecture for children to assemble. Wouldn’t you rather build the real, full-size city? If people came to me with the money to build it, I would probably say no. I’d be afraid that they’d make something out of it that I couldn’t live with. _ ‘My work is miles away from Dieter Rams’ 198 Heinz Witthöft Talk
HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 56 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 57 HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT . ATELIER TAIL 13 A . FRAME Witthöft with a Station A site plan. On the left is a Tail 14-30 shelving system. Station: A Blueprint 24.12.93 The meaning of human existence is a matter that cannot be separated from the design of human living conditions The city, as the essential form within which this design is manifested, cannot be developed indefinitely Through an ongoing cycle of destruction-rebuildingdestruction-rebuilding, cities are irrevocably ruined and polluted Existing preconceptions of power and wealth have to be dismantled The age of the wheel is coming to an end The illusion of total mobility of people and goods, combined with the illusion of speed, is causing the first cumulative massacre of humanity The only radical solution for all existing problems lies in a new form of housing for humans. The Station is this form There is no traffic in the Station, thus traffic and the space it requires are superfluous The diameter of the Station equates to one hour’s walking distance for a healthy person Nature is outside the Station for the benefit of the population, but the Station also protects nature from people. The Station is surrounded by a circular park landscape, a ring with allotments and educational gardens, a ring with a productive agricultural area, and an enclosing ring with a natural landscape The Station is structured in such a way that, in the event of a breakdown of all technical systems, normal life is still possible within the Station No building is higher than the tallest tree, too high to be recognized by people, too high for people to contact one another with a shout, or too high for healthy people to navigate via ramps or steps with a reasonable degree of effort The Stationist has shared ownership of the Station. He finds everything he needs for living within the Station. The Stationist entertains and houses his visitors within his rooms. He leaves the Station only for important reasons Traffic between Stations is linear. All transport of people and goods takes place via traffic trunks – so-called ‘feelers’ – that extend beyond the Station rings. Visitors and goods are transported to the Station via a floating system Within the Station, people use vertical connections that lie between multiple horizontal pathway systems. These systems are minimal yet endless, in terms of possible routes, and rich in the variety of experiences they offer Stationists live in cities today as Stationists. They travel by foot via paths, ramps and stairs. They provide for themselves within their environment. They move around via linear systems for important reasons. They detach themselves from old structures in order to be open to a worthwhile reorganization of human living conditions Witthöft’s suitcase plastered with Station exhibition addresses. 199 Heinz Witthöft Talk
HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT 58 TAIL 13 A © FOTOS: TAIL 13A . M. SCHUMACHER © PLANSKIZZEN . HW AT © FOTOS: TAIL 13AO, Portrait HW AT . CHURCH.VISUAL.CONTENT © Gestaltung . :artworks | A. Ch. & R. Kircher GbR HEINZ WITTHOEFT AT . Tail 13 Gerlingen 1970 59
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