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
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