Studio 7.5
Burkhard Schmitz, Claudia Plikat, and Carola Zwick began their partnership in 1992. They sought the freedom to work on projects that interested them—and the freedom to do so without bosses or titles.
That is how they have worked ever since. “Everyone does everything,” says Burkhard, speaking for the group that now includes Carola’s brother, Roland Zwick. “That’s how we cultivate ideals and maintain our openness and curiosity.”
The group’s name, Studio 7.5, comes from one of their early ideas: renting a 7.5-ton truck, putting a model shop inside it, and driving from one project site to another. Freedom of movement is important to these designers. They move freely and intelligently as they design products for their clients.
Studio 7.5 believes that the complexity of design problems requires collaboration and exhaustive testing of ideas in full-scale models until the most elegant answer emerges.
“You really need to work in three dimensions when designing products,” Claudia notes. “Computer drawings don’t provide the feel, the touch, the smell.”
They love designing furniture—or, as they prefer to call it, “equipment,” like the modern work tools needed for the work they do. They believe designing office chairs is especially rewarding, having worked with Herman Miller on the Setu chair, the award-winning Mirra chair, and its successor, the Mirra 2.
Studio 7.5’s tendency to use common materials in innovative ways is often evident in these chairs and in another of their newer designs: the Metaform Portfolio. Metaform is a concise set of foundational building blocks and add-ons that people can arrange and rearrange as individual and team needs evolve. In every case, polypropylene is a recurring material; what’s unique is how Studio 7.5 designs and builds it to do incredible things.
Studio 7.5 says of their designs: “Both the Metaform Portfolio and the Mirra 2 give people more control over their environment and tools. Our goal is to enable people to take on roles similar to a craftsman in his shop, surrounded by what he needs to be more productive.”
Office/Studio
Berlin, Germany