Maker Monday: An aspire Exclusive Interview With Felix Muhrhofer

Vienna-born designer Felix Muhrhofer has spent over two decades honing his craft of mosaic terrazzo furnishings. From his first workshop — set up in a garage in the year 2000 — to his current studio in a spacious farmhouse near Vienna, Felix has made his focus on creating designs that bring a strong formal feeling to the economy of a craftsman production process. Collected on his travels, his ever-growing stone collection used in his work includes gravel from Africa’s southernmost rock — the Cape of Good Hope — to pebbles from the Danish island of Langeland. Felix subtly transforms this strong relationship to real places, which is the essence of a stone, into each of his workpieces. This creates distinctive, unique pieces that invite the owner to enter into a personal relationship with the object. Learn more about Felix and his work in today’s Maker Monday.

Andrew Joseph: How do you balance functionality and aesthetics in your designs?
Felix Muhrhofer: I think the closer I can bring these two things together the better the result. I believe that in the field of applied art, aesthetics also consists in giving the object its function in a particularly harmonious way. I see several colleagues who seem to think that it is art just by ignoring functionality.

AJ: What is your favorite type of space to design?
FM: A bar. It is a place where time can stand still, where you can lose yourself in thoughts and where real communication is possible. A night at a bar can change your life. It’s happened to me a few times. I would also like to design a shop for rare goods of special value.

AJ: What is the most important skill for a successful designer?
FM: I think it is the power of observation. On the one side is the nature that can show brilliant solutions to difficult tasks and on the other hand it is the people and their needs. Both require careful observation in order to create something new and meaningful.

AJ: What is your favorite place to find inspiration?
FM: It is a walk in the woods or in the mountains. In a constant movement I can find thoughts that are simply hidden in a static set up.

AJ: How do you approach a new design project?
FM: When I set myself the task of creating something new, I try to let the different ideas circulate in my head for as long as possible. In my head, everything is possible and free from constraints. When one or two approaches have emerged as particularly potent, I carefully begin the rocky road to implementation with pencil and paper. The less I have to sacrifice to the adversities of reality on this path, the better the final object is.

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