The Lateral Thinker

Anyone who visits Nils Holger Moormann at his company headquarters in Aschau at the foot of Kampenwand Mountain near Chiemsee is immediately plunged deep into his world. Three flags at the entrance, printed with outrageous misspellings of his name (such as "Motorman"), point to a generous helping of humour and self-mockery. Moormann has been producing furniture for more than 30 years but didn't actually discover furniture making as an outlet for his creativity until his late 20s, after abandoning his law studies.

Over the years he has created a wonderful collection of furniture that testifies to a thoroughly unconventional approach. The "Last Minute" table, for instance, can be folded up with one simple movement, the "Magnetique" shelving system adapts to users' changing needs and the "Pressed Chair" is impressively produced from a single piece of aluminium sheet.

Moormann often presents a totally new type of furniture that raises questions about our notion of design with a delightful tongue-in-cheek twist. Lateral thinking, daring to be different and crazy ideas are all legitimate approaches for Moormann. Quite a lot of his furniture, such as the "Bookinist" reading chair (which was modelled on the principle of a wheelbarrow), is aimed at bibliophiles. His products often dispense with screws entirely and are designed to be slotted together or folded into shape instead. Manufactured locally within a roughly 30-kilometre radius, they feature materials such as MDF or plywood. What started out as a deliberate restriction has meanwhile turned into an advantage. Something approaching a Moormann signature has developed over the decades, giving the furniture an unmistakable hallmark.

The designs produced mostly originate from very young designers. Take the "Es" bookshelf, for instance: stable but a little wobbly all the same, it was designed by a young Konstantin Grcic in 1998. "I rarely take a strategic approach when choosing new additions for my collection," says Moormann. "I prefer to be guided by my intuition and passion instead." Maintaining the existing collection is just as important to him. The "FNP" shelving unit by Axel Kufus, for example, has lost nothing of its freshness despite being on the market for 28 years. Assembled entirely without tools, it is more like a structure than a shelving unit.

Anybody who wants to see the furniture close-up should take a trip to Aschau. Besides a showroom in the former stables of Hohenaschau Castle, the town also boasts a guesthouse by the name of "berge". The old building, which has been delightfully renovated and furnished by Moormann with a captivating passion for detail, invites guests to try out his furniture for themselves and discover the beautiful Chiemgau landscape while they're at it.

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Photos: Markus Leser, Jäger&Jäger, Nils Holger Moormann

Nils Holger Moormann GmbH
An der Festhalle 2
DE-83229 Aschau im Chiemgau
Tel. 0049 (0) 8052 90 450
Fax 0049 (0) 8052 90 45 45
info@moormann.de
www.moormann.de