Reach for the moon: HEWI

The door handle is one of the first points of contact. Hand meets material, and ergonomics meets aesthetics – at least when the manufacturer makes it a priority. Even in this regard alone, 1969 brought some important changes. In this year, of course, a few important human steps were taken on the moon. But in everyday architectural matters as well, in the design of interior spaces, mankind made a great leap. Above all, aesthetically, as Rudolf Wilke had been working jointly with architects on an innovation – albeit one not quite as lofty as an Apollo 11 mission.

System 111 from HEWI – a pioneering achievement that indeed opens doors, yet also opens up a completely new perspective on the door itself. One that decisively shaped the success story that had begun 40 years earlier, in 1929. Because the System 111 door handle didn’t just provide a firm grasp of ergonomic demands right from the start, it also showed that colour didn’t have to be withheld from important architectural details. In 1969, in an era in which such prominent designers as Verner Panton boldly ventured into new fields of experimentation, including in the spectrum of materials and colours, the HEWI company, too, got set to take a design leap.

A design icon made of polyamide was born in the optimistic design spirit of its time. A door handle that was to become an icon. One which thereafter continued to venture confidently into new times, and into their respective new material worlds. Into stainless steel, for example, in 1989, when architecture assumed a steely guise, cast itself in reflective glass or took on a silvery aluminium shimmer. System 111, in any case, survived the times in aesthetic as well as functional terms.

As if nothing unusual had transpired since 1969 – except for the moon landing, perhaps.

© Architonic