Independent

The first thing you notice when you enter the furniture factory is the smell of freshly sawn wood. Stacked on trestles near the entrance, sheets of wood are waiting to be turned into furniture or interior fixtures. “We have a just-in-time production strategy,” says Jan Röthlisberger, who manages the family-run firm’s collection and its 70 staff. “Because we don’t have a lot of storage capacity, we only ever place orders with our Swiss suppliers for the materials we need for the day and the jobs in hand.”

Take Torsio from the furniture collection, for instance: Röthlisberger’s wood engineers and designer Hanspeter Steiger spent two years perfecting it until the chair looked and felt just the way they had envisaged it. Torsio is made of thin layers of veneer that are glued together and pressed. Towards the seat and legs, more layers are used so as to give the chair the necessary flexibility and create an elegant look. The chair is extremely comfortable because the wood still has a certain amount of bounce and the backrest gives slightly. The seat is rounded off towards the front, making it comfortable even for people with short legs. It is ingenious details like this that constitute the Röthlisberger Kollektion’s unique appeal. Another example is the rubberised coating on the Campfire coffee table designed by Tomek Archer. Although the glass tabletop can be lifted off, it sits firmly on the three-legged wooden base, not even moving when the table is pushed to a different position. The Block 2 lamp by designer Henry Pilcher is no less sophisticated – the geometric frame consisting of 20 equilateral triangles permits a wealth of different positions and lighting angles.

Asked what craftsmanship means to him, the first thing Jan Röthlisberger mentions is the Shell cabinet by Ubald Klug. “Shell is the perfect embodiment of our philosophy because it’s a product that takes a mix of state-of-the-art machinery, ultramodern expertise and the sensitivity of well-trained and experienced staff to create. Each of the two shells is made out of a single piece of aircraft plywood and opens like a suitcase – and it takes two men to mould the shaped sheets into the desired shape,” he explains.

Nor is sustainability just an empty word at Röthlisberger, where the fourth generation of the family now runs the furniture business. Jan Röthlisberger takes a pellet out of a huge sack: “Every machine in our production facility has its own exhaust ventilation system,” he explains. “The sawdust is processed into pellets and combined with other wood waste to provide sustainable heating for all our buildings. And on top of that, the photovoltaic array on the roofs of the company premises covers our entire energy requirement as well.”

RÖTHLISBERGER: As a producer of premium furniture, the Röthlisberger family is well aware that trees shouldn’t be uprooted. That’s why all the furniture is made in Gümligen near Bern. Planning and acting for the long term is also a firmly established tradition. Jan Röthlisberger, his father and his brothers Mark and Beat (2nd and 3rd from left) are convinced that independence, creativity and premium quality can outlive short-term trends.

Text: Cornelia Etter

Röthlisberger Kollektion
Sägeweg 11
3073 Gümligen
Tel. 0041 (0)31 950 21 40
Fax 0041 (0)31 950 21 49
kollektion@roethlisberger.ch