The Art of Quintessence

More than three decades ago, Hubert Matthias Sanktjohanser was lucky enough to find two partners for life: wood, the material that inspired him to master the craft of cabinetmaking and become a passionate furniture designer, and his wife, a like-mined architect who achieves his visions with him. In his designs, Sanktjohanser concentrates on the essentials: his tables, sideboards and shelving systems are discreet, aesthetic, innately coherent, undogmatic and variable. At a deeper level, they exhibit the artistic and functionally sophisticated characteristics that give his furniture its specific identity. The position of the poles for the Linux shelving series, for example, is randomly determined, thus making every single specimen a one-off. Ingenious processes are used to finish the surfaces, sliding doors permit maximum variation in playful combination with open and closed forms, and their contrasting edges and surfaces are the epitome of graphic precision. The colour spectrum: black, white and natural hues.

For Sanktjohanser, planning always focuses on the human user, his personal needs and the architectural context for which the piece of furniture is intended. An understated vocabulary of forms and materials is always his preferred means: "I love combining aesthetics with clarity but am very much opposed to inflationary, overladen design. My guiding principle is restraint, so as to restore things to a level of sensible moderation and thus pool strengths." But furniture should be fun too – as in the case of "Social Cube", the modules of which can be unfolded to create a table, chair or seating elements as required. Furniture can also pose a challenge, like the shelving systems with movable partitions and removable sliding doors: based on the principle of opposing predetermination, the concept promotes flexibility via the interplay between the individual elements and encourages creative interaction between the user and the piece of furniture.

Sanktjohanser's furnishings are lifelong companions that age with dignity, can be adapted and transformed and – thanks to premium materials such as soaped wood or brushed aluminium – turn signs of use into lifelines. Furniture with an IQ as the quintessence of form and function, combined with the ethics of sustainability. With their timeless concepts, his well thought-through designs have earned themselves a place in various museum collections and, as far back as 2004, convinced the jury of the Bavarian State Prize for Design and Craftsmanship to present the furniture artist with this prestigious award.

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Photos: Markus Leser, Matthias Sanktjohanser

Hubert Matthias Sanktjohanser
An der Ach 15
DE-82449 Uffing
Tel. 0049 (0)8846 914211
Fax 0049 (0)8846 1785
moebel@sanktjohanser.net