Grcic's smallest piece of furniture

For six years now Architonic has been regularly publishing its Architonic Guides to the major exhibitions in Cologne, Frankfurt, Milan, and London. The Guides feature especially interesting premium exhibitors, selected on an independent basis by the Architonic jury, and enable architects, interior designers and retailers to find their way through the exhibition jungle to what they really want to see. The Guides are available from the stands of the selected exhibitors, which means they quickly find their way into the hands of the right target groups, creating a community which benefits all those are part of it. The presentation of the Guides plays an important role in the process, and in the past two years this has been effected by a laser-cut, single-section aluminium stand developed by the Zurich designer Beat Karrer.

Architonic has now commissioned Konstantin Grcic to develop the next generation of this miniature furniture. Who better to engage for a project which involves the design of functional and stylish folding objects? Konstantin Grcic has, with examples such as the Diana series for ClassiCon or the Teepee chair for Cassina, demonstrated that he is a master of exploiting surfaces as the starting point of his design. Even the conceptional basis for the famous Chair_One for Magis can be regarded as a composition consisting of triangular surfaces.

In the Architonic Guide Box Grcic has succeeded in creating a folding object which meets all the facets of the complex requirements made of it. The challenge was to create a box which can be filled with Architonic Guides at the printer's, will serve as transport packaging and can without further processing be folded into a stylish display for the Guides. The object also has to be immediately recognisable while at the same time blending in with the individual design of the exhibition stand where it is placed. This is precisely what Grcic has succeeded in achieving with his reflecting laminated cardboard. Just like a chameleon the box reflects the colours and lighting of its surroundings and becomes part of these.

For the exterior of the box the Zurich graphic artist Trix Barmettler designed an ingenious composition involving elements of the Architonic logo, which is highlighted by the folds and reflections of the surface.
The glittering result made its first highly successful appearance at last year's Orgatec and will this year accompany Architonic at the imm cologne, in Milan and at ish in Frankfurt, among other major exhibitions.

We are very pleased by the success of our cooperation with Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design and by the fact that we can now present our Architonic Guides to you in such a stylish manner.