2011 IMM Cologne: Meike Langer’s Interpretative Furniture

To date, most people buy furniture based on specific needs. People need things to sit on so they buy chairs. Shelves are bought to put stuff on. People need something comfortable to sleep on so they buy a bed. The design of furniture pretty much caters to these distinct and separate needs. But what happens if multiple needs are considered within a single piece of furniture? How will it be used and what does it look like? Designer Meike Langer created Beaugars with this idea in mind.

A recent product design graduate from the Academy of Art and Design Offenbach am Main, she’s dealt with multiple moves and the hassle of transporting furniture from one place to another. This inspired her to start thinking about furniture that was lighter, more space efficient, and multi-use. She created Beaugars as a prototype for a multi-purpose, interpretative furniture piece.

Areas of life blend, rooms loose their fixed assignments and functions. Due to the blurring of boundaries new requirements for the environment and their products arise. In this context the furniture Beaugars was developed. It offers space to lay, hang up and store objects of daily use. Its most distinctive feature, its mutability,results from the flexibility of the two arcs, which can be rotated in 360°. Therefore Beaugars adapts easily and can be, according to the available space, either compact or expansive.

What caught our eye about this piece was that it could be used for a few or many things. And the functions change depending on what room it might be in. The open-ended possibilities are what make it interesting and useful. Langer was chosen to exhibit Beaugars in the [D3] Design Talents stand which features upcoming young designers.