Next year, Wittmann will be celebrating the 115th anniversary of Josef Hoffmann's classic KUBUS design. To mark this special occasion, the renowned furniture manufacturer from Lower Austria is presenting a strictly limited edition of 115 exclusive, numbered pieces of this effortlessly timeless design. In three elegant colours, made from the highest quality leather, the limited edition perfectly accentuates the iconic geometric shape of the KUBUS armchair.
The designer
Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under Carl von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner. In 1899, he became a professor at what is now the University of Applied Arts Vienna at the age of just 29. In 1903, he founded the Wiener Werkstätte design collective alongside Kolo Moser.
Just outside Vienna, Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904), his first major building, set radical new standards for architecture and interior design. The defining work that brought him recognition on the international stage was Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905 to 1911). It was here that he succeeded in realising his long-held ambition of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art that would reconcile art and life while aestheticising all aspects of design. Josef Hoffmann's formal language is primarily defined by strict geometric forms, a search for simplicity and understatement, and a reduction to black and white.
His designs overcame the contrasts between tradition and modernity to create works that are still relevant today. For Wittmann, the sense of timelessness he encapsulated in his designs and his exacting quality standards function as a guiding principle.
The design
A cube of leather in which all surfaces – whether outside or inside – are covered with a cube-shaped pattern. In contrast to the old English leather sofas, Hoffmann transfers the square structure of the individual sewn fields to the overall structure of the armchair, placing large and small forms in a direct relationship without turning it into an obsessive mania. In addition to the cubic form, the curved, round shape dominates - completely unconstrained by the properties of the material, which is emphasised not only in the individual curves of the leather compartments, but also in the wooden hemispheres on which the armchair rests.
KUBUS is the manifestation of everything that Josef Hoffmann stood for. A cube – a square elevated into the third dimension – which itself comprises numerous individual squares. Geometric, accurate and utterly exacting. The perfect icon. Revived in the 1960s, this seminal design from 1910 is inextricably linked with Wittmann and embodies the true mastery of the upholsterer's art.
The limited edition of KUBUS will be available from 2025 in the colours umber, basalt and jade.
More information:
Wittmann
www.wittmann.a