One-off objects reveal their functions on second sight, their sculptural aspects irritate and interact with the surrounding space. Shiny chromed surfaces, crystalline structures and weird cold hot smooth hard shapes invite and provoke to be touched and physically experienced... Four Berlin based Designers pool ideas for their version of a chromed future: Susanne Philippson, Flip Sellin, Katja Hiendlmayer and Ingo Strobel.

The Show Rooms Interior Berlin presented the exhibition ‚Burning Chrome‘ during designmai 2007 for the first time. The exclusive store in the heart of the city, with a five minutes walk from Potsdamer Platz, was at the time located in a house breathing history and atmosphere: It had been both the main building of the German cutlery company WMF before the war and therefore a location for design, as well as the home of the legendary club WMF, which was illegally placed in the cellars of the ruin after the wall fell. While clubbing there in the 90ies you would listen to Emmanuel Tops ‚Turkish Bazaar‘ featuring the famous line: „The music was new black polished chrome and it came over the summer like liquid night...“ The title 'Burning Chrome' is a reference to the cyberpunk short story by William Gibson, and a hint of where the style and the 'ghost in the machine' of the project is heading to. The project setting is a melting pot of the stylistic influences on design in general and the designers who shape the 'BC Project' - a trip from the late 80ies of the last millenium to the futuristic visions of today and tomorrow, and an homage to the subcultures of pop and sci fi. Thus names which remind us on the legendary Jetsons, and natural relations to hightech styles and spaceships, the casual use of gadgets of the iPod-generation, the shiny - shallow - mirror surfaces; the project is a reference to the designers' sources as well as an ironic view onto the world and their own vanities of today.

Each object mirrors its surrounding environment and, screaming for attention, in the same moment almost involuntarily trickles into the background with this mimikry trick of hiding behind the mirrored image...

Please click on the images for an enlarged view.

Chaiselongue 'Lockheed 2': Flip Sellin + Ingo Strobel, October 2005

The visual language of the archaic object is a mix of stealth, origami and low rez crystallized elements and playfully declares war to Marc Newsons LC1 Lockheed Chaise Longue of 1985. It is also a toungue-in-cheek comment on the effects of media influence on the beholder turning international warfare issues into a cleaned out source of visual inspiration.

Background: The Lockheed2 was created in 2005 for the designbrussels and is the ancestor of the entire Burning Chrome Project. Sellin and Strobel playfully designed a stealth shaped object in order to round up the ironic military approach to a whole set of different other design objects - a felt weapons project and a felt curtain which resembles a camouflage net... the outcome was widely acknowledged by art magazines and designheads alike, and therefore in 2006 gave birth to the idea of adding more one-off pieces to the Burning Chrome Project .

Home Rocket 'Jetson' - Black Edition Ingo Strobel + Katja Hiendlmayer (gfx), May 2007

Sitting in your home rocket you can go really fast, sip a Suntory Whisky and catch the stars while reading your favorate skate magazine. The work can be used as a sideboard, a mini-bar or a weird sort of stool, either close to the wall or standing freely in a room. Background: Basically the Home Rocket is the most complex attempt on folding steel into a form which suggests a thing and provides use for a totally different matter. The object honors the love of a boy (or girl, that is...) for his favorate toy. Everyone who ever dreamt about owning his private spaceship without going through the troubles of men like Steve Fosset or Richard Branson is now entitled to have one for a reasonable budget. Besides looking like a flying object at home it features possibilities to safely place a couple of liquor bottles and some magazines / books. Come home after a busy day at your business and recline, read or sip a stiff drink, and fly to your favorate planet.

Fruit bowl 'HNS' Ingo Strobel + Katja Hiendlmayer (gfx), May 2007

Hommage to the Austrian architect Hans Hollein who designed a coffeetable tray for Alessi in 1980, which suggested similarities to an aircraft carrier. The fruit bowl HNS resembles the exact shape of the USS Nimitz including its flight deck graphics and aircraft traffic signage. With HNS you can cruise your living room or just sail around in the backwaters of your dining table. Launch bananas and strawberries once in a while and let them safely land in your mouth. Do not, however, use it for illegal recreation methods, no matter if the mirror surface reminds you of something else.

iPod™-island 'Hub' Ingo Strobel + Katja Hiendlmayer (gfx), May 2007

A frozen spot of stainless supermirror steel on your apartment floor hosts an Apple iPod Nano and a JBL sound station including remote control. It features the quotation of the project subline „The music was new black polished chrome...“ on the surface, arranged ‚tone in tone‘ (mirror foil) by Katja Hiendlmayer. Ironic work on the trend towards minimalistic high tech gadgets. In a time where everything connected with technology gets smaller and smaller, it is important to make a stand for bigger than life products. The 'Hub' needs space around, so don't even think about buying it for your 250squarefeet city apartment. It likes lying in a huge lofty space like a puddle of mercury accidentally lost by your pet alien.

The Designers

Katja Hiendlmayer, a studied photographer, does free lance graphic design for a range of agencies in Germany. Next to working for clients such as Coordination, motorberlin.com, toll collect and plantage she is a co-founder of the berlin branch of Hidden Fortress - and designer of the graphics on some surfaces of the burning chrome objects.

In 2005 Susanne Phillipson showed a lamp and a series of aluminium furniture in Milan and contracted Italian labels for production on the spot. Working for international furniture labels in Germany, Japan and Italy she established a unique style. Her contribution to Burning Chrome marks the beginning of co-working in the Hidden Fortress network.

Flip Sellin is partner of the design office Coordination Berlin, who not only offer product design, but create exhibition designs and corporate environments. Coordination Berlin works for Falke, Bogner, Koziol, Monopol Magazin, desiged the Create Berlin exhibitions in Milan, Tokyo and Moscow and the retail environments of Berlinomat and Rooms Interior in Berlin.

The portfolio of Ingo Strobel contains clients such as Columbia Tristar Pictures, Österreich Werbung, Siemens and Hyundai. He designed the 'victoria bar' in Berlin in close cooperation with local designers and artists and thus has created a local design landmark. Next to product- and interior design his agency motorberlin.com offers all aspects of creative communication. He also founded Hidden Fortress with Richard Duardo in Los Angeles in January 2006.

Photos: Katja Hiendlmayer