Studio 1: Hermann August Weizenegger
Hermann August Weizenegger was born in 1963 in Kempten, Bavaria, Germany. He studied Industrial Design in the class of Hans (Nic) Roericht at the UdK Berlin (1987-1992). After graduating, he worked in the product development division at Prof. Roericht’s office in Ulm, Germany, where he met Oliver Vogt. Together they established the design-firm V+W in 1993 in Berlin. During the 16 years of the practice, they have been working for various clients, including Möve, Intel, Sony Music, Authentics and Rosenthal. In 2003, Weizenegger became a founding member of the “DESIGNMAI”, a platform for Berlin based design, which he substantially shaped during the five years of his participation.
Hermann August Weizenegger has presented academic workshops for the Belem Institute in Tel Aviv (2002) and for Vitra in France (1999, 2001). In 2002, he became a visiting professor at the FH Potsdam for Industrial Design and was appointed a full professor in 2004.
His works show a strong conceptual approach, challenging the role of design, design-methodology and design-production, which places his showcase-work in the blurry zone between design and art.
Weizenegger’s projects have been exhibited in international shows and exhibitions, including “DIM im TAM” (2005) in Tokyo, “Relation Chip” (2006) in Saint Etienne and “Beach Towel” (2002) in New York. In 2006, Wiezenegger and Vogt had with “DESIGN_MATRIX” their greatest solo-exhibition in the Marta Herford Museum. Among a retrospective, the exhibition featured their best-known works, “Die Imaginäre Manufaktur” and “Sinterchair – Fabrik der Zukunft”. The “Sinterchair” is also part of multiple collections, such as in the “Neue Sammlung” in Munich, the Vitra Museum in Veil, the Marta Herford Museum in Herford and the Palais Schönborn in Vienna. The “Fonds National d’Art Contemporain” in Paris bought several design-objects and furniture for their permanent collection.
V+W are recipients of numerous awards, such as the “Interzum Award 2007” for high product quality for “Jungwerk Möbelrollen”, the “Roter Punkt-Award” for his projects “FOUR STAR”, “Monobag” and “Pure Glass” and the award for Best New Product for “Möve Badaccessoires” at the New York Home Textile Show.
In 2009, Weizenegger established his own design studio HAW in Berlin. “Digital Couture”, his first studio HAW project (2009), shown at the “Appel Design Gallery” in Berlin brought him international attention and has been published globally. In 2010, he was commissioned for a public installation-project titled “Felsenland” in the internationally well-known Berlin Techno-Club “Berghain”.He caused a real stir with the HOTEL DRESDEN project, for which he relied on manufactory workshops to help reconstruct an array of Art Nouveau objects that were presented at the haubrokshow premises (2009). He is currently working on a project dedicated to the issue of sustainable and subversive mass production, and entitled „Curiosities of Seeing“.
In recent years, the designer was a member of the jury of the „Design Recycling Prize“ and active as a curator, for example for the „Smart Future Mind Award“ and the „Black Box Protoypes Shows“.