Into the Woods V

Reading Room | do you read me?!

The Reading Room is a location for lectures, exhibitions, discussions and all those still slumbering ideas and projects. It has been designed as an interpretation of a typical reading room. Two »Tavolo Rettangolare 5« from Enzo Mari’s »Autoprogettazione« from 1974 form the core of the space. Unfinished Artek classics and Enzo Mari chairs invite to linger and pause.

do you read me?!
Reading Room & Shop
Potsdamer Strasse 98
Berlin

www.readingroom.de

LINNEN

LINNEN
Café, Bar & Apartments
Eberswalder Straße 35
Berlin

www.linnenberlin.com

8 Questions to Sebastian Summa & Jo Hany

Tell me about your cupboard installation in Café Linnen in Berlin...

Sebastian: Our friends from Café Linnen in Berlin asked me if I could design something unique for their new café place. I had the idea of an wall filling installation, which would give a certain charm to the room. To me the vintage cupboards, we’ve used were a symbol for a welcoming kitchen.

We cut them into hundreds of pieces and constructed something new. By doing this, we exaggerated the idea of a kitchen, and turned it into something more absurd, but tried to keep a friendly atmosphere.

What is your background and how did you end up doing what you are doing today?

We both trained to become artisans, before we met in 1999 in Potsdam, where we studied Design. After finishing University we both started to work on our own projects, while working for a company that produced sculptures and art installations for contemporary artists. Working at this place, refined our artisan skills and gave us a good impression on how different applied artists work. This experience has influenced our projects ever since.

What inspires you currently?

Sebastian: I always feel drawn to the 50s and 60s, a time that was key to the history of Design. Of course it is impossible to reinvent the industrial shapes and materials of the 50s and 60s, but it is a great base to de-construct and re-interpret.

Jo: It’s nothing for our corporate work - more for me as an artist. I’ve noticed the trend of morphsuits with a laugh and a smile. It´s about the mixture of anonymity and see through.

What would be your dream project together?

We would love to discover the chapter 'Design as an installation' even more. The perfect scenario would be an open but neutral space, something like a white cube, and limitless materials.

If you had to do something else, what would it be?

Sebastian: We share a passion for the mountains. We have played with the idea to leave the city behind and open a camping ground in the Savoy Alps.

Jo: Oh, and I thought it was the Karwendel Mountains.

Sebastian: It doesn’t matter, it was all about the culinary peaks : )

What is your favourite place to be?

Our Workshop!

What does a typical Sunday morning look like for you?

Having breakfast in Café Linnen : )

If you were a colour, what colour would it be and why?

Sebastian: For me it would be brown. It’s down to earth and it is a bit of every colour.

Jo: Is grey a colour? If it is, I’d choose grey, because I think that most truth is neither black nor white, it is a shade of grey. 



www.sebastiansumma.de