Werner Aisslinger

Designer Werner Aisslinger was born in Nördlingen, Germany in 1964. He earned a diploma in industrial design from the Universtität der Künste Berlin, where he studied from 1987 until 1991. He founded his own design practice, Studio Aisslinger, in 1993 in Berlin. Since its inception, the studio has remained in Berlin, but moved from Oranienplatz in the city’s Kreuzberg neighborhood to Heidestrasse in the Tiergarten area. Working across multiple design sectors, including product design, interiors, and architecture, Aisslinger’s practice is rooted in material and technological exploration as well as questions concerning “what living and working in tomorrow’s world will be like.” 

Aissinger has designed furniture for clients such as Cappellini, Magis, Vitra, and Zanotta, as well as product designs and architectural projects for the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Marc O’Polo, Bombay Sapphire, Thonet, Hugo Boss, and others. Notable projects include: the Hemp Chair (2012), which manufacturer Moroso describes as the “worldwide first natural fiber monochair;” Mesh (2007), a lightweight series of sculptural, modular structures composed of translucent, three-dimensional woven textiles used to divide open architectural spaces; LoftCube (2003-ongoing), a series of futuristic, mobile, modular living environments; the Juli Chair (1996) for Cappellini, which was developed in coordination with the automobile supply industry and was the world’s first soft synthetic shell chair, composed of a then-new type of foam called polyurethane integral foam (and which became part of the MoMA’s permanent collection in 1998; as well as the Soft Cell™ collection (1999), a limited-edition seating series that introduced Technogel into the furniture market, and which was ultimately added to Vitra Design Museum’s permanent collection and led to the creation of the Gel-Collection, a high-tech, translucent seating series for Cappellini (2001). 

Over the course of his career, the designer has been honored with several prestigious awards, including, as of this writing: Milan's Compasso d'Oro (1995 and 2001), the Design Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany (1996, 2013, 2014, and 2016), numerous Red Dot Awards (1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2011-2014, and 2016), and the UK’s FX Award (2005).  Aisslinger’s work is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the French Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in Paris, the Museum Neue Sammlung in Munich, and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rein, Germany.