Interview with Marc Sadler and Tobias Lutz, Members of this Year’s Design Contest Jury

While this year’s garden unique Design Contest on Dining Outdoors is running, designer Marc Sadler and managing director of Architonic Tobias Lutz shared their views on outdoor design and the unusual potentials of the garden unique Design Contest. In the interview done by build Das Architekten-Magazin in Cologne, Sadler and Lutz agreed that a contest which will not only be judged by the jury at the end but which is accompanied by all jury members and the jovoto community during the process reflects today’s notion of design: as a designer, you can share an idea, a vision of a product, and profit from the ongoing exchange.

In general, design today has become much more process-oriented, says Marc Sadler, involving “communication and consideration not only of the product, but also the distribution, the re-use of the material, the entire lifecycle”. And Tobias Lutz states: “Form is important, but then comes the story. This story can be a personal one – how you found a product you love. Or it is the story of the product itself: Where was the object produced, where is the material coming from, how sustainable is it?” In either case, it is reflecting a broader notion of living which has, maybe more than in most other areas, also influenced the exciting developments in today’s outdoor design. Talking about outdoors, Sadler says: “There has been an evolution in terms of technology, and also in terms of use. The little green space in a city: It’s gold for you. The emptiness in the country: It’s a richness. So designing my surrounding became different, too. Maybe I do not need a little chair; I need a big space, because I have friends, because maybe I work outside, because I live in a different way.”

Thus, a new awareness for landscape architecture and outdoor spaces has caused new developments in outdoor furniture design, says Lutz. Developments, which are also material-driven and which allow long-lasting sustainable solutions even in countries with rather unstable weather like Germany. Tobias Lutz: “This enables us to think about outdoors in a more relaxed way, without being concerned only about the weather. Like always in times of a certain development, there are several factors: material innovation like nano technologies, a new awareness, and perhaps also a desire of people to go out, to have a second space to explore. If you look at design and at the market, it is clear: Something is moving.”

With all these new tendencies in outdoor living and outdoor furniture design, time appears perfect for this year’s garden unique Design Contest. With the topic Dining Outdoors, the space is opened up for ideas that touch a broad area of modern living. Which is a chance and a challenge, as Lutz says: “We do not ask immediately how exactly a design could be produced; it is about the idea. But the idea should be focused on, and it has to be explained, it should be clear. This competition is also about communication” – like design today in general. Marc Sadler adds: “It should be something which is appealing, because it is different. If your idea doesn’t yet work too well, we will help. Take it as an opportunity.” As Lutz puts it: “Last year there were examples of designers that came up with just an idea. The product is in the market today.”