Bed, Perfo

After apprenticing as a carpenter, Hans Eichenberger (b. 1926) began an internship as a draftsman with Marcel Gascoin in Paris. For government projects to rebuild the cities of Rouen and Le Havre, which had been destroyed in World War II, he drafted simple and inexpensive furniture made of plywood. His role models were Le Corbusier and Jean Prouvé. Back in Switzerland, Eichenberger produced his first own furniture designs, for example an elegant tubular steel chair in 1955 that was later used in the Saffa exhibition (Swiss Exhibition of Women’s Work) in 1958, and from 1956 to 1959 steel furniture for the Swiss Design collection. Starting in 1958, he worked with the Atelier 5 collective as an interior designer for the Halen housing development near Bern. In 1959 Eichenberger designed a bed with a rounded-off flat steel frame for the Röthlisberger Collection. The flat surface is perforated to ensure good air circulation to the mattress. Formally, the bed is reduced to a minimum, but thanks to varying dimensions and versions (with wooden legs or metal runners) it can be adapted to different room situations.