A Master of Design
The architect and designer Martin Mostböck treads the line between diverse disciplines. He designs furniture, buildings, interiors, shops, and everyday objects. His works have soul and depth.
Martin Mostböck is one of Austria’s pre-eminent product and industrial designers and architects. His reputation is international: He was awarded numerous prizes and nominations in the field of design, including several Red Dot Awards, the Good Design Award, or the Adolf Loos State Prize Design.
He cooperates with the best design manufacturers in the world; his designs and projects have been on display in exhibitions throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia and are represented in prestigious collections such as those of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Design Museum Holon in Tel Aviv, or the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna.
A reason to have his head in the clouds? Not at all. Mostböck has remained down-to-earth, and already the first encounter with him proves that. He’s wearing a leather biker jacket, which has become something of a trademark. A likeable guy – his way of communicating is very direct and straight. During the conversation Mostböck mentions what he has observed about design:
"Today design is elevated to a lifestyle, so it is more about styling than style."
Mostböck was born in Vienna and grew up in the province of Burgenland. Studies in architecture drew him back to Vienna, where he lives and works to this day. His design objects are more than just the sum of different surfaces and materials; they are functional character pieces at the interface of design and art with occasional ironic breaks. He is driven by the search for the authentic, to get to the bottom of things. As an architect he plans made-to-measure houses.
For a long time Mostböck worked at the renowned Viennese office Coop Himmelb(l)au
in the fields of architecture, urban planning, construction, and
design. In 2001 he founded his own studio. One of his most recent
trailblazing creations is the FLAXX chair for Moroso,
which was presented in 2015 at the Salone del Mobile in Milan: a hybrid
between a four-legged and cantilever chair, thus a completely novel
construction that effortlessly combines form and function.
The popular and heavyweight Austrian physicist Werner Gruber tested “FLAXX” as a so-called “extreme user”. In the video he also explains other interesting background details of the chair, for example, that the seat shell is made of flax and completely recyclable. Mostböck, who also lectures at Vienna University of Technology, recently published a very personal and informative illustrated book on his works.
Book information:
Martin Mostböck
AID – ArchitectureInteriorsDesign
German/English
Publisher: Verlag Anton Pustet
contact:
(only with notice in advance!)
mail@martin-mostboeck.com