When we caught up with Raw Color last fall amid the madness of Dutch Design Week, Christoph Brach and Daniera ter Haar — along with their son, Ando — had been living and working in their new house for exactly a year. Theirs, like other lofty, new-build homes in Eindhoven, artfully blends the parallels of modern-day life: the family eats and rests upstairs, and works downstairs, following a studio build in the basement last March.
The idea of living and working together seems of a piece with the duo’s polychromatic approach to design (which we’ve been tracking ever since we both were starting out). Blend, the name of their solo show at The Aram Gallery last September, not only brought together self-initiated work alongside pieces they’d designed for clients, but also paid reference to the mix of disciplines across which they work — with color, of course, being the unifying element. “We often reference a triangle, with the three points being graphics, photography, and materials,” says Brach. In developing new yarn colors for their recent collaboration with Spanish lighting brand Santa & Cole, for example, the triangle moved more to the materials side, while their identity for interior textile company Febrik moved the needle more towards graphics. The launch of their new Kilim rugs for Barcelona-based brand Nanimarquina at this month’s Milan Design Week, completed the recent trifecta.
There’s a cleanliness and simplicity to their aesthetic, an aspect they try to communicate and uphold in their visual work, and something that seamlessly translates into the fabric of their home. It’s no wonder, then, that Christoph cites Mondrian, the doyen of simplified, compositional play, as an inspiration. The late artist’s work is not only embodied in the studio’s approach to set design, graphics and photography, but is also reflected through chromatic experiments in their home, where blocks of color outline different areas of function. We caught up with the couple to find out more.
Top: A Slow Chair by the Bouroullec brothers, a favorite design piece, stands amongst items from fellow design friends: a limited-edition lamp by Daphna Laurens, resin-cast plants by Maarten Kolk and Guus Kusters, and a rug of their own design which (sadly) didn’t go into production.
Daniera and Christoph’s home is filled with objects and additions by friends and fellow designers. Their friends at Studio Mieke Meijer, who have a similar island set-up in their home, designed the kitchen. “It’s nice because we wanted different material choices. We really liked this perforation detail, and the wood pieces were actually custom-milled.”
Their home is also filled with plants. In their previous home, the couple had a lot of lower-standing things, but now with Ando, breakables and cacti are placed higher up.
The pink, madder root–dyed curtains in the dining nook are taken from the duo’s Tinctorial Textile project, an exploration into using plant dyes and their varying intensities to color wool.
A view of the dining space. The Tripod light in the corner is by Santa & Cole, the Barcelona-based lighting company that came to the couple looking to refresh this bestseller with a colorful update.
“These are old doors originally from the building, but they were blue, so we painted them this kind of grayish pink.”
The shoe rack is by Rachel Griffin, another Design Academy Eindhoven graduate. The couple traded for it three years ago but didn’t have space for it in their old apartment.
The curved, black railings throughout the house were designed by Daphna Laurens. “When I look at them, they somehow remind me of Batman,” Christoph says.
“We’re not into collecting a ton of these folk items,” Christoph explains of the home’s mix-and-match aesthetic, “but we like to bring in things that have cultural roots: a little doll or an old rug. I think a house that’s populated only by design pieces can become a bit sad.”
Ando’s colorful room, complete with toys and a blue crib. Before moving to the house, the duo worked remotely in the nearby Klokgebouw building in Eindhoven. Now, having Ando, being able to work downstairs is much more flexible.
“It’s such a stereotypical thing,” says Daniera, “but it’s so hard to achieve simplicity.”
When Christophe and Daniera moved into the house, there was nothing, bathroom included. The duo designed and chose everything, from the toilet to the fixtures and piping, and the green tiles. “They’re actually floor tiles, but we really liked the matte finish of them.”
When I point out the reappearance of particular hues across their home — the sage-like greens, soft pinks, and utilitarian grays — it’s clear that the impact of color is something that extends outside of client-based briefs. “It’s true,” admits Christoph. “But I’m seeing it for the first time like this.”
On the windowsill of the bedroom: a Majorcan doll from a flea market, which the couple fell in love with because of its color; a resin cast–prototype from Jasper Morrison’ and a hand-painted vase. “When we saw the vase we thought, ‘It must be a Hella Jongerius piece’ (where Christoph interned). But then we saw it’s made in Taiwan.”
Their favorite everyday object is a kilim rug the pair bought in Istanbul, which they used as color inspiration for their new Nanimarquina collection. “We’d refer to it because it has a certain surface division and really specific colors,” says Christoph.
The house’s relaxing outdoor space.
The storage-turned-archive room is a useful space for looking at past design projects. “It’s like Mondrian; things are all hidden in boxes,” says Christoph. “That’s why it’s nice to talk about inspiration, to get it out and talk about it again.”
We made the rounds in Eindhoven this year in order to scout out our favorite projects from an event that consistently introduces top emerging talents into the European design scene. Here's our guide to the names and projects to know from DDW 2015.
It’s not unusual for a designer to become synonymous with a single project. Think of Konstantin Grcic’s galactic-looking Chair_One, or Stefan Sagmeister’s AIGA poster carved into his flesh with an X-Acto knife. For Christoph Brach and Daniera ter Haar, it’s more like eponymous: A project called Raw Color gave their studio its name (though it's since become known as 100% SAP so as to avoid confusion) and it has consumed them by varying degrees since they graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2007.
It's been a tough two years for Dutch design. First a newly elected right-wing government slashed the tiny country's legendary arts funding, causing seemingly irreparable damage to its institutions and grant programs, and then a series of high-profile resignations called into question the inner workings of Eindhoven's hallowed Design Academy. But even if there are signs that the fairy-tale may not last — that creativity and experimentalism can't elude the death-grip of capitalism forever, even in a place where designers still benefit from squatters' rights — we still look forward to Dutch Design Week as a reminder of the happier consequences of those values. While we couldn't attend this year ourselves, we asked our faithful contributor Marco Tabasso, who's second-in-command at Rossana Orlandi gallery in Milan, to report back on his experiences at the festival — from his mixed feelings about the Design Academy show to the paella dinner he and Rossana shared with Nacho Carbonell in the designer's studio, above.
