Alfredo Häberli A&W Designer of the Year 2009

Alfredo Häberli has been named “A&W Designer of the Year 2009” by the internationally-renowned magazine Architektur & Wohnen

Since 1997 the prestigious prize has honoured design icons such as Achille Castiglioni, Ingo Maurer, Philippe Starck og Konstantin Grcic. Alfredo Häberli is being honoured for his ability of uniting functionality, elegance and a subtle playfulness in his work for world-famous brands.

Editor of the A&W magazine Barbara Friedrich says: “Alfredo Häberli is not only an excellent designer – he is also an admirable personality. But we have chosen him as Designer of the Year because he, like no other, unites the function of the subject with a cheerful sense of humour. Often these sophisticated details do not appear before the second glance when you are looking at his designs. But if you are using his subjects you can feel it at first. “

For Frededericia Furniture, Alfredo Häberli has designed the sofa-system Seracs which was currently on display at the International Furniture Fair in Cologne and Stockholm Furniture Fair.

In September 2008, Fredericia Furniture introduced a completely new sofa, the brainchild of famous Argentine designer Alfredo Häberli. The sofa consists of five modules that can be combined in any way you like.

Whether your living room is long and narrow, a perfect square, or made up of oblique angles, the new Seracs sofa from Fredericia Furniture is certain to fit in perfectly. The new sofa system is made up of five separate modules that you can combine however you choose.

Seracs is the work of Alfredo Häberli, the internationally recognised Argentine designer who also created the Kvadrat textiles used to upholster the sofa modules. And of course you have a broad range of textiles to choose from. Every Seracs sofa solution is unique, and can be put together to create just right look for your home. It’s a sofa that is all about choice – and it offers virtually endless options to choose from.

Alfredo Häberli was born in Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1964, but moved to Switzerland in 1977, where he trained as an industrial designer at the Höhere Schule für Gestaltung in Zürich, graduating in 1991. Since 1993 he has had his own design studio, with his most famous works being the stripy porcelain he designed for the Finnish company Iitalla, furniture for Mosors and furnishings for stores such as the Camper store in Paris and the Kvadrat showroom in Milan. Over the last 17 years Alfredo Häberli Design Development has become a prestigious international design studio. Mr Häberli has taught at design schools throughout Europe and the United States, and has participated at a host of exhibitions worldwide. He has also received a number of prestigious awards for his work.

Alfredo Häberli finds inspiration for his elegant, minimalist designs in everyday life – gathering impressions into themes so he can always draw on them if he suddenly finds a use for them in a new context. His products are so ingeniously simple, they can all be described in just a few phrases. One method he uses is to keep observing his work again and again throughout the process: “Observing is the most beautiful way to think. I am constantly discovering new things in a single object,” he says about his work.