Hans Eichenberger

Hans Eichenberger, born 1926 in Grosshöchstetten, has been well-known in the Swiss design scene since the Fifties. After his carpentry apprenticeship and several traineeships, he was active as a draughtsman in Paris from 1950 to 1951. After that he ran his own atelier, which has had its headquarters in the famous Halen settlement near Berne since 1960, and then he started freelance work for “Atelier 5” in Berne. He has realised furniture for banks, restaurants, fashion houses, bookshops and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) wagons. Amongst his numerous customers are Röthlisberger, Strässle, Wogg, De Sede and Dietiker. Eichenberger has designed over 35 seating furniture units: for instance the Saffa chair for Dietiker in 1955, the EXPO armchair in 1964 and the HE series in 1978. His creations are for the most part not made of wood. This also includes one of his classics, the “Litfass Column” for Wogg. At age eighty, Hans Eichenberger once again took on a challenge and developed a couch, the prototype of which was shown in July 2006 with Teo Jakob in Berne. Eichenberger’s designs are represented in various collections, amongst others at MoMA in New York, Vitra Design Museum in Weil on the Rhine and Museum of Design Zurich.