Exhibition “Willy Guhl – Thinking with your hands” in Zurich
Willy Guhl on his bench chair, around 1960. (Image: Bill W. Guhl © heirs of Willy Guhl)
Exhibition tip
Willy Guhl is considered a design pioneer of the last century. The exhibition “Willy Guhl – Thinking with your hands” in the Museum of Design Zurich shows his influence on the following generations.
He was a great thinker, says Renate Menzi, curator of the new exhibition at the Zurich Museum of Design. But he wrote very little in words. What the Swiss furniture designer did not capture in texts, he captured in drawings, models and photographs: “Willy Guhl – Thinking with your hands” gives an insight into the work of the carpenter, teacher and designer, who always started from embodied knowledge.
Guhl’s design approach, to develop a design that is oriented towards people and their needs, serviceable, material-appropriate, durable and accessible to everyone, is taught at the Zurich School of Applied Arts (today ZHdK). The exhibition halls are therefore closely linked to Guhl’s history, because he was employed right next to the museum from 1941.
![Guhl's design approach stands for the post-war period, when Switzerland was involved in the reconstruction of a largely destroyed Europe. (Image: Heirs of Willy Guhl)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/cb2835d9-73ee-49b3-a13b-08cbab5d4b92.jpeg?width=480&height=716&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1666,2487,x0,y0)
Guhl’s design approach stands for the post-war period, when Switzerland was involved in the reconstruction of a largely destroyed Europe. (Image: Heirs of Willy Guhl)
Under Guhl’s direction, the “Interior Design” class, which the designer himself attended in the 1930s, was expanded to include “Interior Architecture and Product Design”. For more than forty years he passed on his knowledge and his attitude to the following generations of designers. He thus had a formative influence on the design. And even today, creative people are guided by his teaching.
Direct testing in the material
The exhibition does not begin with Guhl’s work itself, but with interviews with former students, including Kurt Thut, Hansruedi Vontobel, Klaus and Rosmarie Vogt and Robert Haußmann. Directly opposite you can see their models of furniture and everyday objects, which they designed as independent designers – charged with Guhl’s design ideas.
![In 1952, Guhl formed a planter with Robert Haussmann and workshop manager A. Noser. (Image: Archive Eternit AG)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/66a807b8-59c1-4dad-939c-5f168b901044.jpeg?width=654&height=436&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=2499,1666,x0,y0)
In 1952, Guhl formed a planter with Robert Haussmann and workshop manager A. Noser. (Image: Archive Eternit AG)
The designs show that under Guhl, design was no longer exclusively done on the drawing board, but also in the workshop. Works were tried out directly in material. It was a time when Design Boom found out what was good for the school: from the 1960s they visited well-known companies, and many former students later fell back on these contacts.
The first plastic chair in Europe
We continue to the “Cathedral”, as the curator calls the next exhibition room. The high walls are printed with Guhl’s photographs. This is where his works come into their own. The focus is on designs that Guhl created with his brother back then.
![In 1947, Willy Guhl lies on the seat study in clay. (Image: Emil Guhl)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/c96ac713-f4b4-415a-9eeb-51bca09f1436.jpeg?width=654&height=436&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=2499,1666,x0,y0)
In 1947, Willy Guhl lies on the seat study in clay. (Image: Emil Guhl)
The anecdote goes like this: the two asked bathers to sit on wet clay. Using the impressions, they determined three seating positions and used them to create the drafts for their application portfolio for participation in the “MoMA International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design” in 1948. Although they did not win a prize, they were included in the competition publication alongside the renowned American design Pair of Charles and Ray Eames prints. They expected ergonomic seat shells at the same time – using a different process but with a very similar solution.
![A seat shell model designed by Guhl around 1949. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum of Design Zurich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/da4ba14d-1b92-4def-b1d3-a6fd7c3329e1.jpeg?width=654&height=436&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=2499,1666,x0,y0)
A seat shell model designed by Guhl around 1949. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum of Design Zurich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)
The chair went into serial production two years later. The British chemical company Scott Bader became aware of Guhl through the competition publication, after which they collaborated to produce the Scobalit chair, the first plastic chair in Europe. At almost the same time, the Eames, who initially presented their designs in metal, were also making chairs from fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin.
![Willy Guhl's armchair from 1948. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/4de01e5e-fc11-4cc8-95cb-62cd3bb6cf7a.jpeg?width=654&height=436&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=2499,1666,x0,y0)
Willy Guhl’s armchair from 1948. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)
For the current exhibition, design students from the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne ECAL created hands-on exhibits of the ergonomic seat shells to own, since “thinking with hands” should also apply to visitors. The idea runs through the entire exhibition: the first-semester students have developed various games that are intended to encourage visitors to perceive design with all their senses and to physically explore Guhl’s design thinking – in braiding, knotting, knotting or playing experience.
Simple furniture for the middle class
Of course, the garden or beach chair from 1954, which Guhl created for Eternit, should not be missing from the exhibition. It is probably the designer’s best-known design.
![Many of Guhl's designs have now become classics, such as the beach chair from 1954. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/e2e006fe-bc30-438c-a748-c391b6238a01.jpeg?width=654&height=436&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=2499,1666,x0,y0)
Many of Guhl’s designs have now become classics, such as the beach chair from 1954. (Image: U. Romito and I. Šuta, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK © heirs of Willy Guhl)
Guhl’s implemented drafts and ideas come at the end: Here you can see the portfolio with which Guhl applied to the Zurich School of Applied Arts in the mid-thirties after completing his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. Furniture from the 1940s, which he made in his father’s carpentry workshop, is also on display. From these it is wonderful to see how Guhl designed furniture from the earliest years in such a way that it could be made from few materials and easily assembled.
![An element of the 1948 Storage Units developed by Guhl. (Image: Bernhard Moosbrugger / Fotostiftung Schweiz)](https://img.nzz.ch/2022/12/12/eec86e7e-01b3-4430-afd1-56af347503da.jpeg?width=480&height=716&fit=bounds&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1666,2487,x0,y0)
An element of the 1948 Storage Units developed by Guhl. (Image: Bernhard Moosbrugger / Fotostiftung Schweiz)
Since Switzerland was involved in the reconstruction of essentially destroyed Europe from 1940 and materials were scarce, furniture was also shipped from Switzerland. Packed furniture that Guhl designed during the war saved storage and transport costs. Later, Guhl designed dismountable furniture for the Wohnbedarf company and, as a house designer, serial furniture for Dietiker. Until his death in 2004, Guhl remained true to his values - but was always open to new technologies and the changing challenges of the time.
«Willy Guhl – Thinking with your hands» runs until March 26, 2023 in the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich on Ausstellungsstrasse.