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By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

Interior designer

Reservation is the best way of thinking, says the elegant Alfredo Hiberli quietly as we sit in the Coexistence show room. His artistic outlook on his surroundings is immediately infectious:  I suddenly become very aware of myself, of how I'm sitting, how I am holding my pen, as if my senses have been finely tuned. So is his passion for design; softly spoken, the way he speaks about his career is understated, modest and enchanting.

What made him become a designer, I ask tentatively? Initially, he explained, he had dreamed of being an artist, but increasingly the reality and functionality of design appealed to him - so much so that he studied industrial design in Zurich. Born in Argentina, AIfredo is an italian who grew up, studied and still lives in Switzerland. There is cadence of all three cultures drifting through his designs, whether it is the Argentinean boldness of colour, the exquisite Italian attention to detail, or the Swiss fresh emphasis on functionality.

Interior design architecture

When quizzed about influences, he said that he does not look to the secondary interpretations of real life in art or architecture. "I draw inspiration from everyday life", he says. Consequently, his designs are conceived from snapshots of images and observations of everyday people interacting with the objects he is hoping to create.

So his collection of glassware for children (he believes children should not be patronised by plastic mugs but instead learn to hold glass) is curved to snugly accommodate a hand. When looking at the glass you realise the most striking element of the design is that there is clearly a hand missing. This happens a lot with this products: the ghost of the person who will use it leaves an mnprint on the style.

The conventional ideas of Furniture being inanimate and static are clearly challenged by AIfredo; his style is continuously dynamic. He also added,"I always look twice at my designs when creating fhem, to add something to make it better, whether it's a footstool or changing be shape of a chair to support your back", making the process constantly and dynamically self-improving. Unlike art, which is often spontaneous and immediate, his work is still very much design-led for functionality.

Interior design

Therefore his Legnoletto wooden bed for Alias is made up of a large number of individual parts, allowing users to choose how big and long they want their beds. The bed itself is unusually high off the ground and does not use a standard bed frame. Instead, the focus is on compositional options: there is a selection of different widths, head board and foot designs and colours. Similarly his Segesta chair, although featuring a longer armrest so that it coldd be used at the dining table or perhaps as a relaxed armchair, is made from new plastic technology, making it usable inside and outside, as well as being completely stackable.

However, his heart lies with what he affectionately refers to as his "kids' stuff". The children's tableware for Italia allowed him to go back to his childhood. Designing items for children is at once demanding and enormously satisfying: "Children don't look at the object and analyse it; their reaction is instant. You know if they like it Within two seconds. " His range is playful - it's a mix of a grown-up practical dinner service with Wendy House toy chic. Each item is moulded to the inquisitive fingers of a child, so the lines of the products are curved and thick and fun.

When I asked him what his most successful product range was, he replied "l could have retired eight years ago and lived very comfortably office royalties, but I don't want to", implying all his designs have done well, in particular the products he created for Alias, the Italian furniture manufacturer. Consisting of stylised furnishings, including his acclaimed SofaTT, which fought against the trend of fat furniture and took a whole two years of development, this is one of his most iconic ranges. He personally recommends the series of tableware, Origo, which launched Him.

With its unmistakably stripy colouring, the range was especially designed for easy storage (for example, the saucers become hats, so that you can store cups on top of the bowls). In fact, people have stopped in the street to "say they love driving coffee out of my mugs", illustrating that the art behind the creations has permeated the design so thoroughly that the consumer experiences not only the beauty of the piece but the perfection of its Functionality.

But most of the time he designs items because he would like to have one himself. The Moroso chair, for example, was created because he wanted a seat that was conafortable enough to sleep in. The'big ears' of the chair absorb 20% of the noise, allowing the owner to literally get some head space. But he is not exclusive; he emphasised the fact that as a designer he wanted to "reach out to as many people as possible" and added with a mischievous grin: "I would love to design things that are more accessible to people, like a pen, but obviously I haven't had the chance.

"Yet Speaking of his stress, with Obvious emotion, he described how he felt when his glasses hit the 20,000-a-day production mark: "lt was one of the most beautiful moments of my life and a moment I had been working so mark for, for most of my life."  But what about the future? "l want to use my name to endorse environmentally- friendly products and materials, as it is very topical. I would love to design a sail boat. l'm currently working on a bicycle and I would love to continue doing more things for children."

In essence, Alfredo Häberli aims to design objects that fulfill their function to the degree of perfection that his developing process demands. When I asked about form versus function, he explained: "The most difficult thing is to design something that is beautiful and comfortable - there are a lot of beautiful chairs that exist but they are not comfortable. l always endeavour to do Both; this is a Scandinavian way."

He closed the interview with quietly passionate advice, quite clearly from his heart. For those who are hoping to become a designer, or are more generally in search of a philosophy for life, heed his words: "Allow yourself more time. When you finish studying you're already at an age where you feel you need to make money - you can reach your dreams but before you will have success, you will fall down two or three times. Persevere and you will get there. Don't lose your courage or your ambition. "