DThe pandemic makes you humble and inevitable. “These two knives are the smallest objects we have ever designed,” said designer Jeannette Altherr. They are typical projects of the corona era-in this project, people must pay more attention to the obvious instead of looking into the distance. This is why Tomer Botner and his wife Noam Blumenthal run the knife manufacturer Florentine Kitchen Knifes in Barcelona, want to better understand the creative scene in his surroundings, and ask 28 designers in the Catalan capital to provide drafts. Including Altherr Studio Désile Park. “Everyone has two blades,” Altherr said. “Our designers should design a handle for it.”
Jeannette Altherr, Delphine Désile and Dennis Park are inspired by their surroundings. “We chose boxwood, which is a typical material in the Mediterranean, especially for making spoons,” said Altherr, who is passionate about wooden spoons and collects them. Boxwood is ideal for cooking utensils. “It is very hard, it will shatter and will not dry out, this is also because it contains an aromatic oil, but also has a sterile effect.” In the end, no knife should be put into production. “They were auctioned,” Altherr said. “The two of us are leaving right away-looking for someone from Silicon Valley.”
The turmoil began five years ago
There are few other studios in Spain that are as internationally acclaimed as Altherr Désile Park, even if the name is uncommon in the field of design.
For nearly 30 years, the studio has been operating under the name Lievore Altherr Molina, and its members include Argentine native Alberto Lievore, German Jeannette Altherr and Spanish Manel Molina. A year ago, the office was repositioned and two long-term employees became partners of Lievore and Molina: French Delphine Désile and Korean American Dennis Park. Jeannette Altherr is now the oldest of the three, and is among the best. “But my name also starts with A,” she said with a smile. Delphine Désile, 47, has worked in the studio for 17 years, almost twice as long as Dennis Park (Dennis Park), who left the United States eight years ago out of love for Spaniards and started working in Lievore Altherr Molina. Work.
The turmoil began when co-founder Manel Molina (born 1963) set up his office in Barcelona five years ago. On the other hand, Alberto Lievore was born in Buenos Aires in 1948 and wanted to slow down due to his age. “For a long time, he has been saying that he wants less work, less travel and fewer customers,” said Janet Alsel. “I am very happy that the two employees I work with have expressed interest in becoming partners and bearing all the consequences. Not everyone wants responsibility and is able to take it.” This is a slow transition. “Alberto is still working, but we approach the project in a different way: some we did it together, some we did it ourselves. But this has always been the case, even if the three of us were nominated as authors together in the end.”
From Landau to Barcelona
Altherr was born in Heidelberg in 1965, grew up in Landau, Palatinate, and studied industrial design in Darmstadt until he obtained an intermediate diploma. But she didn’t really feel at home there, so she went abroad. “I want to go to Italy or Spain.” In the end, she chose Barcelona. Because of the 1992 Olympics, this city was everyone’s mouth at the time. “Every budding designer wants to go to Italy. But I think in Spain I would rather be down to earth, where I can achieve more easily than in a country where everything is so perfect.” What she likes about Spain is dealing with the past. The easy way, looking to the future. “There are more improvisations here. These structures are not as strong as Italy or Germany.” In Italy, the weight of history has a paralyzing effect on all creativity. And in Germany? “I’ll just give one example: the logo of the Spanish bank la caixa is a blue star, as if inspired by Miró. This is unthinkable at Deutsche Bank.”
