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Good morning... We don't want to look down at you...
On one hand we are very glad, but also a little perplexed to be here...
The topic of MAKE is rather general and although we make something all the time
We are not able to talk about it in general but we will do our best and agreed on...
Perhaps not a definition but to share a simple idea based on the example of what can be made
For starters just a little about our history.
Because Michal and I have been together for 23 years... We have a studio.
As a married couple of course!
Well it has many similar features of a marriage, as we found out.
Meaning not the physical, but rather the social features
Please don't go into much detail...
So this is our oldest photo, taken on a summer workshop in Vitra museum
With Denis Santek Jara who is not a commonly known designer,
But is one of the few trendsetters in the 90's.
We were classmates at UMPRUM and visited this workshop together.
And since then, the summer of 1990 we have been working together
And gradually the studio was born as an institutionalized company.
So this is the beginning. We can move forward, let's skim this really quickly...
This is our studio at Libensky ostrov where we reside and there is another one here.
It used to be a sculpting studio and there is a huge space where we all sit together.
And although each of us is working on his own project, we discuss it together and influence it.
Unfortunately we realized we don't have an updated picture of our team.
So this is picture is 8 years old.
At the moment all the people here, except for one person, are elsewhere.
Even the cat left us, unfortunately.
Including the cat that ran away.
But the picture is here to illustrate how small of a team we really are.
We set out a limit of 10 people, here we have 9...
10 people is the maximum we want around the studio because more than 10 people usually stard dividing into fractions.
And it is more difficult to MAKE.
We can proceed.
We focus on a broad scale of design and architecture, from items for common use and jewellery to urbanism.
This is thanks to the structure of our team where most of the members are architects...
And the two of us have a degree in design.
So here is one of our favorite things or themes - glass. Here you see melted glass, a Czech specialty.
We can proceed.
This is made of heat resistant glass Simax.
This glass can be welded and bent like steel and therefore the work process is different than with regular glass.
This is another extreme made from blown glass which is extremely thin.
Very few glass factories can make this nowadays. This one still exists but the brand went under.
It was our favorite glass factory Kvetna.
We also do some technical stuff, like watches for Prim.
We enjoy cooperating with Czech companies and we try to lead them to better marketing and philosophy.
This is usually a problem in Czech companies. Or at least till recently.
This is our most widely manufactured product, a so-called World Wide Goblet for Plzensky Prazdroj.
It was meant to be for the whole world except the Czech Republic and Hungary.
For some unknown reasons we don't follow.
Of course in the end it is found both here and in Hungary so you can see this quite frequently.
This is our own production from Simax glass that can be weld like this. Some simple candleholders.
Here is an interesting example of using Simax glass where you weld glass into a one-piece object, like a decorative lamp.
Now we are getting to companies like TON...
Which as you know is the manufacturer of the famous TON chairs No. 14 and 16.
So we started working with them by making a sledge.
We kind of imposed that idea on them and initially they disagreed...
But six months later they came back, saying they want the sledge.
And it became more of a marketing object, rather than being a big seller.
The sledge costs around 10,000 CZK so it is not for everyone to buy.
We enjoy doing lights, it is our favorite theme.
Again, we used Simax glass and welded it. The cross is about 2.1 meters long.
Our chair for TON is made in large series. We didn't manage to get the picture we wanted to show you...
There are about 1,000 pieces of these in a Christian hotel in Shanghai.
No, sorry, in a Christian church. A Christian hotel sounds weird.
Unfortunately we didn't manage to get that picture.
Perhaps I can expand on that... Can you bring up the chair again?
We can talk a little more since we have time.
Usually we work on our objects for quite a long time. And making a chair really takes...
If not years, then months.
But in this case it was created straight in the workshop within a couple of hours.
The most lapidary thing possible with TON.
They cut their own wood, make own veneering, press semi-products for seats...
And also the laminated legs from laminated or bent wood... These are the most typical technologies.
This is the most simple object you can create there and this product was made within a couple of hours.
Which is not exactly an example of our work, as I said before.
Of course we always try to use the given technologies and possibilities and shift them into some extremes...
And thereby force the engineers to bend over backwards.
Of course sometimes it turns out to be a cul-de-sac and sometimes it moves us all forward.
We can proceed. One of the last things...
A lamp with layers, bringing together older Czech traditional crafts, grey cast-iron and glass.
And we call it "Fireborn" as it is born in the fire.
Let's have a look at architecture.
This was our first new building as in 90 percent of the cases...
We work on reconstruction or interiors, remakes and revitalizations.
But this was our first new building, a low budget house outside of Prague.
This was supposed to be a weekend cottage and then it somehow got out of control.
It's is in Cernosice where many of our clients live. We can proceed.
This was meant to be a house right from the start...
But it is a house in a Wallachian village and has to have a double-pitched roof.
Therefore we made some shapes that, when looking from the street, seem like a double-pitched roof.
It is kind of a crystallic theme.
This is the last thing, an investor from the outskirts of Prague.
This is the last thing, an investor from the outskirts of Prague.
We only worked on the interior and it was 2 years of work that totally absorbed us.
It is just a fragment but even here you can see the large chunks of stones.
These weren't really cheap so it was a project for a lot of money executionwise.
And that's pretty much it.
Now we are getting to what we wanted to talk about.
Which is about creating a greenfield glass factory nowadays. We have a friend...
Would you like to talk instead?
So I'll go ahead and talk.
So it's not me doing all the talking.
We met Jiri Trtik many years ago as a visionary who started from scratch after studying mechanical engineering.
When he got into the glass industry, he fell in love with it and shifted the machines he worked on before into the glass sphere.
And just like Steve Jobs made first Macbooks in a garage, he started making machinery for cutting glass.
And slowly this got out of hand because the machines got popular globally and he...
There is also this nice moment in the beginning where after becoming an engineer...
So he joined a company making bullets for Xavier BELLOT guns.
He stayed about a year and left after his colleague, a constructor, shared his joy with him about finally creating a machine...
That, upon exploding, tears off just one hand of the operator instead of two.
So this scared him to the extent that he quit and joined the glass industry.
So right from the start Jiri had this dream of making something for glass.
And since he is from Svetla *** Sazavou and there is hardly any other industry represented.
Thousands of people go to work at a nearby factory every day.
All the glass factories started to go bankrupt and he decided to built greenfield glass works.
Containing the manual process as well as the robots based on his initial cutting machines.
The craziest part of this idea was that at the time, the Czech glass industry was stagnating.
99 percent of glass factories went bankrupt and were restructured.
And at that time he came with this project, being held for a crazy person by everyone.
But their thought based on the unique technology of automatic cutting they came up with...
Today they make machines that are the best in the world and are a step ahead of the competition trying to copy them.
So he decided to do the basic production of semi-products he can decorate with his machines.
Therefore the idea made sense.
And we are in it with him from the start, helping to create and define the philosophy.
We also work as Art Directors for them...
Creating the manufacturing schedule in line with the philosophy and shifting the esthetics, philosophy and technology forward.
The philosophy is really simple, based on manually blown glass or glass blown in small series.
Decorated by robots.
We never aimed for the automated machines to recreate manual cutting.
The kind of pinwheel design of Czech crystal you know from the stores on Celetna street.
Yeah, *** cut and such monstrosities. You should be able to spot that it was made by a robot.
That it's something a hand can't make, something mechanical...
And so endlessly exact, repeated or thin that a person could hardly do this.
So you should be able to clearly tell that it was not humanly made.
At least the cut.
This is the first sampled product. The interesting thing about this is...
It was made by Frantisek Vizner whom you may know.
He was one of the best Czech glassmakers.
He got famous by making minimalist vases from welded and cut glass.
You find him around the world in museums. He was the most distinguished glassmaker.
We approached him and this is the first drinking set he ever made in his life.
He started with automated vases and then stayed with cut art pieces.
And then suddenly he came with something directly useful.
So that was very well accepted by the journalists and gallerists around the world.
And since then everything evolved into other pieces.
This is actually our design named Dots and it is designed to make decorating easier
With cylinder surface for applying anything, like these cut dots.
What's interesting about this set is that it's copy was sold by Zara Home in Mexico.
They also tried globally but they didn't manage to spread it.
They started in Mexico and as a coincidence the company owner was just visiting Mexico...
And found this fake in the stores.
So it was stopped in time.
But it is funny how these Chinese, who were manufacturing this for them...
How unbelievably fast they are.
But of course it was made cheaply, with the dots not cut but printed...
And it was slightly different in radius etc.
And Zara, instead of ordering it from them, pulled it off the shelves.
I don't think Zara would be the proper end customer for this.
No, it wouldn't since this is hi-tech crystal, being glass with added value.
So the prices are not low to be sold in Lidl etc.
This is a set from Maria Hostinova...
We enjoy working with art school students where we also work.
Our practice with reality is a great educational aid.
We like to share with students and include them in our projects.
Since we are very familiar with this stuff and are able to help them in their first steps...
Giving them precise instructions, define what we want.
And this is a typical example of something that can't be done manually.
An organic, repeated curve.
You could make one piece but probably not in the same depth as a robot can.
But you could never repeat it and the price would be huge.
So in this case it is an expensive piece of glass but financially affordable.
Here, with the matt cuts, we don't do anything else, no polishing in acid or manually...
So we just wash it after the robot does the cutting and the product is ready.
Our colleagues from Studio Koncern used the mechanical technology in the design itself.
Here you can see a cut screw line with descriptions as in sketches. It's a little joke.
This is another student from UMPRUM, Jakub Polak, who's currently in the first year of Real College in London.
The assignment was the same for everybody but we narrowed it down for him...
Making him use the two main technologies in the glass factory, pre-pressing, pre-forming in the dent of the grip.
And then finishing it up with decorating, finalizing the touch-ups on the grid.
This is Rony Plesl whom you might know, one of the famous glassmakers...
Using the complexity of the ornament.
This shows how precise work, or engraving the robot can do. It's quite simple.
Here we have Prof. Jiri Pelcl.
It's a brilliant piece, shining and light fragments etc.
It is hard to be done in any other way. And if so, then for a lot of money.
Since the 70's there are glass factories around the world that use automated cutting on some parts or elements.
But here it really works as a 3D cutter in the whole space.
It changes tools.
And the important thing is that the machine can also polish the pieces.
Till now all industrially made pieces had to be thrown into acid.
Therefore the breakings get this soapy touch and become round.
However, the exact sharpness creates the shiny, precise beauty you can only achieve by using these supermachines.
Perhaps it seems that this can only be appreciated by a professional...
But if you see it and hold it yourself, you can recognize it.
Or you will see why it's better even though no one explains it to you.
But you will recognize it quickly and intensively.
This is the last slide. We wanted to tell you this story for the MAKE theme.
Of course there is a lot to say about this topic in general.
What we want to say is that if you have a clear idea, passion and energy and you follow it...
You can MAKE anything.
So the story about this successfull glass factory in the time when every other glass factory is closing should be an example...
Or the statement we wanted to make here on the background of design and architecture.
I think that's it.
I would like to thank you again. Now is the time for questions.
So raise your hand if you have a question, I will get to you.
What is the name of this factory?
The factory name is BOMMA. And as I said...
Sorry. It's BOMMA, a shortcut for Bohemia Machine.
If we go back to BOMMA, we were really watching it happen with fear, asking Jiri:
"Do you really want to build a new glass factory?"
"Take all the money you made in 20 years by making glass cutting machines?"
"Do you want to do this?"
And there were many small bankrupt glass factories in the vicinity which you could start up but he refused.
He wanted to build his own thing from scratch.
In terms of the environment, the warehouse system and the whole production process.
He wanted to build it himself, all of it.
And he followed this blindly and in the moment the glass factory switched on the gas pipes...
He was out of all the money couldn't even buy the material that glass is made of.
He really headlessly indebted his family and everything he had and he used it for this.
And even after a year it is not certain how it will turn out.
So have your fingers crossed.
Second question?
What about external financing?
There was 3rd party financing.
They received funds to support small and medium businesses from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
And other development funds.
But half of it was covered by their money, they took a bank loan for a part of the investment.
So about three parties.
It's not just one person as the owner, it's about three, four partners.
But Jiri Trtik is the majority owner, or was until recently.
A new capital entered the business, someone to boost it a little.
A creative person with deep knowledge so we anticipate expansion and a store in Prague etc.
I would like to ask...
I can see how enthusiastic you are about the machines and the possibilities of precision.
There is a lot of talking about 3D printing etc. So I wanted to ask if that is something you consider or keep an eye on?
And I want to know how enthusiastic you are about this as designers.
Of course we keep an eye on this, as designers and as teachers because our students...
They are a different generation so it's more natural for them than for us.
It's a fantastic thing and will be big in the future.
We really think that in the future people will print their own stuff.
Or go to a copy store with the data and print whatever they need.
They will even customize it according to their needs. This is probably going to happen.
There is even a study focused on the impact on creation and small production.
So there are some initial results already available.
I want to ask what kind of professions do you have in your team and what education do they have?
It's simple.
They are mostly degreed architects and then a few designers, our students who occassionaly come for training or to work for us.
So the executing employees are architects or students of architecture and design.
And our assistant who studied hospitality school.
Please.
You touched upon the education.
There is one thing connecting all this - the technological process.
Luckily we work for specific manufacturers in school so some of the things the students finish up on their own...
Based on the agreement with the manufacturer.
So they get the hang of the process and manage. But it varies a lot and is hard to say in general.
We are trying to train the students to see this reality...
And to see the designing, strategy and marketing as a part of this whole process.
But it is logical...
We are in touch with the University of Economics in order to help us with the marketing or market research.
The biggest designer studios in the world focus greatly on research before starting with the design and production.
This is something we are not very good at here in Europe, or specifically in the Czech Republic.
There are many visionaries who start producing something and afterwards don't know what to do with the product.
If you work in the glass industry, it's easy because if you are Czech...
Everybody believes you know how to make glass.
It's just about the packaging and global distribution.
But with a sophisticated product like a sport or health aid or furniture, it gets a little more complicated.
Perhaps you were asking about the interface between the manufacturer and the designer when it comes to creating the product.
And this varies quite a lot.
The designer is not a 100 percent engineer and 100 percent constructor.
But he needs to sense these things in order to refrain from making stupid stuff.
Then he cooperates with the engineer, in 99 percent of the cases, and finalizes it.
The plastic pieces constructor, form constructor, production economist etc.
We don't do this industrial design very often, we don't do hair driers or vacuum cleaners and such.
There are other studios specializing in this but the process is the same.
Some are able to finalize the thing in form of a production document including a prototype.
This is what the rapid prototyping is used for.
If you remember the glass with the screw thread...
The Studio Koncern provides a product to the customer and there are only minor touch ups in terms of production logistics.
They make the prototype, they test it, do crash testing...
They also make car seats for children. And they travel to China to keep an eye on it.
So they deliver the product to the manufacturer on a silver platter.
But it's not common, especially not here.
What is the name of the collection?
I hope you can hear me now. The collection is called "Engineering"
Currently they only sell in DBK and if not...
And Kubista Futurista in Prague.
Yeah, and Kubista Futurista.
Otherwise you can contact them directly through email or their website, I think it is BOMMA.cz.
It's a small glass factory so you can easily communicate with them directly.
You briefly talked about your cooperation with the University of Economics...
Is there something called promotion or marketing for the final products at UMPRUM?
And I want to ask what you think should be the role of the designer in promoting the products?
It is exactly as you say... If it's a chair or a piece of furniture, or lights...
Here the marketing in connection with the emotion of the designer and his idea is the...
Take mine.
Hello?
When you see Filip Starek presenting his couch or Paola Lenti, it makes sense.
But for the industrial things, in 99 percent it's about function and no one is interested in the emotions and the designer.
In automotive design, if I ask you about who designs Audi...
Few people will know the answer.
The whole thing is very complicated.
Even in the automotive industry, if something is designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and it has a tag saying Giugiaro, it is marketed in a different way.
But marketing in the Czech Republic isn't very good. The companies are amateurs in this area.
And at this point the designer should chip in and somehow direct them.
But the companies should do this themselves. Using the designer just for cooperation.
This is really complex and can't be divided from marketing.
From the first sketch to the contract and such... Design can't be design without the selling part.
So this belongs together.
And this insufficiency has been in place for many years and we are trying to fight it and push them but it's really slow.
And I have to say that surprisingly the crisis helped in this area.
Because now there are managers in charge who know what it's about.
That there are rules and it's not enough to just produce, you also have to sell. And do that actively.
Specifically in the BOMMA glass factory we are present in selecting the designers, we talk to them about what the item should look like.
We want to use the robot and the extra value that distinguishes BOMMA from their competitors.
It shouldn't look like it's been done manually.
We are present during prototyping, taking photos, we participated in the creation of the brand logotype,
Catalogues, we do trade fair stalls and presentations, counselling, go to lectures with them.
It's not just about designing a shape. That can be done in a couple of minutes.
Sometimes marketing can be misleading and superficial and self-explaining.
Then there are extremes where the marketing is based purely on the name or the personality of the designer.
My favorite is... what's the name of that Arab?
Karim Rashid
I never remember his name.
His things are mostly really silly but he is interesting, looks interesting, he is a DJ, traveling around and he is visually...
We have nothing against DJ's...
Indeed, it's the opposite in fact.
The marketing for Karim Rashid is clearly based on his name. I mean the things are nice...
But the quality is not important here.
So that's an example how the designer can be involved as an iconic personality rather than creatively.
We would like to thank you once more.
In your opinion, what is the difference between a designer and an architect?
That's an interesting question. Our colleague Ivan Kroupa, what is it he says, Honza?
Our colleague Ivan Kroupa says that design is the gay brother of architecture.
Ivan Kroupa is an architect.
I suppose the colleague here is an architect.
In principle there is no difference. Not in terms of thinking and impact
And in the complexity...
Definitely in the complexity. Of course there is a difference in the scale and the length of impact.
But the social impact and the complexity of the problem is very similar to architecture.
It's really hard to say.
If you create a glass that will be sold in 15 million pieces, throughout its life tens of millions of people will touch it. It has a huge impact.
So if you do it wrong, it is a major thing.
Same applies to architecture. If you see the beautiful things our colleagues built for us.
It's very similar but as designers and interior creators we encounter situations where...
But if you take the number of sketches for a house with all the professions and for an atypical interior...
It is very comparable and ideally a complex piece of work. I wouldn't divide it at all.
Are you more like architects or designers?
We studied design and architecture. We are a bit schizofrenic.
We have a technical architectonic pensum, we studied construction, statics and such.
And after some practice training and working with architecture you can get an authorization.
I studied airplane engineering, don't forget about that.
Did you ever encounter something you weren't capable of?
Never.
You can never admit that.
You can never say that. You simply always have to give it 100 percent. There is no such thing as "I don't know how to do this".
You have to wait and study but you can't disconcert your investor by saying you don't know how to do something, you simply have to learn.
You can ask him to wait a moment and find a solution later.
There's Google so you know how to do anything.
Subtitles: Martina Chalupova