Dialogs and Cuts
in Stiff.Design

While still in architecture school, Till-Moritz Ganssauge and Florentin Steininger founded STIFF in 2008 as a workshop for planning and producing art pieces. It soon expanded into an office that designs and crafts exhibitions and interiors. Alongside STIFF, Ganssauge started a prototyping workshop and studio for furniture named T x L, which primarily sources and produces locally.

Either the idea finds Ganssauge or it is provoked by a space, an encounter, a reference, or a need. It leads to a story which produces the essentials of a design concept. Ganssauge feels connected to the time frame from Surrealism to Bauhaus, resonating with the visionary spirit of this period, the technical differentiation, and simplicity in design and architecture. In its contemporary turn, however, sustainability is at the center. The narrative emerges through the conscious management of resources. According to Ganssauge, furniture of the industrialized world still represents a design practice before the awareness of climate change. He advocates for a shift in perception, stating, “I think we need a new design language that tells the story of the upcoming chapter. The process and the source have to become part of our idea of beauty and status.”—

One Plate Wonder

A family conceived as a close-to-zero waste design concept. Tables, stools, and a chair find their form and character by prioritizing the cutting layout. With only one cut, two pieces with a shared mutual outline emerge. Radical Optimization: No waste — just wonder!

STIFF and T x L reuse materials from exhibition architecture, materials from an industrial background, or local craftsmanship and recycle them into their practice with a circular process. Their motto: “form follows sustainability.”

Sak

The kitchen is made of materials that are either reused or recycled, where all existing parts are refurbished. The design plays along the postmodernist idea of form as language—a triangle, a quader, a cylinder, a cloud, and a sail.

Acrüteau

The Acrüteau is a provocative table, an organizer, a piece of furniture playing with the urge for order. This table sculpture is a dialog partner. The table top is a relief of spikes on all sides. Trays run through these spikes, their sizes and proportions tailored to various uses. The central tray is used for writing and drawing, working on a laptop or a typewriter. There are trays for the telephone and coffee cup, an ashtray and a vase, a bookstand and a display.