HAUS OTTO
Studio visit

     GOOD SESSIONS
Can you present this place? Does it have a particular history?

     HAUS OTTO
Our studio is named after the house where we already started to work together during our studies.

Nils grandfather had an interior decorator workshop with an old saddlery in the attic of a timbered house built in the 1860s. As the saddlery was almost not in use anymore we had the chance to use the 20 m´2 storage room and make it our first workspace. We tidied up a room full of piles of paper, foam remains and old yarn and cleaned out the space. We renovated it and added some basic tools which was the start of Haus Otto.

     GOOD SESSIONS
How important is this place to your work and are you attached to this place? What's the place inspiring and benefits values? 

     HAUS OTTO
It is a great way for us to have a small workshop where we can experiment and try out new things.

As it still has the charm of a storage there are various materials such as old wooden parts, cardboard, foam and textiles everywhere. We like to work and think in materials which is why it is great to be surrounded with interesting raw components. When we begin to design an object we usually start really basic with a simple hand sketch and than very early in the design process start to built rudimentary mockup models made out of cardboard and tape, clay or basically anything we find can get our hands on.

We like to play around with different materials and let its inherent characteristics inspire us and in the act of doing so, come up with new ideas. 

     GOOD SESSIONS
Do you also work at home or prefer keep personal and professional places separated, or the two of them can be a space for work and relax? Is it stimulating to share space and/or be with others (creatives or not)?

     HAUS OTTO
We usually do not work from home, as we like to physically build things and like to have a dialog and a workshop like environment for experimentation. Sometimes we also work outside in nature or from different places, it very much depends on the time and the project we are working on. The context of a space and the people we work with are very important for our design process.

We have a very collaborative approach and therefore like to engage with other people with a different background or discipline – for us design should always be some sort of dialog.