Unconventional production gives rise to a distinctive design language
Bold colours, organic forms and rough textures characterise the expressive designs of Pablo Octavio. Founder Pablo Schneider Motjer’s loft in Cologne’s Nippes district serves as workshop, showroom and home all in one. Situated in a former 1920s factory, the space isa creative playground for the German-Spanish designer, which he has furnished with a blend of vintage pieces and his own original designs.
High ceilings and glass inserts lend the rooms a bright, spacious character. Coloured wall and floor surfaces delineate specific zones, while a shimmering silver curtain screens off floor-to-ceiling shelving units used for storage from the rest of the flat. Positioned centrally between the open-plan living/dining and kitchen area on one side and the bedroom and office on the other lies the studio workshop where Schneider Motjer makes his expressive furniture and product designs. He sells these creations– whether as unique collector’s items or small limited-edition series – through his website, art galleries and design fairs such as Collectible Brussels.
In this process, unconventional production methods give rise to a distinctive design language that thrives on the interplay between controlled chance and intuitive intent, in creations such as the rock-like Lapis armchair. Although it seems to be chiselled from stone, both the chair and the bench version are created from a block of foam that the designer carefully tears apart. ‘I repeatedly change direction as I do this until the stone-like texture emerges: a feature that gives every armchair its own individual character. The interplay between chance and intention – inherent in the very act of tearing – creates a unique fractured edge that is never replicated,’ he says.
Flanking the armchair is a pink and purple coffee table, a dining table from the Flubber series, which emerged from Schneider Motjer’s first commission following his studies. ‘At the time, a stylist requested a funky dining table that would deviate from standard furniture in both form and colour. So, I mounted a coloured lacquered plywood top with an organically curved silhouette onto four vibrant powder-coated tubular steel legs. The curves are so carefully scaled that you can sit comfortably at every indentation – transforming the piece into the focal point of all convivial evenings with friends and family.’
