Pentagon
Gruppe
A key player among German designers from the 1980s to the 2000s.
Pentagon Gruppe, made by Gerd Arens, Wolfgang Laubersheimer, Reinhard Müller, Ralph Sommer and Meyer Voggenreiter, consistently challenged the conventional Bauhaus aesthetic, developed sixty years earlier in Weimar, in the eastern part of the country.
Founded in Cologne in 1985, this group transcended the classic triptych of “form, function, materials” through its informal design approach. The object was no longer functional, and even less ergonomic. It broke free from the standardized constraints of official aesthetics. Furniture was no longer just an object, it became the expression of an idea, as free as it was disruptive.
Giving materiality to one’s ideas, a dream for any creator. Unfortunately, the political ecosystem of the time made that dream even harder to realize. On the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, being a designer in Germany was far more difficult than in Italy. The German industry was not yet ready to collaborate with designers by developing adapted production methods.
Moreover, no specialized design magazines existed in Germany at the time, unlike in Italy, where Ottagono and Domus were already key references. It was therefore difficult to spread the ideas and concepts developed by radical German designers.
To bypass these obstacles, the Pentagon group innovated. To share their ideas, they created their own design gallery. The designers themselves managed the distribution of their work, producing unique pieces or very limited series.
In the absence of connections between designers and manufacturers, the founders of Pentagon gave free rein to their imagination and built their furniture independently. No manufacturer wanted to use bright colors like Memphis? The Germans chose raw metal.
No one accepted to work on refined finishes? Pentagon embraced the “unfinished”: welds remained visible, objects bore the marks of sanding, and materials like particleboard, rubber or stone were left untreated and unembellished.
Pentagon Gruppe had no equal. Their creations exude a singularity specific to German designers of their era. Between the mysterious, misty neon of their lamps and a hydraulic system turning a bookcase into a dancing sculpture, Pentagonshattered conventions with a creative and aesthetic ingenuity far removed from the mainstream.
“Form before function, style above all” has never rung truer than with Pentagon.
