The Hamburg architect and designer Hadi Teherani is well known for trying out his approach to design in a range of ever-expanding new areas. He welcomes getting involved in fields that defy expectations, for instance by drafting an e-bike, a birdhouse, or a chaise longue made of marble. Together with HARBOUR, a manufacturer of eyeglasses, Hadi Teherani is now literally designing from face to face. What links the HARBOUR brand and Teherani as designers are their Hanseatic aplomb. They share a preference for well thought out, meticulously constructed things that convince due to matter-of-factness, simplicity, and clear-cut lines. What emerged was an ultra-lightweight construction made using the latest production technology.
Hadi Teherani at work
Eyeglasses not only provide protection (e.g. against sunlight) or help us to see better. They are always a personal statement when it comes to fashion and style. Yet at the same time glasses are an object that must full strict functional specifications. Objects for daily use that are nonetheless devised as customized products are a source of delight to Hadi Teherani, whether an architect or designer. But how does the archetypical repertoire of shapes for eyewear live on? How can it be transformed into a present-day t and evolve further in the future? How light can eyeglasses be? How much material is necessary so that they are stable and conform to each and every requirement? The GRID Capsule Collection from HARBOUR offers a convincing answer to each of these questions. It may come as a surprise to wearers, both men and women, just how extraordinarily light eyeglasses can be.
“My holistic standard,” says Teherani, “has confronted me time and again with transcending borders to design.” Which is the case here, too. The laser sintering process in 3D printing belongs to the new techniques for drafting and production. There are no limitations due to conventional shaping and production methods. The result: new leeway, new freedom for designing. Hadi Teherani created structures that, even in the most demanding handcrafted workmanship, would not have been practicable. Part of the drafting process involved extensive testing of the aforementioned leeway in order to exhaust all the opportunities offered by 3D printing and not conduct an experiment in shaping: the point was to create an innovative object that displayed distinctive usability at the same time. And any given design draft by Teherani always includes a special relation to nature. The development of GRID is consequently aligned to certain design principles stemming from nature. Akin to the so-called in presence of a sun ower, the structures within the collection arose from Fibonacci sequences, spiral shapes that correspond to the proportions of the golden ratio.
Harbour Eyewear – the only manufacturer of eyeglasses in Hamburg – was founded in this metropolis on the Elbe in 2003. Meanwhile, the brand has established itself as a maker of retro- classics beyond the borders of this Hanseatic port and Germany, too. Diversity and the greatest possible individuality matched by short production phases and routes belong to the core competency at this modern manufacturer. Each and every type of trend, clientele, and taste can be attended to and satisfied via a multitude of colors, models, and possibilities for design – according to the most discerning personal wishes.
Acting in co-operation with fashion houses and designers, collections all their own originate again and again. The GRID Capsule Collection from Hadi Teherani is equally among them.
Hadi Teherani – born in Tehran in 1954 and raised in Hamburg – is an extremely productive, multifaceted and internationally acclaimed German architect and designer. His work is performed on a scale that transcends borders; beyond nationalities and specialized disciplines. The projects aim towards achieving an atmospheric aura, a sense of emotional intensity, and an ecologically substantiated sustainability readily laid out in the draft phase. With his architecture, he creates nothing less than landmarks. In the course of an unusually far-reaching capability that extends from architecture to urban development and on, all the way to interiors and product design, compositions are successfully attained in which all the elements interact in harmonious ways. Conference tables (Thonet), leather seating furniture (Walter Knoll), the modular kitchen (Poggenpohl), lighting fixtures (Zumtobel/Steng), showrooms and flagship stores (Kiton) are just as much a part of his catalogue of works as highrises, corporate headquarters, government of cases, worlds for shopping, stock exchanges, railway stations, schools and universities, as well as innovative concepts for sustainable urban residential construction.
