float
piano
client:
project lead:
christoph pauschitz
design team:
lukasz bertoli,
christoph pauschitz,
christian rukower
when the piano player enters the stage thunderous applause full of expectation welcomes her, forces her to the piano. with an easy movement she opens the piano. majestically the corpus floats away from her and the invaluable instrument opens itself to the piano player and presents her its keyboard. in designing a new piano we focused on the gesture of opening.
options?
when asked to think about a contemporary interpretation of a classical instrument, like a piano, designers can answer in two ways: present a superficial, fancy solution — or a serious one that considers not only demands of the present but also the history linked to the object. we opted for the second one and asked ourselves: what aspects could become a topic for the design process? what should be emphasized to give the product a strong character?
a process starts
usually we start with different types of brainstorming sessions: write down ideas for oneself, sketching ideas [a kind of visual brainstorming], in small groups and finally, after some initial concepts appear, we discuss the first solutions in the GPplenum with the whole team.
in the plenum we quickly agreed that we wanted to design a contemporary piano that stays connected to the history of a piano. design should not destroy but emphasize what needs to be done to create an unforgettable experience to the piano player and even to the audience.
following this discussion and having decided what the piano should look like we proceeded with more detailed sketches, exploring different visual solutions and tuning the shape.
the moment of opening is special
the idea in our mind was to emphasize that special moment, shortly before the play starts. therefore we focused on the opening of the piano's keyboard. we not only wanted to invent a new mechanism, but also a new product language that makes it appear majestically. in the exploring phase we try to find a shape that fits and emphasizes the ideas created during the brainstorming and plenum sessions. the aim is to merge the idea of interaction with the visual language in such ways that they emphasize each other, collaborate.
thinking more precisely about the shape often happens on the 3d-computer-system. a vast amount of solutions were tested but all of them strictly designed within the defined boundaries. this gives us the advantage working quickly and goal-oriented to achieve maximum impact.
»the jury really enjoyed the innovative approach to opening and closing a piano. the evident design flair, particularly in the quality of the accompanying design variations, amounted to a submission the jury wished to highly commend.«
the jury of »the bösendorfer piano design award 2006«: ferdinand bräu [technical director bösendorfer], roland heiler [managing director porsche design], michael kitzinger [designer of music instruments], peter willensdorfer [acoustic planner], nigel ordish [cosultant for interior & product design]
the piano award 2006
by the end of 2005 bösendorfer announced an award for a new design of a piano and GP joined in. bösendorfer is an old world famous brand. working in the same area of austria we feel constrained to make a statement. GP designpartners is one of the winners of this award.
finally, the solution: float.
there are two types: one with a more traditional form factor, with the typical slope of a piano. the other a little fancier: a contemporary, straight version without this typical slope. both with the special opening mechanism as shown in the movie, and both with the same visual language.
derivative: sissy
if someone creative is working on a specific project there are always some additional, useful visual possibilities that do not fit 100% to the requirements but are still interesting enough to think a little bit more about. one of those idea spin-offs is »sissy«.
sissy is a more romantic version, playing with clichés of vienna as seen from foreigners.
