Who is behind Bivaq’s outdoor furniture universe?

Introducing Andrés Bluth, Bivaq’s product designer.

I was born in Uruguay in 1966. After studying Engineering and Fine Arts at the National University of Uruguay, in 1993 I moved to Barcelona to study Product Design at Eina School of Art and Design were I get my diploma at 1998.

After working with the Spanish designers Miguel Milá and Jorge Pensi, I joined a Spanish outdoor furniture company as chief product designer, getting specialized in outdoor furniture. In 2004 I decided to create my own studio. Since then I work for different furniture, lighting and complements companies developing products, and for some of them also managing communication and art direction.

As a complementary activity, I’ve been teaching at IED Barcelona from 2005 to 2013.

Let’s talk about your references: style, design icons, classics, movies, brands…

Florence Knoll and the company she created, Dieter Rams, engineering structure challenges. The clear and indisputable elegance of Mathematics. The wish to understand the mechanism behind today’s Economics that run out of control. Last not least the human integrity of the family, seeing myself as a part in that chain.

Where does Andrés Bluth find inspirational inputs?

When designing for Bivaq or any other brand the goal is to express through the design the brand identity. It acts as guidelines in the design process and should be represented in all products. Every new project needs a different approach that is coherent with the specific company’s profile and philosophy. I find inspiration in elements that interconnect the project, the brand and myself. It can be a lot of things like architecture, music, design, food, people, daily life, memories, etc. All these known and unknown elements appear intentionally or by chance at some point in the design process.

What’s your purpose when you design Bivaq’s collections? What’s the message you want to convey?

We live in a historic moment that is marked by constant change and short living tendencies. A garden, or a terrace, is a shelter. Nature offers you a long-term perspective, a break from the impulse of the moment. It is a place to relax and get back into balance. You don’t want to be challenged, you seek for calm. I like things to be solid, to make sense, to be reliable like a good partner in which you can trust, to have a quality in terms of manufacturing and proportions that allows them to last for a long time.

With Bivaq it is easy to work because we share very similar values. When designing for Bivaq, I think about concepts such as comfort, quality, sobriety, practicality, elegance, simplicity, expressed in objects that co-live in the intersection of Architecture and Nature.

What are you getting ready in your “lab” for 2017 Bivaq’s catalogue? Any clue about what’s coming?

We use to do the briefing together with Alberto, Bivaq’s CEO. Based in a very intense dialog between producer and designer we decide which would be Bivaq’s product needs, so we can improve its commercial offer. This year we are developing a very interesting new collection suitable for contract and residential markets based in new materials and a different formal repertoire, as well as expanding actual collections with the aim to complete Bivaq’s product offer in a new direction.

Andrés Bluth’s featured projects.

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