The design company Interio, which was founded in 1974 and currently maintains 13 stores, is one of the largest Austrian retailers for contemporary home living. As such, Interio invited Thomas Feichtner to be part of a diverse group of Austrian designers charged with creating a furniture collection based on the theme of “Design and Production in Austria”—for which he designed a table, a bench and a chair, and a sideboard. Feichtner began his work by searching for something archetypical of Austrian furniture and hit upon a simple way of joining wood that continues to see use today in traditional furniture-making. Nowadays, in fact, the specific method of attaching chair legs by inserting a tenon all the way through the seat is unique to historical and modern rustic furniture from the Alpine region. The unconcealed surface, authenticity, and rawness associated with this principle authentically reflects a quintessentially Austrian quality. So Feichtner’s novel interpretation of this classic mortise-and-tenon construction went on to become the overall design concept, recurring in the table, the bench, and the chair. Additionally, this solid-wood furniture’s triangular legs, as well as the tabletop and the seating surface of the bench, are tapered towards the floor for a significant reduction in weight. A contemporary design approach to traditional craftsmanship.
