Alessi Coffee.It Espresso Coffee Maker

About the Designer
Wiel Arets Netherlands (1955 - )

Wiel Arets, Dutch architect, born at Heerlen in 1955, graduated from the Technische Universiteit of Eindhoven in 1983. In 1984 he established Wiel Arets Architect & Associates in Heerlen. In 1996 the office was moved to Maastricht. He has held a number of academic positions: between 1986 and 1989 taught at the Architectural Academies of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, between 1988 and 1992 at the Architectural Association in London, between 1991 and 1994 as Visiting Professor at Columbia University and the Cooper Union in New York, at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, the Hochschule f?r Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 2000 he held the Mies van der Rohe chair at the etsab in Barcelona. From 1995 to October 2002 he was dean of the Berlage Institute of Rotterdam and currently he holds the Berlage chair at the Technical University in Delft and is director of the Berlage Institute PhD program. His major works include the Academy for Arts and Architecture in Maastricht (1990-93) and the headquarters of the azl pension fund at Heerlen (1990-95). Bettina Kraus, born 1970 in Nuremberg, has been a partner of Wiel Arets Architect & Associates since 2000. After training at the eth in Zurich and hdk in Berlin, she graduated in Architecture from the Technische Universit?t in Stuttgart in 1996.

An unusual designer and independent thinker, very much part of the Dutch scene while still being a one-off, Wiel Arets does not follow trends nor is he easy to pigeonhole. A leading exponent of the ontological approach rather than representational design (K. Frampton), his work usually tends towards a regularity of parts, but is not minimalist in any negative sense. It incorporates a high level of intellectual complexity, but is also extremely down to earth, and takes a careful and humble view of ordinary people. A master in the use of materials, either in their raw form or surprisingly sophisticated, the central theme of his designs is not the sculptural or iconic elaboration of form, unlike many of his colleagues, but tends towards a condensation and intensification that creates the special aura of lightness and consistency which characterises his work.

Features:

• Material: 18/10 Stainless steel and thermoplastic resin
• Dimensions: 6.69" H x 3.86" W x 5.51" D