Breger Birdhouse (Industrial Design + Design Research)
For a personal project I decided to pick an industrial designer to study and then develop a project based on their style. I eventually designed the Breger Birdhouse. A birdhouse that emulates the Swedish style of Carle-Arne Breger, including sensuous curves, manipulation of plastic, and use of the golden ratio.
Design Research:
I studied the work of Breger in order to emulate his style and learn form, color, and material. For some background:
Carle-Arne Breger was a Swedish designer know for the design of objects in plastic. He won the design award, “Mister Plast” in 1960, among many other awards.
His style is a soft, shiny sensual that still gleams today. His most famous design is a sculptural watering vessel that is still sought after today, 50 years after it’s production, as a collectors item.
His philosophy was one of material (plastics) and form (soft, shiny sensual). Other than that he is known for being the “all-inclusive champion” of products and has designed an incredible amount of functional, everyday objects such as lighters, phones, wall hooks, glasses, coffee machines, vacuum cleaners, tools, sewing machines, petrol pumps, etc... With everything that he’s designed, it’s not unlikely that he would design a birdhouse.
And what would a birdhouse by Carle-Arne Breger look like?
Industrial Design:
Much like his watering vessel, I used three circles derived from the golden ration. Breger was fond of the golden ratio. The three circles I shaped form two separate sized openings and a middle base:
A connected circle attaches the plastic body to rods of different material.
I eventually designed a birdhouse with two openings, that stood on a selection of different materials for the standing rod, including wood and metal. In addition, becaues of the plastic material selection, the birdhouse could come in a number of materials.
