This post is about the Ingo Maurer 1969 Uten.silo. To be honest, before yesterday I had never heard of Ingo Maurer nor of the Uten.silo. That is until I passed "Pages 50/70" a nice store specialized in 1950's - 1970's designer furniture and home deco. Something in the window drew my attention - a red wall organizer. Simple - beautiful - a piece of art. It stuck to my mind and on my way back to the metro I dared to enter the store to ask more about it - like the price (how naive!!). Of course the price was steep, the Uten.silo being in mint condition and a 1969 original. No need to tell I didn't buy it. But I had an interesting and nice chat.
Back home, I did my research. Ingo Maurer is mainly known as a designer of light installations and lamps. The Uten.silo was designed by his wife, Dorothee Becker, in 1969. A smaller version followed one year later. The production of the original Uten.silo was stopped in 1974 due to the oil crisis which considerably increased the cost of production. However, in 2002 they got reintroduced by Vitra design. They're now available through several online stores, at a much more interesting price than my initial find (they're replicas after all).
I didn't order one (yet) but this thing is definitely sticking to my mind... I even know where it would come, if...
the small version of the Utensilo by Vitra - photograph found at http://www.velocityartanddesign.com
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