Master of the universal: HEWI

Another insight gained along a successful path traversing over 90 years, right up to the present: nothing stands alone. Everything must be considered contextually. In 1969, the manufacturer HEWI began holistically addressing architectural details, focusing on certain niches in the catalogue of elements out of which rooms and buildings are composed. Door fittings, for example. Today, HEWI invests thought, work and passion in allowing one element to engage seamlessly with another.

‘Systematic thinking’, one might say in corporate-speak. The big picture always in mind, even when working small scale. A complex task, therefore the supreme discipline. The great architects, in any case, have always had a penchant for this practice. For example, in their consistent reiteration of a building’s design conception right down to the door handles. And in doing so, anticipating the details of the space atmospherically from the outset of the design process. A tradition of the architectural universalists whose ranks continue to be joined by the design geniuses of today, such as Hadi Teherani. Especially when companies like HEWI invite them to share their holistic view – ultimately with customers – in the form of products that turn out as elegant and ergonomic as the Range 270 door handle.

An image not just of HEWI’s systematic, universal approach, but also of a stance in which foresight dovetails with a humanistic worldview. And the fact that a door handle, the System 111, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, has decisively shaped the company’s history might almost be understood as symptomatic. Ever since the System 111, after all, HEWI has conceived of the opening of doors not only symbolically, but also very literally.

© Architonic