designed by Peter Ghyczy *, manufactured at the Lemförde Design Centre, Germany, 1968–71, moulded polyurethane parts, hand-painted in white and smoothed, loose cushions, velvet covering, sofa: height 70 cm, length 240 cm, depth 80 cm, height of seat 40 cm, chairs: height 70 cm, width 100 cm, depth 80 cm, height of seat 40 cm, stools: height 42 cm, 45 x 45 cm. (DR) This sofa ensemble is one out of four prototypes that never went beyond an experimental phase. Due to the complicated manufacturing process, it was not possible to produce it in series. This group is the only complete set. Provenance: Coll. Michael Rossol, Germany, until 2010 Lit.: B. Polster, Peter Ghyczy. Der Evolutionär, Cologne 2010, pp. 44–69.

Between 1968 and 1971, the architect and designer Peter Ghyczy, who came from Hungary, experimented with plastic furniture together with a small team of assistants. The Lemförde Design Centre (Northern Germany) had been founded by Dr. Gottfried Reuter, an industrialist and chemist, in order to develop innovative product designs for the new material of polyurethane, for which Reuter received several patents. The building itself, also designed by Ghyczy, was completely made polyurethane as well. The goal was to work as “a think tank for industry”, a concept that had first been developed at the Bauhaus and was later continued in Ulm. The centre was closed after a relatively short period, since the costs involved in this complicated and sophisticated production process were excessive, so that the institution finally had to be sold to the chemical company BASF. Michael Rossol, who owned the objects offered for sale here, was one of Ghyczy’s closest collaborators in Lemförde.