Ships, boats, the lake and craftsmanship – this is the world that fascinates Klaus Vogt (*1938) from an early age. In 1954, he therefore decides to train as a boatbuilder in Meilen. At the entrance examination for the School of Applied Arts in Zurich in 1958, Klaus Vogt impresses with the hand planes he has made himself. Hans Fischli and Willy Guhl accept the young craftsman into the programme. At the time, the course is not yet geared towards a specific profession. There is intense debate about where its focus should lie – on space or on the product. Assignments naturally include designing furniture for specific settings, such as schools.

The prevailing credo at the time is truth to materials and Gute Form – good design. Klaus Vogt’s recurring employment with architect Dolf Schnebli in Agno, Ticino, provides an important springboard for his career. He develops the chair from his diploma project into a series of school furniture for the secondary school designed by Dolf Schnebli in Locarno. While working as site manager on a school building in Muri, Klaus Vogt strengthens a conviction that becomes central to his own practice: listen carefully and take the extensive knowledge of craftspeople seriously.

As an assistant to Bernhard Hoesli at ETH Zurich, his primary concern is to encourage and support students throughout their studies, right through to their diploma. He also teaches in Muttenz until the 1990s. At the same time, he develops furniture in his own workshop, including the Squadra cabinets (1964), and, as part of a design collective with Ueli Berger, Heinz Ulrich and Eleonore Peduzzi Riva, designs the DS-600 modular sofa for de Sede. As an architect, he realises numerous buildings for friends as well as private and public clients.

His training as a boatbuilder repeatedly reinforces Klaus Vogt’s conviction that the collective knowledge of everyone involved in a project is the foundation for creating the best products and the best spaces for living. This attitude also shapes his work as an assistant at ETH Zurich and his teaching in Muttenz and at the University of Applied Sciences of both Basel. Mutual respect, a willingness to listen and his own humility allow him to remain open to new ideas throughout his life.