Richard Hersberger (b. 1931) was introduced to the world of interiors at an early age through his parents’ upholstery and furnishing business in Basel. After completing secondary school, he initially enrolled at the School of Arts and Crafts with the ambition of becoming a painter. However, a growing sense of responsibility towards his future family led him to pursue a career in interior architecture, prompting him to transfer to the Fachklasse für Innenausbau (FFI). There, the classes taught by the Basel architect Paul Artaria proved formative. Hersberger later described Artaria’s openness to young people and the respect with which he treated his students as a lasting source of inspiration.

After completing his studies, Hersberger joined the family business, where he combined client consultancy with planning and design, while his brother managed the commercial side of the company. At the same time, he pursued a growing number of independent projects. Early in his career, he designed several furniture systems for Victoria-Werke and developed bespoke furnishings for projects including the Gellert Church in Basel, the new Cantonal Parliament Chamber in Liestal, and, later, the interiors of dining cars and passenger coaches for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

In the late 1950s, Hersberger succeeded Paul Artaria as a lecturer at the FFI, beginning a teaching career that would span more than three decades. Deeply committed to education, he was particularly dedicated to supporting talented young people from rural backgrounds with practical craft experience, at a time when most students came from urban middle-class families. He remained an inspiring and highly respected teacher until the late 1980s. Among his former students were Annette Stahl, Guido Berger and Ursula Staub-Feller.

Alongside architecture and teaching, Hersberger developed a lifelong passion for collecting nomadic rugs. It began with a prayer rug he purchased at the age of fourteen and grew through extensive travels in Morocco and other countries. He admired these textiles not only for their craftsmanship but also for the way they shaped domestic space. In his view, the Berbers were true interior architects, creating rich and meaningful interiors not through furniture but through rugs of exceptional artistic quality.

Richard Hersberger’s collaboration with Victoria-Werke in Baar began in 1962 and marked the start of a highly productive period in furniture design. For the Swiss manufacturer, he developed a series of furniture systems and lounge chairs, including Kadraform, Pantoia, Casablanca and Siesta. These designs established his reputation not only as an interior architect but also as an accomplished product designer.

Among his best-known creations is the Siesta lounge chair, accompanied by a matching footstool and armchair. Constructed from chrome-plated flat steel with suspended upholstered cushions, the design combined exceptional comfort with an ingenious construction system that allowed it to be assembled only at its final destination, making transportation remarkably efficient. Hersberger’s ability to find elegant and pragmatic solutions to complex construction challenges was a defining characteristic of his work, undoubtedly shaped by his early experience in his parents’ upholstery workshop.

The Kadraform furniture system was conceived as a modular framework of 48 × 48 cm structural elements fitted with interchangeable shelves and panels. Each component was prefabricated individually before being assembled into a complete piece of furniture. With the Pantoia shelving system, Hersberger considered not only the object itself but also its relationship to the surrounding space, offering it in three different widths (40, 70 and 98 cm) to accommodate a variety of interiors. Manufactured by Victoria-Werke between 1974 and 1999, the system proved so successful that the furniture manufacturer Vifian acquired the licence and continued production until 2019.

Throughout Hersberger’s own projects, interior architecture and furniture design formed an inseparable whole. One particularly innovative example is the stackable H02 chair, designed in 1964 for the Gellert Church in Basel, a building by Curt Peter Blumer. Slightly wider than a conventional chair and equipped with straight legs, it could be linked together to form continuous rows of seating.

For the new Cantonal Parliament Chamber in Liestal, Hersberger rejected traditional fixed benches in favour of movable chairs paired with integrated writing desks. He also developed the room’s acoustic concept, combining convex and concave ceiling elements, curtains and fitted carpeting to create an environment in which parliamentary debates could take place without microphones. This close integration of architecture, furniture and technical performance also characterised projects such as the Ciba Geigy cafeteria, where the long benches were designed specifically for their architectural setting.

For the new exposed-concrete secondary school designed by Keller and Schwarz in 1963, Hersberger created the colourful foam Playchair cubes with synthetic leather upholstery, conceived as both functional seating and playful sculptural elements within the building.

His collaboration with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) began with the design of a new dining car. Rather than following established railway conventions, Hersberger developed the interior from the spatial experience of the passengers. Angled seating and semi-circular tables were carefully arranged to maximise outward views, while the lighting and tableware were designed as integral parts of the overall concept. He was later commissioned to contribute to the Bahn 2000 programme, for which he developed innovative rotating first-class seats as well as a new three-plus-one seating configuration for second class. Although neither proposal was ultimately realised, both demonstrate his forward-thinking approach to passenger comfort and spatial design.

The ai-s archive holds Hersberger’s complete Vorlass (collection donated during the creator’s lifetime), including furniture, drawings, designs and archival documents. The collection has been professionally conserved, catalogued and archived by Docuteam.