28 October 2017

The design aspect of the work of carpenters

Craft is not the same as design but craft includes design techniques as well. The Austrian Guild of Carpenters (Bundesinnung der Tischler) defines the profession of carpenters as design of living spaces with individually together with the customers created furniture and solutions made of wood for at home, office, public spaces or gastronomy - literally customized furniture handcrafted by wood designers.

On tischler.at, the carpenter guild publishes videos with portraits of members such as of Martin Lackner (Lama Holzmanufaktur) who designed and manufactured the table 'Benny' (on view on this page). For the writing desk, Martin Lackner used vacuum technologies applied originally for building boats; the air filled space of his design is equipped with a drawer-element.

Technologies are in many cases the inspiring source behind the designs of craftspeople. The education in crafts is focused in Austria on the knowledge about material qualities, manufacturing and the training of skills. Recently, the Austrian Guild of Carpenters released on tischler.at a statement concerning the education situation (especially the dual education) on occasion of the results of the world championships of young craftspeople at the WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 (15 - 18 October) where more than 1200 participants from almost 60 countries, regions competed in 51 skills (competitors). Two young Austrian woodworkers won each one Medallion for Excellence. In sum, the Austrians achieved with medals in Gold, Silver, Bronze and Excellence after total points score the position 8 in the WorldSkills ranking.

Photo: © Tischlerinnung.

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