It's hard to say where it's most beautiful in this house: perhaps downstairs, in the basement. This is where the woodworking machines are, including the heavy lathe that was actually the reason why Moritz Schmidt and Juliane Lanig live here today with their three children: The two of them, then at home in Munich, actually only came because they were interested in this machine. Then they rented a place without further ado, only to realize after a year: it's really nice here! They bought the house. Perhaps the living room is also the most beautiful, where the view almost automatically falls into the garden. Or upstairs in the study, under the roof, where furniture designs and plenty of sketches show: People don't just design here. Here, people also think about what design actually is. The range is wide: there is the prototype of Schmidt's altar for the Protestant church in nearby Vohburg ("a wonderful task") next to the "blueprint", a DIY plan for multifunctional furniture: "We designed this for the 'Artaparat', a converted cigarette machine where you can buy art for four euros. You can take the plan to the DIY store, hand it in and have the panels cut to size," explains Schmidt.

Of course, there is also a model of HANS, the bed that the two designed for MAGAZIN. HANS appears twice in the house as actual furniture. In the bedroom, the piece of furniture is part of a very lively family bed. As a daybed, it adorns the living room. It is interesting to note how different the two similar pieces of furniture appear. One tells a pragmatic story about everyday family life; the other: Well, it's not elegant. But the way it stands in the room, it shows off its design a little more confidently.

A bed - probably the biggest challenge for furniture designers alongside a chair and table. "It's a huge element in a room. It was a challenge to design a bed of this size in such a way that it never looks out of date and thus becomes a long-lasting product," says Lanig. "It was just as important to us that the bed also looks good when it is in use. It is so calm in itself that it can also be unmade from time to time," adds Schmidt. To achieve this, he and his partner focused a lot on the self-image of the furniture. "On the one hand, it has a simple appearance, while at the same time we play with the basic shapes and use different materials. It almost brings in something like irritation." The materials are coated plywood, sheet steel and tubular steel; in terms of form, surface meets cylinder. You can draw connections to the HfG Ulm, perhaps also to Wassily Kandinsky's Bauhaus primary forms of circle and square, but HANS actually speaks a very unique language. And it has a lot to do with its designers.

The two add a few footnotes to the idea of product design, which can be explained by their biographies. They both initially learned processing trades - and both later studied at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd; Moritz Schmidt product design and Juliane Lanig visual communication. In recent years, Lanig has worked a lot as a graphic designer: a fact that certainly has an impact on the couple's designs. Schmidt reflects: "Maybe it's also a matter of type, but Juliane's view of things is very different to mine. Clearer, more harmonious. For me, the basic idea is function first." Lanig adds: "On the other hand, I'm quite happy when something is already there. I always take a two-dimensional view of it. It's a kind of ping-pong."

Urban mining is a term that Schmidt likes to use. But the term permaculture also applies when it comes to their work. One of their latest products shows how this works on a small scale: a fruit bowl made of spruce wood, which is created from offcuts from a carpentry workshop. It sits beautifully in the hand and radiates an immense sense of calm. But a tour of their home also makes it clear that the concept of design is not limited to creating products and then pitching them to manufacturers. Rather, pragmatism meets efforts to achieve the greatest possible sustainability. The central questions here are the same on a small scale as on a large scale: "How do we recycle resources; how do we deal with all the energy we have available?" explains Schmidt.

Much is and has been redone, but always with a sense of proportion. The kitchen sink, for example, was already in service with the previous owners and was still in perfect working order; Schmidt integrated it into his new kitchen design. The tiles in the kitchen and bathroom were also allowed to stay, partly because of some of the details. "See the rounded edges on the top row of tiles? Nobody does it like that anymore. Now they put these stainless steel strips on them because it's 'cleaner'." But above all, you notice that design is always best when it arises from a need. And: design is always related to what already exists. There is the high table in the living room, for example, which looks a bit like a counter, but at the same time fits in perfectly with the bookshelves by Schmidt's former employer Nils Holger Moormann, which characterize the room. "We built it for my 40th birthday," says Schmidt. "But it's actually quite practical, we now also use it for meetings." The wrought-iron banister leading to the upper floor had a concealed run. When the plastic coating was removed, a bright orange protective coating was revealed. They liked it so much that they allowed it to stay. A large panoramic window looks out onto the garden, which also serves as a seating area: "The garden is important to us. It is a place of retreat. But it also grounds us and helps us to be self-sufficient," says Lanig.

Lanig & Schmidt

Moritz Schmidt and Juliane Lanig met in 2009 while studying at the University of Design Schwäbisch Gmünd and now live with their family in Rennertshofen in Upper Bavaria. The two have been working together on various projects since 2013, with their credo being the combination of design and sustainability. They designed the HANS bed and daybed for Magazin.