RIBBON by BOB MANDERS

The buildings of architect Bob Manders are typified by the palpability of the materials, the changeability of spaces, the sight lines, the massive storage space, and the well-thought-out functionality. The character and mood are warm, individual, and nonconformist.
Manders is always looking further than where the gaze would normally rest: his minimalist living environments are anything but bare – they feel amazingly lavish because one is made to focus on radically different elements than where instinct says the focus should go. A building seems quite simple, until you realise that where you expected to see a column, there is nothing. A room appears empty until a wall is rotated to reveal an enormous bookcase.
After graduating with honours from the technical University in Delft, Bob Manders was accepted into the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, a prestigious school which counts among its alumni some of Manders’ idols like Zaha Hadid, Pawson and Silvestrin. While studying here, Manders developed a unique vision of a comprehensive architecture of the everyday environment. He became deeply interested in the integration of qualitative architecture with interior architecture, landscape architecture, and urban development. So called total architecture. “As soon as you have touched a door handle you have already made contact with the room beyond. Door fittings are an architect’s first opportunity to allow people to make genuine contact with a building or room, to allow the users to really “feel” the design. Door fittings serve as a calling card for the style or attitude to life which permeates a building or room. Manders’ philosophy is to enrich daily life by designing for all five senses as well as instinct, and by creating a plane of projection for occupants, nature, and surroundings. A building should be felt, heard, smelt, seen, and even “tasted”…and especially understood. A door is the perfect embodiment of this, and the door fittings are the perfect way to project the refinement and subtlety of the design.” A front door handle offers the first impression of a building, while the handle of an interior door creates the first impression of the space beyond.
For FORMANI® Bob Manders designed door fittings, called ‘RIBBON’. A total concept of door-, window- and furniture hardware that is characterised by the way the brushed stainless steel seems to wrap itself around the hand as if it were a folded ribbon. The door handles of the line lack a rosette and seem to flatten themselves directly against the door.