Bauhaus trained and with four decades of appliance expertise, H RH Reinhard Segers is the designer behind Gaggenau’s latest range, the 200 Series. Working with his four-person design team, Segers is the custodian of the brand’s aesthetic – evidenced in everything from individual ovens to showrooms and test kitchens for Michelin-starred chefs. He visited Australia during Designex to discuss the technology and design that drive the Gaggenau brand.
Having worked with Gaggenau for over 12 years, Segers has been responsible for extending the brand’s product design. “We definitely try to develop a similar design language, but every product has a different requirement relating to its functionality,” he says. “What I don’t like is if you’re trying to apply the same design language to everything you do – it’s like putting tomato sauce on all your food.”
His design philosophy is based around the seamless integration of beautiful design and advanced technology. “They belong together; one needs the other. It’s different when you make consumer products – even cutlery or crockery – because the formal aspect is always more important. You must show its functionality.”
Segers explains the technological challenges of designing the 200 Series’ inventive door-mounted control panel. “The module itself wasn’t the problem; the challenge was reducing the heat. It’s a pyrolytic oven – it heats up to 500º. Because the panel is right at the point where the heat is greatest we had to design something to take the heat away. We managed to insert four panels of glass behind the control module to reduce the heat.”
Boasting bottom-hinged doors and intelligent modular designs, the 200 S Series ovens are available in Australia from Sampford IXL.