Werner Blaser
“I travelled widely in Japan and the details reflect the influence of that world. And since the competition was anonymous, the jury presumed that I was a Japanese designer, while I was actually from Basel!”.
Born in 1924 and a student of Alvar Aalto, Blaser studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and in Japan. He opened his own studio in Basle in 1959 and for a long time worked with Mies van der Rohe, publishing various books about the latter’s architecture.
His chest of drawer won the Cantù “Prima mostra selettiva - Concorso internazionale del mobile”, a competion designed to re-qualify the image of Italian furniture making. The jury included Gio Ponti, Alvar Aalto, Romano Barocchi, Carlo De Carli and Finn Juhl.
Werner Blaser for Molteni Group