Chris Kabel was born in Bloemendaal, the Netherlands in 1975. He graduated in 2001 from the Design Academy Eindhoven. A year later, he moved to Rotterdam where he started his design practice. He works for and with design labels, architects, cultural institutions and design galleries. Kabel is active in a wide range of designs: from furniture to illumination. He is also a professor at the Design Academy Eindhoven and at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art in Lausanne (ECAL). His designs can be found in the permanent collections of the MoMa in New York, the Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others.
Kabel combines the conceptual aspect of a design with the practical aspect in many cases. He achieves this by developing new materials or by using ‘normal’ elements in a surprising way. In essence, Kabel tries to converge smart technical solutions and aesthetics in his designs. He is not interested in a distinctive style, he stays true to the inspiration he gets from experiments with materials and techniques instead. Where other designers are putting emphasis on craftsmanship or telling stories, Kabel mainly aims for the simplicity of form and intelligence of technical construction. Aesthetics follow in a natural way in his designs.
