From the Library: Trix + Robert Haussmann

Trix and Robert Haussmann are one of the most quietly radical duos in 20th-century design. Since beginning their collaboration in 1967, they’ve created a world of mirrors, illusions, and elegant mischief—an ongoing challenge to the rules and rigidity of modernism. Working together under the name General Design Institute, the Swiss couple carved out a practice rooted in contradiction: serious and playful, refined and irreverent, classical and futuristic all at once.

Robert, born in 1931, was trained as an architect under modernist greats like Gerrit Rietveld. Trix, born in 1933, studied design in Zurich, and brought a deeply intuitive, visual sensitivity to their partnership. Together, they pushed back against the austere Swiss modernism that surrounded them. They didn’t believe that ornament was a crime, or that clarity always had to mean coldness. Instead, they embraced ambiguity, humor, and a kind of poetic strangeness.

They called their approach critical mannerism—a term as slippery and layered as their interiors. Think mirrored columns, trompe-l’œil effects, plush fabrics alongside industrial chrome. Their spaces don’t just reflect the world—they bend it. In projects like the Kronenhalle Bar in Zurich or Boutique Weinberg, you feel suspended between time periods, styles, and intentions. There’s a deep intelligence in these designs, but also a refusal to take anything too seriously. For many years, their work remained somewhat unknown—beloved by insiders, but hard to categorize. In recent decades, though, their influence has come into sharper focus, with new generations drawn to their unapologetic strangeness and quiet rebellion.

A beautiful testament to their life’s work is this book Trix + Robert Haussmann, published by Edition Patrick Frey and STUDIOLO on the occasion of their exhibition The Log-O-Rhythmic Slide Rule in Spring, 2012. It’s more than just a monograph—it’s a portal into the couple’s playful, layered universe. With essays, drawings, photographs, and archival treasures, the book unfolds like one of their interiors: full of surprise, elegance, and delight. It captures their spirit perfectly—never quite still, never quite straight, always inviting us to look again.

Published by Edition Patrick Frey and STUDIOLO, 2012 Softcover, 180 pages, 23.4 × 17.2 cm