Axel Kufus, born in 1958 and raised in the German Ruhr Area, trained as a cabinet-maker working with sculptors in the Rhön and in Kassel. After receiving his master craftsman’s certificate in 1983, he began studying design in Berlin. There he became a partner at the CrelleWerkstatt, worked in cooperation with Andreas Brandolini and Jasper Morrison, and developed simple furniture for local and decentralised production. In 1993, he was appointed by the Bauhaus-University Weimar to co-found the department of design. Since 2004, he has taught design creation and development at Berlin University of the Arts. He founded the Werkstudio in 1990 together with the exhibition designer Sibylle Jans-Kufus. Further fields of activity are the development of individual interiors and furnishings for conference, office, studio and living areas, as well as for churches, museums and cafés, and the development of products for manufacturers like Nils Holger Moormann, Magis, Ninkaplast and Manufactum.
Furniture for the chapel of the German Bishops’ Conference, cooperation with, Köster Möbelwerkstätten, Berlin 1999 (Photo: Matthias Broneske)
Awards: red dot design award 1991, 2003; Kölner Klopfer 1998; Good Design, The Chicago Athenaeum, 2001, 2002; iF product design award 2001, 2003; interior innovation award cologne 2003; interzum award: intelligent material & design 2003.
