With admirable restraint Braun and Virgil Abloh have gone to the archive and updated one of the brand’s most sculptural designs, the sleek, horizontal 1965 Wandanlage Hi-Fi wall unit. The original’s powder white coated metal is replaced with polished chrome; while that may have been too much in 1965, it’s well suited to 2021. The chrome references both the brands frequent use of the material and Abloh’s “cultural and musical references of the last 100 years.”
Abloh explains his inspiration in a video shot at Mies van der Rohe’s celebrated Farnsworth house. He also produced “Internationalism,” a musical collaboration with The Chopstars inspired by the architectural movement of the 1920s and ’30s.
The unit replicates the original’s technology—radio, reel-to-reel and turntable are celebrated, not updated. Other details on this “functional art piece” are scarce—whether it goes in to production and what it may cost have not yet been revealed.
For more on the significance of Dieter Rams’ designs for Braun revisit our video and story.
Image and video courtesy of Braun