CONTENTS : Foreword I Design and the Economy: The Link Exists I Design as a Witness to Its Time .. 15 2 The Regional Specialisation of Swiss Industry . 18 German- and French-speaking Switzerland: Retaining the old while admitting the new18 Ticino: A special case within a special case 24 3 The Swiss Industrial Mentality .. 27 Steam for the textile industry .. 28 The engineering industry generates electricity 29 Electronics and precision engineering - a meeting of two minds29 4 Future Perspectives33 IIFurniture and Product Design - Bringing the Past into the Present I Design Reform I: Educational Institutions and Exhibition Activity under the Influence of International Exhibitions42 .. 1851 42 1851 .. 43 Schools as centres of stylistic change: Zurich and La Chaux-de-Fonds . 46 2 Design Reform II: The Advent of Modernism49 Reform modernism: Moderate modernisation between 1900 and 1925 .. 50 Avant-garde modernism: From standardisation to serial production (1925-1945) . 58 Wohnbedarf: Lifestyle and manufacturing style 60 Progress versus heritage. .. 69 3 Reform and Avant-garde Modernism Regain Momentum 71 From the restoration years to pop culture . 71 Die gute Form: An award with consequences . 73 Product design: Milestones on the road to professional- isation 76 The era of Willy Guhl 78 Reconstruction as a design issue: From flat-pack to modular furniture 79 Wohnhilfe - flat-packs as a selling proposition 80 Wohnbedarf in the post-war period - new standardised furniture 83 teo jakob - Swiss Design - the young generation 84 Multifunctionalism for living and working 86 Innovations in plastic .. 90 Corporate identity 94 4 Minimal Tradition as Design Philosophy .. 96 Ultimate influence: Pop Art, Radical Design and Post- modernism 97 The international scene 97 The national scene 99 Susi and Ueli Berger: Optical noise 101 Trix and Robert Haussmann: Ironic illusion 104 Mario Botta: Fare l'architettura 108 5 Stemming the Tide of the Eighties: A Debt to Tradition 112 Design-promoting infrastructures .. 113 New is simply old: The New Simplicity .. 114 Decors at the turn of the twentieth to the twenty-first century 116 Change with continuity: Design as a market factor . . 118 KurtThut: Solving problems poetically 120 Heritage as an opportunity: The classics of tomorrow 122 Industrial design: Service and passion. 134 Snowboards: Lifestyle and business 139 A scooter for everyone 142 Balancers for young and old 144 6 Product Design in Precision Engineering - A Variegated Potpourri. 146 Specialities and designer watches .. 149 Serial highlights in the limelight 151 Designer watches- a contradictory concept for a new market 155 III Textile Design - Milestones on the Spiral of Specialisation I Garment Textiles: Specials for Fashion - Pirouettes for Haute Couture167 Companies with tradition167 Independent labels172 2 Home Textiles: First-Class Products for Private and Public Living 181 The greenmarket . 183 Selling nouveautes .187 The public-service market189 3 Industrial Textiles: High-Tech Meets Sports, Meets Work, Meets Fashion .. 192 IV Appendix Institutions and Schools 199 Select Bibliography ..202 Photo Credits ..207 Index - Designers and Companies 210