Frédéric Dedelley

The designer was born on 4 April 1964 in Fribourg and grew up in an environment strongly influenced by architecture: his parents ran an architectural firm, and he developed a keen sense for shapes, spaces and materials at an early age. His early enthusiasm was initially focused on automotive design, inspired by personalities such as Pininfarina and Giorgetto Giugiaro.

However, he experienced a decisive turning point through the radical designs of the Memphis Group and the postmodern furniture of Trix and Robert Haussmann. This encounter fundamentally changed his view of design and led him to furniture design.

He began his training at the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL), where he received a thorough education in the Swiss tradition of ‘good form’. In order to engage more closely with international trends, he later transferred to the Art Centre College of Design (Europe). An exchange semester in Los Angeles had a particularly strong influence on him, as it introduced him to a more communicative and market-oriented design culture. Both influences – Swiss precision and international openness – continue to shape his working methods to this day.

After graduating in product design, he moved to Paris, where he initially worked with designer Andrée Putman and was involved in the Louvre signage project at the Anatome agency. He gained further formative experience in San Francisco, where he was fascinated by the cultural mix of Western and Asian influences.

In 1995, he finally opened his own studio in Zurich. Since then, he has worked primarily in the fields of furniture design, interior design and exhibition design. For him, design is an interplay of form, function, material, construction and emotion – elements that are weighted differently depending on the project. At the same time, he pursues experimental projects in which he explores his personal artistic interests.