Hugo Zumbühl

While Hugo Zumbühl may be a latecomer as a designer, his interest in textiles – and weaving in particular – has been with him for decades. Born and raised in Lucerne, he began his professional career by training to become a structural draughtsman. It was a short time later, while training to become an arts and crafts teacher at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), that he discovered what would become his lifelong theme: weaving.

It was in 1998 that he had the encounter which was to prove decisive for his subsequent career: while attending a paper weaving workshop at the Ballenberg Course Centre, he got to know Peter Birsfelder, a master weaver in the workshops of Thorberg Prison. His meeting with this outstanding craftsman unleashed a creative drive in Zumbühl, soon issuing in actual products. Even their first joint project, a carpet woven from crepe paper and impregnated with natural wax that was given the name Oscuro, earned Zumbühl and Birsfelder the Design Prize Schweiz in 1999. Spurred on by this immediate success, the designer duo and their TEPPICHartTEAM label went on to achieve further acclaim in the years thereafter with their innovative and unconventional carpet creations. Zumbühl has been working closely with Ruckstuhl since 2001.