Goet times

PHOTOS Doug Bouwer WORDS Nikki Benatar

Goet’s modern African objects are the brainchild of architect and product designer Georg van Gass, who owns the company with his wife, Rhoné.

You have only to look at Goet’s perfectly formed wooden objects to know they were conceived by someone with design in his blood – architect Georg van Gass. “When asked to draw our family house in Grade One, instead of drawing a typical house with a chimney and smoke, I drew the ground-floor plan of our home,” he recalls. “That might’ve had something to do with the fact that my dad is an architect.”

Informed by his design mantra “reduce, reduce, reduce and refine”, Georg’s expertly crafted pieces juxtapose typical African shapes and resources (wood) with sleek, timeless European design and high-quality materials (duco, fabric, leather, Perspex, powder-coating, steel and copper). The result: organic, textured pieces with a chic and contemporary edge.

His advice for young designers? “Work hard. Study people and their behaviour.”

082 773 2056, [email protected], goet.co.za