Each one of the dialogues with designers commissioned by the Passionswege format has led the Wiener Silber Manufactur to surprising results — despite (or thanks to!) its focus on a single material. To celebrate the anniversary, the silversmiths are bringing together one and a half decades of Passionswege in a show.
 
Hardly any other company has been as consistently involved in the history of the Passionswege as the Wiener Silber Manufactur. In 2011, Spanish designer Tomás Alonso collaborated with the silversmiths to develop a tea service. In 2014, the Swiss design studio BIG-GAME explored the possibilities of traditional metalworking with the “HAMMER Lamp”. A year later, Alexandre Echasseriau drew inspiration from glaciers and mountain landscapes to create the “ICE-BERG” champagne cooler: Before use, the silver object is frozen so that the layer of ice slowly melts over the course of the evening, revealing the highly polished surface. These projects demonstrate the myriad ways in which a centuries-old material and the expertise of silversmiths can be reinterpreted time and again.

Passionswege Perspectives: To mark its 20th anniversary, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has invited five Passionswege pairings to look back on their shared history and reflect on the relationships that the format has fostered between artisans and designers.