Interior design inspiration in Stuttgart: Rolf Benz Store

My trip to Stuttgart included also a couple of short, but insightful searches for some local interior design and fashion brands. Rolf Benz is the most famous in the region, and in the last 50 years, all over the world, for its famous sofas.

The company was created in 1964 in Nagold, a locality in the Black Forest. His main focus was always to offer comfortable, pleasant and multi-functional sofas. In the first post-war decades, the frugality was an important driving force between any creative efforts, but at the end of the 1960s, the West Germany recovered little by little and was more eager to experience a bit of pleasure too. 

The store I visited is located at the ground level of the elegant super-store Königsbau Passagen and display a diversity of interior items, besides the sofas. For instace, those Moroccan-inspired tables are a discrete but colourful add to the home, without taking too much place. In case you don't have enough space for a big livingroom table, you can add some of those tables and create a small setting. Meanwhile, one can use each of them separately for other purposes: as night table, computer table, newspaper table etc.

This goes with the main idea behind the design projects developped by Rolf Benz: creating sofas where you can enjoy the sheer pleasure, relaxing your feet but adapted to different contexts. The sofas can be upgraded to luxury levels, only by changing the covering fabric, adapted either to classical living or to open spaces - including outdoors.  

Many of the furniture presented at the store are following this complex relationship between comfort and elegance. This closet is organised so smartly that you can store your wine glasses and bottles generously - including in a small fridge, without taking too much space from the room. 

Every decade, Rolf Benz developped his concept and therefore nowadays it is considered one of the most successful and famous German brands in the field of interior design. Many of its creations are hosted to architecture museums from all over the world.

The usual prices are medium to high, but it is considered that buying such an item is a life-long investment that can even be passed from a generation to another. 

The visit at the Rolf Benz Store was very inspiring and taught me some important lessons about a famous German interior design brand and concepts.