QWESTION

Zürich // 156, Badenerstrasse // Werd district // around lunchtime ­2 pm // Standing in front of a 60s office building. Aluminium window-frames. Floor-to-ceiling windows. The ground floor was once a supermarket. Today it is the Zürich branch of Qwstion. Not a classic start-up, it never­theless began with a brilliant idea well justifying the founders’ efforts to source global partners and establish a process chain in far-off Asia. All with the plan of inventing a completely new and sustainable organic fabric made from banana fibres, which the founders used to make the new Bananatex^® bag collection from, which they launched last autumn under their of Qwstion brand.

We want to discover how it all began a few years ago in Zürich, and to find out more about the idea and the people behind it. Today we’re meeting one of the founders, designer Christian Paul Kaegi. Not in the ground-floor store, but on the 6th floor of the adjoining block, with panoramic views over Zürich as stunning as those any luxury apartment could offer. This floor houses the Qwstion design and development studio and is flooded with light and idealism. We step out of the lift, initially open the wrong door into a different studio and tentatively ask, We’re looking for Christian. We’re promptly redirected to the opposite door bearing the name Q W S T I O N in widely spaced small capitals.

Christian, you have two design qualifications in graphic and product design. What made you decide to stop being a mere service provider and move into entrepreneurialism?

C

K

There were two main reasons for my decision. In 2005 I went to San Francisco for an internship with Swiss designer Claude Zellweger and met the entrepreneur and industrial designer, Yves Béhar (www.fuseproject.com). Suddenly I was confronted with a ­completely different view of design. Design studios in the US are often more than mere providers of creative services; they also shoulder the risk of realising their own business ideas.

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So in the USA the inspiration to create design and make something new may combine with the urge to make everything into a business deal?

C

K

Perhaps. In any case, the experience was enormously enriching for my focus on my own future; it swept away all the narrowness of my previous perspective.

But a key driver was that when Fabrice Aeber­hard and I founded a design agency in 2006 and developed interiors and products such as watches, bags and furniture, we constantly came up against limitations in a very specific way. We only had the most restricted influence on how our designs were transformed into ­reality, because someone else was always in charge. That was more than unsatisfactory; we actually felt it was futile. Anyway, I’m the kind of person that associates design with more than creating an object, or something visual. I’ve always had an inner urge to achieve something meaningful.

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When did you first realise that you wanted to be a designer?

C

K

Well, I knew from a very early age that I wanted to design things. I’ve always been interested in how things are made. And if I came across a problem with no ready solution, I sat down and tried to work it out myself. In fact, I came to design through sewing; I was already designing clothes and cutting patterns when I was twelve. They were my first products. I made them myself in small production runs and sold them.

But I had to make quite a detour when I was studying. When I was 19, Zürich University of the Arts (ZHDK) refused me a place on the preparatory course that was compulsory for industrial design students, so I took a side-step into Typographical Design. When I attended a summer school for product design, my passion for the third dimension was ­finally kindled and I decided to continue studying as an industrial designer after graduating in graphic design.

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You and Fabrice joined forces with Hannes Schönegger, former coordinator of the ­Snowboard World Tour, art director Matthias Graf and Sebastian Kruit, till then on the European marketing team for Levis, to found ­Qwstion.

C

K

Yes, that’s right, about ten years ago—although we still all kept our day jobs until around four years ago to make sure we wouldn’t be financially dependent on success straight away. Right from the outset, we were bound together by the idea of designing useful, meaningful products with sustainability in mind. Making a contribution to improving consumer behaviour. Perhaps even kick-starting a paradigm shift. We started by experimenting with organic cotton and launched Swissmade, a project in which we aimed to prove it was still possible to produce a bag in Switzerland from start to finish. We also spent three years developing a hemp fabric. The Swissmade idea ultimately failed, mainly because the processing trades involved in the manufacture were vanishing; Swiss tanneries and weaving mills were closing one after the other in quick succession. We made no progress; in fact, we pretty much ended up where we’d started, so we had to seek out a different path. This time, we focused completely on Asia. This opened up new possibilities in terms of material—and that also delivered the breakthrough for our idea—but it also presented us with the challenge of establishing a sustainable, socially responsible production chain in Asia. Once again, we embarked on a costly and exhausting period of development, but this time we were successful by combining greater modesty with the right attitude; we never stopped believing in our common idea. Of course, luck had a role to play too, because everyone needs a little luck to achieve things in life.

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What do you think? Is it possible to actively cultivate or attract luck?

C

K

Christian grins and replies, All you can do is to work on setting up the best possible conditions for luck to take root! …That would have been around four years ago. We finally found the basis for our material in the banana plant (Musa textilis). In the past, its extremely strong fibres have primarily been used for ships’ ropes and special types of paper, and nobody ever considered how useful it could be for other applications. But our development process certainly wasn’t without its low points. After the first year, initial rounds of abrasion-resistance and tensile-strength tests came back from the laboratory with some pretty damning results that were actually worse than for organic cotton canvas. But we weren’t discouraged. Quite the opposite, in fact! We decided to really go for it, extended the testing and development per­iods and began to work in earnest on the first prototypes for a Qwstion bag collection, still influenced by our experiences with the Swissmade products.

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So by this stage at the latest, the idea of design moved back into the spotlight?

C

K

Basically yes, although Qwstion is an idea that’s driven by design through and through. Given that our goal was to optimise utilisation of resources, we faced the general challenge of avoiding issues such as material waste from cutting out. Our objective is zero waste, and all our designs are specifically designed and optimised to that end. The material is completely free from pollutants or toxins. The yarn isn’t bleached, just washed at high temperatures. Because we wanted to create a waterproof material, we took enormous care in developing a natural coating; what we use today is a mixture of vegetable wax (75%) and beeswax (25%). All the other additional elements—the buckles, straps and buttons—are selected in line with Qwstion’s signature style but also, and predominantly, to harmonise with the resources that are used, their origins, and the supply chain as a whole. But the toughest job was to find the right partners, and not just in terms of their technical and quality-related skills. We were seeking partners with the right attitude, who upheld sustainability and social responsibility in their actions and who shared our values. During our first two years of development, it took meticulous care, research, luck! and support from our local partners before we finally tracked them down in various regions throughout Asia. The banana plants are grown in the Philippines, the yarn is spun, dyed and woven in Taiwan and the sewing takes place in China. Bananatex® was the result, after almost three years of development; it’s now the basis for the new Qwstion product line.

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After giving us a brief tour of the premises, Christian serves espresso and water. We sit facing each other at the conference table in this sixth-floor corner room, framed on two sides by huge windows. A ­process chain sketched in marker pen sprawls over the walls. Milestones. As the warm spring sun heats the small room Christian opens one of the windows, only to close it again quickly as cool air pours in. The action is regularly repeated, sometimes by him and sometimes by me.

Christian takes a break and offers us more coffee. We’re already over our allotted time, but by now we’ve got our teeth into the subject. I ask him what he believes design can achieve. He grins at the superfluous question. A whole lot, of course! Design has been the glue holding everything together: the idealistic approach, the development of the material itself, involving the need to explore new, untrodden paths, the manufacturing method, the partners and, finally, the product ideas.

How do you get to grips with the ecological aspect of transport? After all, you’ve developed this completely new, environmentally sound material, but all your production operations are on the other side of the world.

C

K

Of course we can’t manage without transport, but we’ve also researched the problem in great depth. A lot of stuff is written about transport routes and carbon emissions, but there are so few concrete facts. The German Environmental Agency crunched a bunch of data and developed formulae that can be used to work out the emissions for specific means of transport and specific routes. According to their information, transporting goods by cargo ship is around twenty times more efficient than by overland truck. A lot of German brands boast about their products being Made in Europe–but their manufacturing facilities might be in Portugal, say, and that’s around 2000 kilometres away by truck. Our carbon emissions are far lower, even for sea transport from Asia. Anyway, it’s important to put carbon emissions in the right perspective. An air ticket from Zürich to Bali and back generates 16,000 times more carbon than the production and transport of one of our bags, which will have a long and useful life. As consumers, we really need to start by taking a good hard look at our holiday plans or the products we consume on a regular basis—the food we buy, for example—and avoid long journeys, especially by air.

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And what will design stand for in, say, ­twenty years?

C

K

Quality of life, in the broadest possible sense.

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Last autumn you launched the first Qwstion collection made from Bananatex®. What has your experience been so far?

C

K

Bananatex® has really taken off since the launch, and we’ve been deluged with enquiries. The product offers enormous potential, which is clear to many people; Bananatex® can offer an alternative to plastic-based materials anywhere that durable, weatherproof material is needed. Given this, we’re on the right track towards transforming our common vision into reality. We plan to supply ­Bananatex® as a licensed product, an ingredient brand, which will help it to establish a position as an environmentally sound alternative. To do this, we need to publicise the potential of the material in other products that rely on durability and outdoor qualities. As part of this drive, we’ll be presenting an installation at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.

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And what about Qwstion?

C

K

Well, the challenges involved there are by no means small. How will we reach our customers in future, in physical and digital terms? How will we manage the changes taking place in the commercial environment? Many small shops are closing down. Will our store concept take off? We aim to carry not only ­Qwstion products in our supermarkets, but other products along similar sustainable principles as well. We’ll need to address the question of how we will develop and advance the Qwstion collection year by year. And then there’s the issue of where to open new stores; there are already stores in Vienna, Lausanne and Copenhagen as well as Zürich. Lots more questions, all needing us to find the right ­answers.

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And on the subject of questions, I read that you chose Qwstion as your brand name because questions were your starting-point. What did you mean by that?

C

K

We believe that the right questions result in the right answers. It’s important not to be afraid of asking big questions—and one question was absolutely fundamental to us: How can we break through conventional standards?

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So no bold solutions without bold questions?

C

K

That’s it.

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And tomorrow you’re off to Milan?

C

K

Yes. We might see you there; we’re going at the end of the week. Sure, come and see us.

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Christian,

thank you for the interview.

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Our interview slowly comes to an end. The door opens a crack; a colleague has a request, and the photographer, previously working in the studio, is waiting to take portraits. I have the feeling we still had so much to talk about. For Christian, Fabrice, Matthias, Hannes and Sebastian, the past few years have been packed with experiences, disappointments and courageous decisions, so it’s all the more congenial that those aspects haven’t intruded on this early afternoon in Zürich. That must be down to the answers that the five have worked out for themselves, creating an atmosphere of positive anticipation for the future. And that’s hard to find these days.

Moritz, who is accompanying me on the trip, and I return to the ground floor and make a quick detour through the store. Maybe I’ll take something back with me? I browse the displays, examine the bags, see the one I had bought for Veronika in Munich. A friendly salesperson provides us with a flood of information as we leave. I’m lost in thought, my gaze captured by a huge photo mural of banana plants.