Designer Feature: Erwin Hauer

Some of the most exquisite and modern uses of concrete have come from the Studio of Erwin Hauer. Hauer, an Austrian-born sculptor, began to install these light-diffusing screens in the 50′s, making the concrete forms by hand. His goal was, and is, to create ”Continuity and potential infinity.”

His continua screens are more than just beautiful decoration. Hauer labored over the designs with a sculptor’s intensity and perfectionism, slowly shaping and reshaping molds by hand until the individual modules satisfied his desire to translate intangible notions about infinity into stubborn three-dimensional reality. When repeated across a wall or screen, these modules appear to flow seamlessly together, like a vast interlocking web. “This is my obsession,” Hauer says. “Tension in a surface—it’s almost like a life force.” In this new digital age of production, it would appear that the sky's the limit.