Architects get hands-on:

New handle collections from FSB

FSB feels that decisions for or against a given door handle model always need to be taken bearing the surrounding architecture in mind. A space’s idiom, after all, articulates itself in compressed form in a handle’s design. Either the handle becomes a harmonious part of the whole, or it quite deliberately creates a point of contrast.

The very nature of FSB’s dis­course with ar­chi­tects in­di­cates just how deeply en­grained in the company’s think­ing ar­chi­tec­ture is. Not only do ar­chi­tects pre­ferredly opt for prod­ucts from Brakel when equip­ping their build­ings with “func­tional ex­ten­sions of the human hand”. In ad­di­tion, se­lected beacons of the trade get hands-on them­selves with de­light­ful reg­u­lar­ity, cre­at­ing their per­sonal ideal of a door handle for FSB. This is the source of many a noted FSB handle col­lec­tion con­sti­tut­ing “ar­chi­tec­ture en minia­ture” in the best sense of the term and re­flect­ing the design ap­proach of their authors in form and func­tion. FSB is pre­sent­ing three new handle col­lec­tions in this vein at FEN­STER­BAU FRONTALE 2016:

FSB 1242 by John Pawson

British ar­chi­tect John Pawson adeptly varies the design vo­cab­u­lary of a fa­mil­iar mod­ernist door handle – the “Reich Form” handle by Hans Poelzig – and breathes new life into it with his FSB 1242 design in classy bronze. Pawson has in­ter­preted the formal notion of a snugly nestling oval handle cross-sec­tion, an idea that has been re­peat­edly mod­i­fied for almost a hundred years now, with the aid of well-pro­por­tioned di­men­sion­ing. An FSB 1243 variant ap­proved for emer­gency exit devices under EN 179 is avail­able along with the FSB 1242 model for stan­dard doors. Com­plet­ing the col­lec­tion are frame-door handles with and without crank­ing and a window handle.

FSB 1244 by gmp · ar­chi­tects von Gerkan, Marg and Part­ners

True to the adage that simple is (gen­er­ally) right, gmp have de­signed a door lever handle with par­tic­u­larly pared-down cre­den­tials. Their FSB 1244 door handle model in Alu­minium or Stain­less Steel in­cor­po­rates the sim­plest of geo­met­ric forms.

Its linear front face cites the cur­va­ture of the shank and is ter­mi­nated by a rec­tan­gu­lar section. The grip’s cross-sec­tion is made up of half a circle and half a square, a com­pound shape that de­liv­ers plea­sur­able grip­ping sub­stance for the hand. The fore­fin­ger furrow has been fash­ioned as a lambent tran­si­tion from handle to shank that ensures ideal guid­ance as the handle is taken hold of. The FSB 1244 model for stan­dard doors is sup­ple­mented by FSB 1245, an EN 179-com­pli­ant variant for emer­gency exit devices, plus a frame-door lever handle with or without crank­ing and a window handle.

FSB 1246 by Graft

The FSB 1246 lever-han­dle model com­bines a modern design idiom with well-rounded er­gonom­ics. Its narrow radii and gen­er­ously di­men­sioned arch-overs create points of sculp­tural mo­men­tum and con­trast that render this Graft-au­thored model, uni­formly pared down as it is, as aes­thet­i­cally ex­cit­ing as it is long-lived. Its pleas­antly haptic grip section issues or­gan­i­cally from a cylin­dri­cal shank and its clean geo­met­ric lines will suit a great many ar­chi­tec­tural con­texts. The FSB 1246 lever handle for stan­dard doors is sup­ple­mented by an EN 179 variant for emer­gency exit devices, FSB 1247. Also avail­able are a window handle as well as frame-door lever handles with or without a cranked section.

FSB 1232 – handle col­lec­tion for schools and day nurs­eries

The pro­vi­sions of the DGUV (German Statu­tory Ac­ci­dent In­sur­ance) specify minimum radii for door lever handles fitted in build­ings reg­u­larly fre­quented by chil­dren as an ac­ci­dent pre­ven­tion measure. This pre­cludes the use of strik­ingly angular handle designs in most cases. It was the degree of visual same­ness this has given rise to in door handles that spurred the de­vel­op­ment of FSB 1232. They aimed to come up with a door lever handle model ful­fill­ing all re­quire­ments stip­u­lated for door handles in public build­ings. Drawing on the primary shapes of the square and circle, FSB 1232 in Alu­minium marries com­pli­ance with DGUV pro­vi­sions to com­pelling er­gonom­ics and ap­peal­ing visuals. It can be fitted to both stan­dard doors and emer­gency exit devices. The FSB 1232 col­lec­tion also em­braces frame-door lever handles with and without crank­ing and a window handle.

Franz Schneider
Brakel GmbH + Co KG

Karin Padinger
Nieheimer Straße 38
33034 Brakel
Germany
Phone: +49 5272 608-201