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Hans Roericht

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Hans Roericht
Part of a black and white publicity shot of a half-smiling man in shirtsleeves, looking directly at camera. He holds a mildly eccentric or faux-glamour pose, lying on his side with his head supported on his hand, and one knee akimbo (in the original picture, where he was posing with his crockery design). He has short, dark, receding hair, and dark, expressive eyes.
Roericht in 1960
Born(1932-11-15)15 November 1932
Schönkirch, Prussia, Germany
Died(2025-12-08)8 December 2025 (aged 93)
Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
EducationUlm School of Design
Occupations
  • Designer
  • Academic teacher
Organizations

Hans Albrecht "Nick" Roericht (15 November 1932 – 8 December 2025) was a German designer. He designed the TC100 stacking tableware for his thesis at the Ulm School of Design in 1959, which became iconic. He was an influential teacher as professor at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin from 1973 to 2002, heading a faculty for industrial design.

Life and career

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TC100 stacking tableware

Roericht was born in Schönkirch (now Gądkowice, Poland) on 15 November 1932.[1] He studied at the Ulm School of Design from 1955, when the institution was opened,[2] to 1959.[3] He later said what he learned from his teachers Tomás Maldonado, Werner Blaser, Konrad Wachsmann, Hans Gugelot, and Georg Leowald (de).[2] He designed a set of stacking tableware for his 1959 dissertation there. He missed well-designed tableware in the school, and focused on robustness, stackability and dishwasher suitability. A trade magazine presented the design on its cover and devoted a detailed article to it.[2] Produced from 1961,[4] it was later exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[5][4][6]

Roericht worked at the Ulm School of Design collaborating first with Leowald in 1960, then with Otl Aicher.[7] There, he designed Lufthansa's in-flight tableware with Otl.[4][8][9]: 28  From 1961, he joined Otl in Munich in the team to design visual identity for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.[5] With the team, he designed key elements such as the plastic shell seats in the Olympic Stadium that became part of the Games identity.[4] He founded his own office in 1967, named Produktentwicklung Roericht, working on designs for Bosch, Loewe, Rodenstock, Siemens and Wilkhahn. He offered interdisciplinary investigations of possible spaces, visualising the cultural environment prior to solutions. He designed for Wilkhahn the standing seat "Stitz" and "Picto", the first recyclable office chair.[4]

From 1966 to 1967, Roericht taught as a professor at the Ohio State University.[10] Roericht taught as a professor at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin from 1973[4][10] to his retirement in 2002, integrating theory, aesthetics, craftsmanship and, reflecting social responsibility, the "human context".[5] Twenty of his students became professors of design.[4]

Roericht died in Ulm[1] on 8 December 2025, at the age of 93.[1][4][5] He is remembered for his view on design as a "holistic problem-solving instrument", not decoration alone but serving people in everyday life and ecological realities.[5] An archive of his library and works is held by the Ulm School of Design.[2][11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Hans (Nick) Roericht". Südwest Presse (in German). 9 December 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Heinrich, Viktoria Lea (15 November 2022). "Hans (Nick) Roericht: Designer With Clarity and Consistency". Design Perspectives (in German). German Design Council. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  3. ^ "Hans (Nick) Roericht". hfgulmarchiv.de. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Hans (Nick) Roericht: Designer With Clarity and Consistency". Design Perspectives. German Design Council. 10 December 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e "In Memory of Hans "Nick" Roericht". Designforschung. 9 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  6. ^ "Nick Roericht Stacking Tableware (model TC 100) 1959". Museum of Modern Art. 2025.
  7. ^ "Artikel-Detail – Rat für Formgebung". German Design Council (in German). 4 December 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  8. ^ Rinker, Dagmar (24 March 2024). "otl aicher 100 / Design beflügelt". otlaicher.de (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  9. ^ Crone, Joerg (9 November 1998). "Die visuelle Kommunikation der Gesinnung". University of Freiburg (dissertation) (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Hans (Nick) Roericht Timeline". roericht.de. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  11. ^ Heinrich, Viktoria Lea (November 2022). "Design als "Holistisches Problem-Lösungs-Instrument"". gestalt-error-409.de (interview) (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2025.
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