2000-2020: Leo Lübke from COR in conversation

The North Rhine-Westphalian furniture manufacturer COR is known for sophisticated home and office furniture. For 25 years, Leo Lübke has been steering the fortunes of the company, which his father founded in 1954. A good time to look back - and forward. A conversation about entrepreneurial tasks, chrome and white leather, and democratic design.

by May-Britt Frank-Grosse, 01.12.2020

We are sitting in the COR Haus in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, the showroom of the family-owned company, which houses not only the current collections for home and office furniture, but also an exhibition of products from seven decades of the company's history. Just the right place to talk to Leo Lübke about the past, present and future of living and working.

Mr. Lübke, you have been Managing Director of the COR brand since 1995. What challenges did you face back then?
One of the challenges of taking over a company as a young person was that you naturally want to change things. And a company is also expected to undergo a kind of fresh cell cure through a young managing director. On the other hand, I also wanted to preserve the good things. In some companies, you have to start a revolution to break something open. Fortunately, that wasn't the case at COR.

Leo Lübke took over the management of the upholstered furniture manufacturer COR in 1995 Which designers did you work with at that time?
I continued to work with many designers with whom my father had already worked. For example, with Peter Maly, who started working for us at the end of the sixties. He later designed not only furniture but also trade fair stands for us and accompanied many productions. We owe him a lot. Nevertheless, I have also tried to bring younger designers on board. Holger Janke, for example, he designed the Fino chair. Or kressel + schelle from Hamburg, who developed the Trinus armchair. The armchair is still in our collection. A little later, we started collaborating with Studio Vertijet and jehs + laub.

What style did the interior design industry represent at the end of the nineties?
For that you have to look further back. Old advertising photos make it obvious: In the fifties, people sat austerely and delicately on small cocktail chairs. Then, in the seventies, the design became casual and lush. It radiated: We own the world - and the moon. In the eighties, the Bauhaus theme returned critically. A liberation from the functionalism debate took place. Instead of "less is more," the motto was now "less is war" and "form follows fun. But what was intended as a manifesto of the Memphis Group quickly developed into a fashion trend. We suffered for a long time from this colorful, lavish, too playful and almost Mickey Mouse-like style. It soon became unbearable. And then came the nineties. They were characterized by reduction and designers like Jasper Morrison with his Moca Chair. A manifesto of simplicity that triggered a lot. The nineties also saw the rise of high-tech architecture, with lots of glass and steel. This architectural language has also transferred to interior design.

Can you please describe that in more detail?
Back then, leather was always black, dark brown or sometimes completely white. That was cool: white tiles, chrome and white leather - today you immediately start to freeze. Back then it was en vogue! Today it has to be more homely and cozy - right down to the foams. Chairs at the dining table used to be thinly padded, today they resemble armchairs.

Did people have different ideas about living at the beginning of the 21st century than they do today?
That's always changing a bit. Today, furniture has to be at least very homely. Not only in terms of comfort. You don't want to show metal anymore. Wood comes back, but is interpreted in a modern way. Of course there is something behind it: the longing for naturalness, for warm materials.

Exhibition area home furniture - sofa landscape Pilotis It is the year 2020. The digital transformation is in full swing. What impact will it have on furnishing styles? Is living still a regional topic or already globalized in social-media terms?
There is almost no area that has not been affected by digitalization. I think that through the Internet and its constant availability, everything is available on the one hand. On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves all the more, why are we doing it this way?
I think we are there to create something that people can stick to. Living is something very personal. You go home and you want to have your peace, to be for yourself. We have to contribute to that with our furniture. That you don't buy into a style, but can create your own world with furniture. Of course, this is never independent of what is currently in fashion. But you don't have to be infected by that. We think for ourselves what we think is right.

Exhibition area home furniture - Trio sofas With Trio and Conseta you have kept products in the collection that were developed in the sixties and seventies. Is this a sign of consistency in the trend carousel?
Actually, the furniture industry does offer consistency to the customer. Nevertheless, manufacturers are always eager to bring something new, even though it may not really be new at all. So we have to take a self-critical look at who we're doing this for. A customer goes to a furniture store every 20 years. So with every new product, we ask ourselves: What can this do better than the old one? We try to make furniture that is very reduced and yet has character. Furniture that is simple - archetypes.

Finally, let's look to the future. How will we live and work - or will we do both at the same time?
As we've already seen over the last 20 years, the transitions are becoming fluid. Right now - due to the corona crisis - this tendency has become even stronger. But even if it looks today as if we will only work from home in the future - at some point people will say again: Here is my living space, the place where I can retreat, alone or with the family. And this is my workplace, where I can exchange ideas with colleagues and concentrate fully on my work. I am convinced that the spatial alternation between work in the office and relaxation at home is healthy and important.

About Leo Lübke:
Born in 1963 in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Westphalia, Leo Lübke first completed a bank apprenticeship before studying industrial design at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts in Kiel. During his studies, he made the decision to join his father's company and took over the management of the upholstered furniture manufacturer COR in 1995. The company, founded in 1954 by his father Helmut e, manufactures with 220 employees exclusively at the Rheda-Wiedenbrück site in the district of Gütersloh.

PHOTO © COR seating furniture
© COR seating furniture

But for a piece of furniture to fulfill all these qualities, a lot of people must have done a lot of things very right beforehand. They must have, for example, selected the best materials. They must have processed and tested them according to the highest standards of craftsmanship. And before all of this, there is the clever design of a designer who anticipates everything that will make sitting, relaxing and living a pleasure for years to come. This is the kind of furniture we make at COR.

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