Écal creates ’Low-Tech Factory’ for Designers’ Saturday

Since its launch in 1987, the biannual Designers’ Saturday - held in the small Swiss town of Langenthal - has established itself as one of the more diverting small fairs on the design calendar. Design companies, designers and design schools exhibit in various production sites across the town and the emphasis is very much on manufacturing and design in action.

’Low-Tech Factory’, this edition’s presentation from Écal, takes the idea and plays with it with a good deal of wit and imagination. Students of the college’s Industrial Design and Product course have come up with a variety of ingenious and mostly man-powered manufacturing machines. ’Oncle Sam’ creates popcorn kernel by kernel and in spectacular fashion while ’Rocking-Knit’, as the name suggests, is a rocking chair that knits hats. Watch the film to see them and more low-tech charmers at work.

Designers’ Saturday takes place from 3-4 November