With its curved corners 'Auronde' cleared a cultural breach from the straight bedroom furniture of the fifties and sixties. Four models: 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 specified a wider range of finish and accessories, such as bed-lights and a typical sliding table hooked to the side of the bed. Auronde was the first adjustable bed in the consumers market. The system enabled easy assembly and equally easy disassembly and the soft looking design of the plywood frame, spray painted in hip colors Auronde introduced a completely new approach to bedroom furniture. All within his paradigm that the technical and esthetic lifetime of a product have to be in balance in order to achieve a durable product.
Auronde an overnight hit!
'A product designer must be able to bridge extremes. When trends are upcoming, figure out how to transform them into commercially viable products'. When central heating modernized the homes in the sixties, industrial designer Frans de la Haye, sensed a need for more comfort would change the use of the bedroom; reading, relaxing and more than only sleeping only. ' There was nothing on the market yet!'. De La Haye pitched the idea and design to Frans Savenije the manager of Auping in Deventer who he didn’t like it at all. Others in the company did and the Auronde design made it to series production. Since its introduction in 1973 the bed sold over 1 million copies. It is still going strong.
