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Simone Hölzl and Christine Urech have known and appreciated each other for 15 years now and complement each other perfectly. They also share the same values and beliefs about what makes a good product.
A long-lasting, timeless product has both a simple and unique design and is made with high-quality materials in the best production.
You can see from the biographies below that the two designers are also very exciting personalities. Take your time, it’s worth it.
Simone Hölzl
Hold on, take a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and off you go! Simone gets on her bike and rides swiftly down the mountain to Kitzbühel. Her route from the family home on the mountain to town. In winter, the same with the sledge or skis. She left the mountain town, world-famous for the Hahnenkamm ski race, at the young age of 18 to go out into the world. She decided to take the pre-university course at the ESAG in Paris. French was a foreign language for her, and her overpriced room could barely fit her small bed. But she went through with it.
The motivation for this was certainly the preceding surfing holiday on the coast of Spain, where she met the nice Swiss surf instructor Martin. It was not to remain just a summer flirt and they were able to keep in touch even during her stay in Paris. As soon as Simone had the pre-university course in her pocket, she moved to Zurich, together with him. That was in 2005 and since 2020 the two have been happily married and live in Zug.
On various levels, it was a stroke of luck that Simone had signed up for the surf camp back then. Otherwise she would hardly have come to Switzerland, would not have studied industrial design at the FHNW and would not have made friends with Christine during her studies. Exactly, the beginning of a friendship with added value!
After her studies, she moved to London for two internships, where she was able to gain valuable experience at Softroom Architects and the renowned design studio of Barber Osgerby, enjoy the nightlife and refresh her English at the same time. Her focus on furniture and interior design became more and more solid and she was able to further develop it at the product and furniture studio Hannes Wettstein (today Hürlemann AG) in Zurich. But she wanted more and decided to do a Masters in Product Design at Ecal in Lausanne. In addition to her further education, she worked in the furniture business and planning office Holm AG in Zurich and acquired important aspects of the retail sales process. Although Simone has lived in Switzerland for what feels like half an eternity, she still speaks her mother tongue. Even if slightly softened, so that she is well understood. During a first exchange, some Swiss switch to High German, but this is not necessary. Simone is well trained with Christine, her Bernese business partner, and understands almost all the local dialects. Simone acquired numerous qualities that are an asset to Niuform GmbH: waiting for the perfect wave and catching it, being able to communicate across four languages and having a flair for that certain something.
Christine Urech
Taking a deep breath of fresh mountain air and enjoying the Bernese mountain scenery; for Christine, who loves nature, there is hardly anything better. In winter, the native Bernese can often be found “whizzing down” in Grindelwald with some piece of sports equipment. In the past, she was able to spend less time in the mountains because of her successful curling career. In every free minute she was either training or out in the world at tournaments. In the tactical game, stone after stone was precisely placed by her. In 2014, the passion and discipline for the sport was rewarded with the World Championship title (Saint John, Canada) and European Championship title (Champéry, Switzerland). On the winning wave, she immediately took the second world championship title with Team Flims in 2016 (Swift Current, Canada). At the peak of her curling career, Christine says goodbye as a player and switches to the coaching side. With full commitment, she coaches the elite women’s team around Elena Stern and leads them to the Swiss championship. Christine loves the team sport with the granite stones. Whether as a player, as a coach, as a commentator or as Competition Manager for the curling event at the 2021 Winter Universiade, the sport is a constant companion.
Another passion is travelling: Together with her partner, she has upgraded a ’91 VW bus and drives it around Europe as often as possible to discover the most beautiful places. The highlight so far has been the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Under blue skies, with a cosy hat and warm jacket, making fresh pancakes over the gas cooker by the sea. Or enjoying a gin and tonic with ice, coarsely grated pepper and two slices of cucumber while playing a round of boules. That’s where her heart goes up.
Professionally, Christine’s original goal was to train as a graphic designer. But during her BMS in design, it turned out that she had an even greater fascination with 3D objects. That’s why her lecturer recommended studying industrial design. When she found out that this also included designing furniture, Christine was hooked. Registered, passed the exam, got admission to the course! One of the most important milestones for Christine, too. There she not only met a new professional passion, but also her great love, Mario. Together they have a wonderful daughter and are at home in Lucerne.
And along the way, Simone was also involved in the aforementioned studies. Even though it is sometimes difficult to communicate in Bernese and Tyrolean, the two of them had a great time together right from the start. After successfully completing her studies, Christine went to Copenhagen for an internship at Johannes Torpe Studios. Characterised by overtime, fast food and nightlife afterwards, it was an incredibly educational time. The style-conscious people and the Nordic city still inspire Christine today. Apart from the Danish language, she takes a full backpack home to Switzerland. Here she continues to develop her furniture design knowledge with Christophe Marchand, and on the side she works at the ZHDK as an assistant and designs countless exhibitions.
Zurich was good, but she liked Lucerne better. As a Bernese, it was probably a bit too fast for her there. She still feels at home near Lake Lucerne and the nearby mountains. Having settled in Lucerne, she now puts her heart and soul into her own company, «niuform».
Both her fine feeling for shapes, colours and materials and her solution-oriented approach to the design process are a jackpot for the company. With her focussed manner, Christine also achieves top results in design, just as she does in world-class sport. Parallel to «niuform», Christine keeps the design mediator role in the interior design course at the HSLU.