After completing vocational training as an interior decorator and interning in New York at a furniture and textile publisher, Swen Urban earned his degree in business administration from the University of Cologne. He then worked in the office furniture sector before pursuing a part-time master's program in Austria, which included international stints in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Vancouver. In January 2020, Urban launched his label urban interior project.

Among the product lines he designs in his Dreieich studio and manufactures in Seligenstadt is Coat14: a foam module that serves as the foundation for individual seating pieces. This base is then refined using proprietary, silicon-based Coat14 coating technology. Together, these two components enable everything from one-off designs to full production runs. The material-efficient approach lends itself perfectly to clean lines and timeless aesthetics. The coating itself is skin-friendly, effortless to clean, water-resistant, and UV-stable—making it equally at home indoors or out, whether in reception areas, waiting rooms, offices, schools, kindergartens, or museums. A CNC-controlled cutting machine shapes the foam module to specification, after which the coating is applied by hand to the open-structured foam. The process requires no solvents. The result is a seal that gives the foam a flexible, soft, leather-like finish. This straightforward manufacturing approach allows Urban to deliver custom-tailored furniture in remarkably short timeframes.

www.coat14.de

(Published in Frankfurt 04|20)