Fred Lowen

Fred Lowen AM (1919–2005), born Fritz Karl Heinz Lowenstein, was a German-Australian designer and an inductee into the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame.[1]

Biography

Lowen was born as Fritz Karl Heinz Loewenstein in 1919 in Upper Silesia,[2] then a part of Germany. Being Jewish, he fled Germany in 1938 to Belgium. In May 1940 he again fled the Nazis and made it to England. From there he was transported to Australia on the HMT Dunera arriving in Sydney on 6 September 1940. His father was Karl Loewenstein, later deported to Minsk Ghetto and Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Pair of FLER SC55 Armchairs.

Starting in September 1945, Lowen designed and made wooden salad bowls, trays and lazy susans with Ernest Rodeck under the name of FLER.[1] He manufactured a Fred Ward-designed chair for the Myer department store in Melbourne, Victoria. Between 1955 and 1958, Lowen designed the SC55 and SC58,[3] the Aluminium Shell Chair, mahogany fold-out extension table and cane back chairs. The Narvik dining and lounge ranges were released in 1961,[3] the Fleronde (1964/65), dining setting (1966/67), desk and chair for the Australian Exhibition at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,[1] and Flerena in 1968.

Lowen started Twen in 1968[1] and designed the Twen-1 range (1968) and Twen-2 in 1969. In 1970 Lowen designed the T-21 range and model T-4. In 1972 Twen was reborn as Tessa. The T-6 (1973), the T-8 range (with and without armrests) designed in 1976, and the T-9 followed. In the 1980s Lowen designed the Delmont (1980), Sarina (1981) and Sling (1981).

In May 1987 Lowen became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[4] He wrote an autobiography Fred Lowen: Dunera Boy, Furniture Designer, Artist, which was published in 2001.[5] He died in Melbourne in 2005.

gollark: Regardless of what choice you make, the contents of the boxes are fixed, thus pick mildly more money. This probably sounds unsmart to you, which is either because you (and the server generally) are/is right, or because you fell into one side and now think it's obvious.
gollark: As I said, in general apparently both sides are split pretty evenly, have fairly convincing arguments each way, and both think that their answer is obvious and the other is wrong.
gollark: Perhaps we are HIGHLY smart unlike random internet people and OBVIOUSLY picked the correct® answer, or perhaps we just hold similar philosophical/intellectual/whatever views which make us more inclined to one-box.
gollark: I mean, maybe the average internet rabble is just bad at understanding what "perfect prediction" means, but you could probably argue that it's "rational" at the time of choosing to take both, even if it's... acausally...? worse for you. Nobody here appears to have.
gollark: It's paradoxical because it breaks decision theories somewhat.

References
  1. "DIA Design Hall of Fame". Design Institute of Australia web site. Design Institute of Australia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  2. Cappello, Anthony (19 May 2001). "Books: Dunera Boy, by Fred Lowen". News Weekly. National Civic Council. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  3. "1950's + 1960's: The Scandinavian Influence". Australian Made Furniture. Furnishing Industry Association of Australia. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  4. "Search Australian Honours - Simple Search". It's an Honour - Australia Celebrating Australians. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Government of Australia. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  5. Lowen, Fred (2001?), Fred Lowen: Dunera Boy, Furniture Designer, Artist, Prendergast Publishing, Castlemaine Victoria, ISBN 0 9587850 3 1


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