Created by an anonymous German design collective, The Black Cube is the result of a vision of the perfect product. In early 2010, this collective contacted three students of the Köln International School of Design, Manuel Krings, Marc Pfaff and Andreas Unteidig and asked them to find ways of promoting their idea and explaining it to a larger audience.

The beautifully crafted and omnifunctional cube was publically presented at The Present exhibition in New York in December 2010. Before this however, the students asked established designers, intellectuals and design critics to assess the cube. One of these was Swiss graphics designer Ruedi Baur.

Its functions completely have to be invented. Thus the user, the person who buys this object, plays an essential role in its overall conception. The user is not forced to do what the object dictates. He or she is the participatory inventor of its respective applications. There is no gap between the intellectual conception and the product itself.

Some of these designers discuss very interesting insights into The Black Cube, which really get you thinking. Will you look at a cube in the same way again? Is this cube an overdue revelation in modernisation?

Photography by Paul Gisbrecht.