Born in Regensburg, Germany in 1978, Katrin Greiling is a furniture designer, interiors architect, and photographer. Raised in Munich, she studied carpentry and cabinet making at Capellagården School of Craft and Design on the island of Öland, Sweden between 1998 and 2000. She then moved to Stockholm, where she studied furniture design and interior architecture at Konstfack, graduating with a Master’s degree in 2005. She launched the multidisciplinary Studio Greiling immediately afterwards in Stockholm and began exploring the globe, working with clients far and wide. Between 2007 and 2010, Greiling was based in Dubai; while there, she worked as an interior architect on projects in Cairo, Shanghai, and Istanbul, and collaborated on projects for clients such as Art Dubai. Simultaneously, she worked as a freelance photographer for a variety of publications. In 2010, she returned to Sweden, continuing her work from Bandhagen, just outside of Stockholm. In 2013, Greiling relocated her studio to Berlin.
A self-described adventurer, Greiling’s designs are characterized by her international perspective and a functionalist aesthetic. Standout projects to date include Greiling’s Master’s thesis project, entitled Forest Aesthetics (2005), which took inspiration from forms found in nature and earned her the 2006 Young Swedish Design award (notably, one of the series’ four pieces was ultimately produced by Offecct); as well as the Bidoun Sofa series (2009), originally developed for the Bidoun magazine lounge at Art Dubai that same year, which was later produced by Droog (and which some have called the first contemporary furniture design to come from the UAE). In 2010, the Bidoun Sofa series also earned Greiling the Furniture of the Year Award from Swedish magazine Sköna Hem. Other important projects include the Design Bar for the 2011 Stockholm Furniture Fair, the interior design of the Freunde von Freunden Apartment for Vitra (Berlin, 2014), in collaboration with Etienne Descloux, as well as exhibition design for Play Nordic at Felleshus (2014), the common house of the five Nordic embassies in Berlin.
As a photographer, Greiling specializes in urban, product, and architectural subjects. She also shoots portraits for a number of international publications, including Elle, Wallpaper, and Archis/OMA, among others.
Her design and photography work has been exhibited internationally at a variety of galleries, fairs, and institutions, including, but not limited to: We work here at Midori.so2 in Tokyo (2015), IMM Cologne (2015); Sight Unseen Offsite (New York, 2014); The Future is Handmade at Kalmar Museum of Art (Sweden, 2014); The Evolution of the Object at Gallery Korn (Stockholm, 2012); Talking Textiles at Milan Design Week, curated by trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano (2011); and the very first edition of Wallpaper Handmade (Milan, 2010).
In parallel to her ongoing design and photographic work, Greiling has worked as a visiting and deputy professor of product design at Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar (HBKsaar, Germany in 2014, 2015, and 2016); a curator for Contemporary Collected in Tokyo (spring and autumn 2012) as well as the Nordic Embassies in Berlin (2014); director of industrial design at Traffic, (Dubai, 2008-2009); interior architect at Limitless (Dubai, 2007-2008); and interior architect at Nyréns Arkitektkontor (Stockholm, 2005-2007).
