Friederike Delius of STUDIO BERG is one of the eleven designers behind Matter of Course, a Berlin collective of independent women designers founded in 2021. Each of them runs her own studio, making furniture, lights, rugs, textiles, porcelain and glass. Together they work where design, art and craft meet, and share their ideas through exhibitions, publications and talks.
They share a set of values: keeping traditional crafts alive and developing them further, using resources responsibly, paying everyone involved in production fairly, and making durable objects with a close relationship to their materials.
How it started
The collective grew out of the pandemic. When a joint show at Milan Design Week fell through, the designers did a photo shoot together instead: Beyond Objects, at Villa Heike in Berlin with the photographer Anne Deppe and the stylist Nici Theuerkauf. It appeared in the October 2021 issue of AD Germany as „Die Kraft des Kollektivs“, an article by Claudia Simone Hoff.
A month earlier, from 11 to 13 September 2021, the collective had opened its first exhibition, Balancing Acts, at Friends Space of Friends of Friends in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Curated by Anna Carnick and Wava Carpenter of Anava Projects, it showed stacked, suspended and juxtaposed works in six playful scenes about collaboration and finding balance. Among many other pieces, STUDIO BERG showed the FOLDWORK RACK.
Exhibitions
In June 2022, Matter of Course went abroad for the first time with ICH und DU at 5VIE during Milan Design Week, where STUDIO BERG launched CANDY. In January 2025, the collective made its debut at Maison&Objet Paris, where STUDIO BERG launched JELLO. In spring 2026, it showed GROWTH in the spaces of KMB in Berlin, during Gallery Weekend and Berlin Design Week.
Photo shoots
Anne Deppe and Nici Theuerkauf have photographed and styled the collective from the start, from Beyond Objects at Villa Heike in 2021 to Collective Spaces, shot in 2024 at Wilhelm Hallen, a former iron foundry in Berlin.
photo by Anne Deppe, styling by Nici Theuerkauf
photo by Anne Deppe, styling by Nici Theuerkauf
In the press
Magazines have followed the collective from the start: AD Germany (2021), Schöner Wohnen (2021 and 2025), FAZ Magazin (2022), falstaff LIVING (2022), WOHN!DESIGN (2022), Diseño Interior (2025) and ELLE Decoration (2025).
The eleven designers
- Heike Buchfelder
- Friederike Delius (STUDIO BERG)
- Joa Herrenknecht
- Milena Kling
- Mareike Lienau (LYK Carpet)
- Simone Lüling (ELOA)
- Claudia Schoemig (Schoemig Porzellan)
- Laura Straßer
- Elisa Strozyk
- Nicolene van der Walt
- Carolin Zeyher (Frau Caze)
GROWTH at Gallery Weekend · GROWTH at Berlin Design Week · About STUDIO BERG