Pirnar | Magnifica

Crafting emotion into a door handle

Pirnar set out to create a new signature handle for their most exclusive entrance doors. At this level, functionality and aesthetics alone wouldn't be enough. We needed to define an experience around the desires of Pirnar’s high-end customers and turn it into something unmistakably Pirnar.

Services:

Opportunity mapping
User & market analysis
Product experience vision
Concept development
Industrial design
Prototyping & testing
Industrialization support

In collaboration with:

Ernest Bevc

At a glance

Opportunity

Reframe a new high-end handle as an opportunity to enrich the daily experience with a Pirnar door. Developing the entire handle from scratch, including its mechanism, gave us the freedom to rethink how form, touch, movement and technology could create a distinctive Pirnar experience.

Solution

A distinctive, recognizable handle conceived as part of the door rather than an addition to it. Sculptural form, tactile details and refined interactions evoke admiration and pride, while integrated technology introduces new layers of safety and reassurance.

Impact

Launched in 2025, Magnifica became a signature feature of the door interior and a recognizable differentiator within Pirnar’s premium offering. Its design went on to receive the German Design Award and BIG SEE Product Design Award.

“Design and innovation have always been central to Pirnar. In this project, our collaboration helped us forge our values, our customers’ desires and our brand narrative into a single impressive product and user experience.”

Gašper Pirnar | Pirnar | CEO

Turning an everyday object into a source of inspiration

Understanding Pirnar’s premium customers, it was clear we had to aim beyond a conventional handle. We looked beyond functional needs to the desires that could make this everyday interaction feel meaningful and the product genuinely worthy of Pirnar’s highest-end doors.

Pirnar aluminium double entrance door, one leaf open, on a modern house

What it should feel like before what it should look like

Before developing concepts, we translated these desires into a clear product experience vision. We mapped where the handle could create value across form, touch, light, security and interaction, then defined the qualities the final experience should deliver.

This gave the project a shared direction before we committed to a form. Instead of starting with what the handle should look like or what was technically possible, we started with what people should experience and feel, then designed around that ambition.

Making the envisioned experience tangible

The experience vision guided the design from the overall anatomy of the handle down to its smallest details. Magnifica was developed as a combination of visual, tactile and interactive qualities, each contributing to the sense of admiration, reassurance and lasting quality we wanted the product to create.

Bronze Pirnar Magnifica handle on a light door in soft daylight

Transparent view of the Magnifica handle mechanism on a black background

A proprietary mechanism gave us the freedom to rethink the handle’s anatomy. The stem becomes a firm, monolithic growth from the door leaf and remains fixed, while only the handle rotates. This creates a deliberate contrast between strength and lightness, helping the product feel integrated with the door rather than added to it.

Magnifica handle on a dark door, shown moving as it is pressed

Close-up of the curved bronze underside of the Magnifica handle

Close-up of the Magnifica rosette with its fine knurled ring

The experience continues in the hand. Curved surfaces provide comfort, while decisive lines and surface transitions leave a distinct tactile impression with every touch. The intention was not only to make the handle pleasant to use, but recognizable through the way it feels.

At the centre, the Luminous Core makes reassurance part of the interaction. The illuminated halo communicates the security state of the door at a glance, while the core itself provides an alternative way of opening the door with a simple press. Even the light was designed in detail, with a subtle pattern emerging through the structure of the lens when viewed up close.

Magnifica handle with a lit ring on a dark entrance door

Bronze Magnifica handle seen from the front on a dark background

Cast stainless steel and Pirnar’s in-house PVD process give the handle the durability expected from a product intended to last for decades, while a selection of signature finishes allows Magnifica to take on different characters within Pirnar interiors.