Branched Offices by Projectiles

Branched Offices by Projectiles

This cluster of offices in northern France are raised above the ground like treehouses, supported by a forest of roughly sawn wooden columns.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Designed by Paris studio Projectiles as an extension to a carpenter’s workshop, the string of buildings is sandwiched between two existing warehouses and creates a bridge between them.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Bridges also connect the blocks to each other, while an external staircase provides a link between the offices and a picnic area below.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

One of the six blocks steps down to ground level to serve as an entrance lobby, containing a second staircase crafted entirely from square-cut wooden beams.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

If treehouses are your thing then see all our stories about them here.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Photography is by Vincent Fillon.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Here’s some more information from Projectiles:


Branched Offices

Épône, 78

In May 2009, the agency Projectiles was contacted by MD, a carpenter quite unlike any other.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Art collector, passionate about sailing boats, he entrusted Reza Azard, Hervé Bouttet and Daniel Mészàros with the creation of an office complex as an extension to his workshop.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

At the time, two warehouses of 1,500 square metres were situated twenty metres apart. The back of the parcel was free.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

The extension that the three men proposed is introduced between the two existing volumes within the authorised outline limitation, joins with the two warehouses and branches out towards the far end of the parcel.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

The different volumes, perched four metres on top of roughly-hewn beams, are placed freely within the authorised limitation. They are connected by interior footbridges.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

The construction is entirely built in wood,including the framework. The carpentry consists of a unique window dimension, sometimes fixed, sometimes opening.

 

Branched Offices by Projectiles

The complex is immersed in an arboretum made up of twenty trees of a dozen different species, offering blossom throughout the year. This architecture introduced into the heart of an ordinary industrial estate, represents a veritable heterotopia.

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Client:
Séquoia Company
Woodwork – Layout

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Architects:
Projectiles, architects
Reza Azard – Hervé Bouttet – Daniel Mészáros
Serge Titier, économist
EVP, structures consultants

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Surface: 450 m2
Budget: 840 000 € (excl. tax)

Branched Offices by Projectiles

Schedule:
Study may 2009 – june 2010
Construction site july 2010 – may 2011
Completion summer 2011

The Commentator

Documenting filmmaker Jørgen Leth in a cycling film by Brendt Barbur

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Turning the camera on famed sports documentarian Jørgen Leth, Bicycle Film Festival founder Brendt Barbur embarked on the film project “The Commentator” to trace the backstory to his groundbreaking 1976 film “A Sunday in Hell“. Barbur follows Leth through the grueling course at the Paris-Roubaix cycling race, along with several crews led by revered director Albert Maysles—whom Barbur calls the greatest living cinematographer—surf-world documentarian Patrick Trefz, photographer and artist Brian Vernor and photographer Stefan Ruiz. The Commentator lives as a Kickstarter campaign, so you can help make it happen by donating—$3,000 will get you a private dinner for six with the Barbur, Maysles, the film crew and Blonde Redhead (who created the film’s score), among others.

We caught up with Barbur to discuss the project—which will shoot on race day, 8 April 2012—his relationship with cycling greats and subtlety in filmmaking.

How did this all get started?

The first year of the Bicycle Film Festival, we played “A Sunday in Hell”, which was a very old print and all ripped up. We had a sold-out show, people couldn’t get in and I was really excited. Jorgen called me and thanked me for screening his film. He’s a man who shares three passions with me: movies, art and bicycles.

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What do see as Jørgen Leth’s contribution to sports documentaries and film in general?

I interviewed Jørgen in 2003 at Sundance, and he said that cycling “deserved better than lousy sports journalism…It deserved to be sung about.” I think that “A Sunday in Hell” sings about it. They had about 30 cameras—this is 1976, mind you—and they didn’t talk just about who’s going to win. They went and showed you the subtleties of things.

There’s a really great scene in “A Sunday in Hell” where Eddie Merckx—he’s probably the greatest cyclist ever—gets off his bike and asks one of the rival team car mechanics if he could have a tool to fix his saddle. He sits there right next to the car, adjusting his saddle really slowly as he’s casually chatting with them. All those subtle things Jørgen has a knack for finding. He has a kind of “listening” camera.

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Albert Maysles is a major name in film. Tell us a bit about his involvement.

Albert Maysles is the spiritual leader of this project, and maybe documentary film and film in general. The other night we had a dinner here, and Albert held court for a little bit and said the reason he makes films is to make friends. This is the director of Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens—some of the most iconic documentary films ever made. When we shoot The Commentator he’s going to be following Jørgen along with our producer and a camera assist.

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What will you be looking for at Paris-Roubaix?

I don’t even want to just get the race. If we don’t get the race at all, I’m okay. I want to get the bar—there are bars full of people watching it, and they’re drinking Belgian beer, and they have their flags. There’s a whole scene for miles and miles of people. There’s a big forest, there’s this cafe. The motorcycle riders are taking these back roads, and they’re going 100mph on the side roads to get ahead of the race and capture it with still photography.

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What’s it like to work with these big names?

It’s an honor of mine to direct this film—in fact it’s a little bit nerve-wracking. But it’s not because everyone’s so into this project. We’re all doing this out of passion for the project itself. An Oscar-nominated filmmaker emailed me and asked if they could meet up with us and shoot with us. It’s kind of like the spirit of the Bicycle Film Festival. People just want to make it happen.

Watch the video to find out more about the project.


Alésia Museum visitor’s centreby Bernard Tschumi Architects

Slideshow: a visitor’s centre with an ornate herringbone facade by Bernard Tschumi Architects opens this weekend on an archaeological site in central France.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

The cylindrical centre occupies the same position held by the Roman army during a historic battle against the Gauls over 2000 years ago and its wooden exterior references the timber fortifications that would have been constructed nearby.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

A second museum building, contrastingly clad in stone, is also being constructed a kilometre away across the battlefield and the pair will together comprise the Alésia Museum complex.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

Exhibitions inside the visitor’s centre will portray the events of the battle and its aftermath, while the second building will present artefacts unearthed from the site.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

A garden of grass and trees covers the roof of the visitor’s centre and will be accessible to visitors.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

See more stories by Bernard Tschumi Architects here, including a bright red pedestrian bridge.

Photography above is by Christian Richters, while photography below is by Iwan Baan.

Here’s some more text from Bernard Tschumi Architects:


Opening Day Set for Alésia Museum, First Phase

Part of a museum complex designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects, a new interpretive center on the site of the historic Battle of Alésia will open in a formal ceremony on March 23, 2012.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

Located in Burgundy, France, the building marks the position of the Roman army, under Julius Caesar, and its encampment surrounding the Gauls under Vercingetorix in 52 B.C. The building will be open to the public starting on March 26th.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

Tschumi’s design features a cylindrical building with an exterior envelope made of wood, a material that references the Roman fortifications of the era, some of which are reconstructed in an area a short walk from the building.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

The roof of the building is planted with low shrubs and trees, so as to minimize the visual impact of the building when seen from the hill above (the historical position of the Gauls).

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

The materiality and sustainable elements of the building are meant to make visitors aware of the surrounding landscape, which appears much as it would have 2000 years ago.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

A second building on the hill will mark the location of the Gauls, and has a similar geometry, but is clad in stone, evoking its trenched position.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

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The interpretive center will contain exhibits and interactive displays that contextualize the events of the Battle of Alésia and its aftermath.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

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The displays are intended to reach a broader audience than a museum, with a range of media and programs for all ages.

Alésia Museum Visitor Centre by Bernard Tschumi Architects

The second building will act as a more traditional museum, with a focus on found objects and artifacts unearthed from the site. The second building is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

M Building by Stephane Maupin

Shiny corrugated metal clads the two cascading stacks of apartments that make up this block in Paris by architect Stephane Maupin.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

The two symmetrical sides of the M Building slope down at 45-degree angles towards a small central courtyard.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

Some of the 20 apartments have gabled roofs, while some open onto balconies that face one another rather than the neighbouring school and adjacent cemetery.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

You may also want to take a look at another housing block in Paris we recently featured, or see all our stories about France here.

Photography is by Cecile Septet.

Here’s some more information from the architects:


The project takes place in the north Pierre Rebiere Street is a 600 meters long and 25 meters wide straight line.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

It is surrounded by the Batignoles’ cemetery on one side and by the back entrance of the international high school Honoré de Balzac on the other. The transformation of this narrow abandoned street allows the establishment of whole string of new buildings.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

The local rules for urbanism and the scope statements associated to this neighborhood minimizes plastic expressions. As a result it is not allowed to open any views on the cemetery. Thus directly implying a blind front for the future building and making it impossible to have normal front to front flats. The project impressively manages to get around those constraints: each of the flat benefits from both multiple sights and light sources at any time of day and year.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

This climatic mechanism suggested the shape of the building.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

Those solar templates sculpted internal slopes getting to the very heart of the construction. The 45° symmetrical slopes establish a triangular quadrant relieving the whole block from its compactness. As a result a central void appears where the dwellers can share a continually illuminated unique space. Hence as the light hits one side in the morning the opposite side will benefit from it in the afternoon.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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The shape of this new space is favorable to the composition of an unusual landscape.
It is made from a cascade of Parisian roofs with its respective proportions and rhythm, as well as its apparent disorder. The whole is included in a succession of terraces which represent genuine extra room for the flats. Those terraces are so wide and comfortable that they become like private suspended gardens. In modern Babylonia, the Parisian Barbie rediscovers the joys of barbecue in the open air.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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The staging withdraws itself from the urban stranglehold.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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By refusing the frontal facing towards the street, the building creates a residential intimacy. The residents can communicate freely and develop the relations they desire. The unique vis-à-vis brings the dwellers together. Each resident is within reach of the other and that, without any road to cross. The building works as an inside village, within the town but still open towards the others.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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Materials contribute to the staging of this unique ship. The body of the building is treated as a white hull. The homogeneous coating on the street fronts creates a casual relation to the rest of the agglomeration. The inside is a metallic and shining sheathing. The flats are revealed in a play of light and reflect. The building even possesses a central space dedicated to sharing.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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Once the hall crossed, a simple staircase brings to an inside square at the heart of the building. The setting here is sympathetic. We wander on a wooden deck. We are surrounded by flowers and trees. Our sight gets lost in the foliage of the great neighboring trees.

M Building by Stephane Maupin

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Client: Paris Habitat
Team: SM
Project: 20 housings
Location: Rue Rebière, Paris
Date: January 2012
Surface: 1800m²
Cost: 2 500 000 €

Nike Basketball – Goutte d’Or

Nike présente en collaboration avec le collectif Pigalle Paris et Amateur Basketball un spot magnifique mettant en avant l’état d’esprit et la qualité de l’équipe de la Goutte d’Or. Paul Geusebroek signe ici une réalisation soignée, autour d’images de la capitale. Plus dans la suite.



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Cyklop Street Art

Un artiste français connu sous le nom du CyKlop cherche à colorer Paris et différentes villes avec cette customisation de poteaux et autres éléments. Jouant énormément sur le symbole de l’oeil, ces cyklopes sont à découvrir au détour d’une rue. Plus dans la suite.



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Zap’ Ados by Bang Architectes

French studio Bang Architectes has converted a former peanut factory in Calais into a skateboarding park with a bright orange mesh facade (photos by Julien Lanoo).

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

In order to increase natural light inside the warehouse the architects removed concrete walls from the east and west elevations and replaced them with glazing, screened behind the layer of steel mesh.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Two new volumes project from the facade to reveal the locations of a youth centre positioned along one edge of the building and a raised platform opposite accommodating more skating tracks.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

An enclosed passageway with entrances at both ends crosses the width of the building to provide a safe place for spectators to stand.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

If skateparks grab your interest, check out one designed by a skateboarding champion in Germany.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Here’s the full description from the architects:


ZAP’ADOS

Create a signal in the landscape

The operation takes place along a canal in St. Pierre, which is the former industrial district of Calais. It continues the urban renewal initiated by La Cité de la Dentelle (by Moatti & Rivière Architects) located a hundred meters downstream. In this bleak urban landscape, the conversion of the existing industrial hall has to be visible.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

The future facility must signal its presence and invite potential users, the young and curious, to enter. The high clearance at the front of the building offers increased visibility of the west gable from the surrounding area. This gable, which has been completely redesigned, will project a strong signal into the public space.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Reclassify the hall

The existing building is a common industrial hall with no outstanding features, consisting of a concrete structure filled with precast concrete panels and a roof of cement sheets. The hall was once a roasted peanut factory, followed by various other incarnations (including a go-kart track) before being abandoned for several years.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Prior to handing and processing it had been dilapidated, vandalised and had become structurally unsafe. The first task was to open the dark hall before curettage and structural recovery. This was achieved by removing precast concrete panels on the eastern and western facades to release through-views and bring natural light into the heart of the building.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Express the new assignment of the building

The youth centre and the skate park extends beyond the gable and form two protrusions, which clearly signifies that the building has a new purpose. One protrusion stands on the floor and emerges from the skateboarder club and youth centre, forming a point of contact between the inside and outside space. The other is cantilevered and a launch pad that overlooks the front square, featuring skaters waiting in turn before taking off.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

The two prismatic volumes, like opened arms, reclassify the free space of the front square and act as an invitation to enter. The architectural expression is unified by a common envelope made of expanded metal, which turns the silhouette from a hanger into a prism protruding from a singular hybrid form.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

The metal mesh allows spectators to watch activities inside and is gradually perforated from top to bottom. The mesh acts like a shutter, controling direct sunlight and the color is stricking; it is deliberately conspicuous. This colorful mesh protects the equipment as the expanded metal is very resistant and anti-graffiti. It is doubled with a curtain wall to protect users from prevailing winds and reduce any noise nuisance to nearby houses. Outside the building the front square is treated using an orange frame to draw parking spaces, which overlap the textures of the existing floor coatings.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Linking the two programs

Inside the hall the various program elements are organised longitudinally, to optimise the length of the skate tracks and provide an entrance to the youth centre along the southern facade. When entering the building, there are a series of enclosed and heated rooms installed on the right identified by emerging prism. This set is built with a light frame and placed on the existing slab, with entrances distributed along an indoor walkway.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

This walkway is fully integrated into the space used for the skate park, separated using a handrail that runs its entire length. It enables “spectators” to watch the skaters safely. The long wall is covered with an acoustic fabric stretched to form large “dimples”. This absorbing surface is designed to reduce reverberated sounds caused by skateboarding on hard surfaces.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

The wall is also provided with vertical windows offering views for both users of the skate park and youth centre. A sinusoid layer of large acoustic baffles is suspended from the ceiling to increase acoustic comfort for users. These technical elements offer inexpensive modifications that morph the inner space and hide the unsightly ceiling.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Create skate tracks

The modules are arranged in a strips logically oriented along the full length of the hall. On the west side a raised platform overlooks the front square. It serves as a high point: the launcher. The bowls (rare in the region) are installed at the east end of the hall to maintain space clearance. These complex curved surfaces are works of joinery and carpentry of great sophistication.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

In the center of the hall is the funbox. A calm initiation zone is arranged along the indoor walkway and punctuated by modules. The modules are made of wood (not concrete) to maintain the adaptability of the skate park and the reversibility of the original allocation of the hall.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Construction system

  • Structure of the gables and volumes emerging: structural steel
  • West facade: the existing concrete columns and structural steel are “sandwiched” by painted gradually expanded aluminum on the outside wall and the curtain wall noise attenuation inside
  • Acoustic wall on the indoor street: textile glass fiber coated with PVC stretched over two layers of cotton batting and put on a sheet of extruded PVC formed.
  • Ceiling: industrial acoustic suspended baffles made out of melamine
  • Skate joinery: wood frame and covering in birch plywood from Finland coated by a clear glaze.
  • External joinery: aluminum with double glazing.
  • Roofing of emerging volumes: self-protected bitumen.

Zap' Ados by Bang Architectes

Operation’s name: ZAP’ ADOS
Location: 87 quai de Lucien L’heureux 62100 Calais
Client: Ville de Calais
Design Architects: Bang Architectes (Nicolas Gaudard and Nicolas Hugoo) Engineer: B&R ingénierie
Program: conversion of industrial hall into Skate Park and Youth Centre Floor area: 2 760 m2
Total cost: 1,5M € H.T.
Start of study: June 2010
Delivery: December 2011

Colette + Cobrasnake + Vans

A delicious collaboration between French fashion purveyor and an American nightlife photographer
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Crossing cultures in one stride, French arbiter of relevant style Colette has teamed up with American photographer Mark Hunter—A.K.A. the Cobrasnake—to create a one-of-a-kind shoe with Vans. The collaboration shoe was inspired by the care-free Californian lifestyle and the state’s iconic burger joints that have fed generations of tastemakers. While the brand created a cheeseburger-inspired slip-on a few seasons back, the Vans Era has gone high fashion to become a hamburger for the first time.

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The shoe’s premium canvas upper is emblazoned with a variety of tasty toppings stuffed between two whole wheat buns, while Collete blue laces and a Vans tag offer up the perfect amount of Parisian flair. The unique collaboration breeds a playful sense of style with Colette’s uncanny taste and Cobrasnake’s cavalier brand of nightlife photography that captures the very essence of a sought-after youth culture.

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Set to launch 1 March 2012 during Paris Fashion Week, the Colette and Cobrasnake collaboration Vans will be be sold exclusively through Colette.


Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

French architects Agence Search have won a competition to design a Paris shopping mall with proposals involving giant elliptical lattices.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

The five-storey-high, egg-shaped structures will define two atriums located at opposite ends of the shopping centre.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

Escalators and footbridges will pierce holes through the suspended structures.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

The architects drew inspiration for the project from the conceptual cenotaph that architect Étienne-Louis Boullée designed for scientist Isaac Newton over 200 years ago.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

Another shopping centre we’ve featured in recent months features a rippled stone facade – see it here.

Here’s some more text from Agence Search:


Agence Search Win the restricted competition for the interior design of the future New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall

In today’s increasingly competitive environment, the architecture of shopping malls has come to play a fundamental role in their commercial success. Architecture can distinguish the shopping environment to create a sense of specificity, of differentiation. Space can become a brand. The New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall program set the stakes to develop an existing space by transforming two atriums into a site with “Wow Effect.”

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

Atrium entrance sequence

The entrance sequence is spectacular. The visitor is taken in by the volume, by a spatial configuration that is at once singular and majestic. The lattice work structure that inhabits the central volume is visible from the building’s façade. It attracts the shopper, and once inside draws his or her eyes up to the light and shops above, and down to the event space below. The visitor’s first perception goes beyond the scale of the building, to encompass its referential universe, its status, and its identity.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

Lattice

The lattice work structure materializes an envelope that defines the central space, and transforms it into an inhabited volume. It enables the interior design to refrain from modifying the existing architecture, while all the while entering into a dialogue with it on a large scale. The wooden lattice invokes warmth, sobriety and elegance.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

E-commerce

The interiors project for the New Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall takes into account the transformations affecting our contemporary shopping experience. Facing the development of e-commerce, the shopping mall must affirm its singularity and specificity to maintain and improve its dynamic status. According to the “fun shopping” movement, we know that stores today must seduce buyers by transforming their commercial space into zones of conviviality and entertainment. The addition of footbridges that pierce the lattice structure and span the atrium creates novel spaces where multimedia and other recreational programs can develop.

Beaugrenelle Shopping Mall by Agence Search

« Wow Effect »

The two atriums of the Beaugrennelle shopping mall create a “Wow Effect.” In keeping with the client’s desires, they constitute an extraordinary spatial experience. Surprised and seduced by these singular architectural objects, the visitor is transported, becoming one with the volume.

Crystal Forms

Interesting works by Tokujin Yoshioka and Blanc Bijou at Maison et Objet

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The artistic work of Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and Japanese brand Blanc Bijou were on show at Maison et Objet, illustrating two aspects of the innovative potential of crystal.

Elected designer of the year at the show, Yoshioka’s experience with glass tells a long story, from the benches he recently created for the Parisian Musée d’Orsay to his collaborations with Swarovsky, Issey Miyake, Hermès and Cartier.

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He presented pieces from his “Crystallized Project” at Maison et Objet. For Yoshioka, crystals demonstrate nature’s power to produce spontaneous forms that transcend human aesthetics—a phenomenon he qualifies as “unintentional beauty”. The cost of such a spectacular occurrence, according to the designer, lies in the challenge of working with such naturally hazardous construction.

Crystal cannot be molded, but in this instance, the artist manipulated the medium to grow directly on canvas, manually shaping the forms as much as possible. The series presented at the show grows on the vibrations on the music by Frederic Chopin.

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Looking for a material that could express the essence of light, the designer was fascinated by crystal’s peculiar ability to morph from total transparency—the mineral is invisible when dipped in water—to shining with hundreds of reflections when carved.

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The Japanese company Blanc Bijou showed a stunning range of industrial applications to a rare natural crystal called fluorite. The whole process to obtain the purely white material—also called “Blanc Bijou”—was exhibited at Maison et Objet, from the extraction of powder from the fluorite to finished fired results.

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The stability of the molecular structure created offers certain exclusive aesthetic qualities, like a whiteness that never diminishes with time or sunlight and a smooth softness for home use. At the same time, its properties give it a high resistance to heat, chemical treatments and adhesion for use in advanced chemical industries, robotics and medicine.