Twist & turn
It started as a custom designed & developed LED standing light for the Chateau de Bourglinster, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture in Luxembourg. Now the project has developed into a series of products featuring dimmable and continuously rotating LED discs with bespoke electronics fitted to a CNC turned wooden stand.
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Old meets new
In collaboration with the Service National des Sites et Monuments Nationaux we are re-designing the interiors of the Chateau de Bourglinster, on the outskirts of Luxembourg-city. Until the project is completed, here a little sneak preview showing a partial prototype test of a custom designed & developed LED standing light for the castle. The light will be dimmable and feature continuously rotating LED discs with bespoke electronics fitted to a CNC turned wooden stand.
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Home sweet home
A recent interior design project, finding the right balance between old & new, vintage & contemporary design, in the quest of ageing gracefully…
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All in a box
Exhibition program for the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2007. Showcasing different departments within the EIB to communicate their work & process to the rest of the institution.
Graphic design: Arnaud Mouriamé
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Wiedersehen macht Freude
My deckchairs, fitted with a custom designed fabric which shows all the colours of the 28 EU member state flags proportionally ( see post ‘Work hard, play hard’ ), have re-surfaced this summer in the old town of Luxembourg City. A year after the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council they have been distributed to several city centre sites and used as public space furniture over the summer months.
Unfortunately we might have to take some classic blue, red & white out for next year.
Graphics: Laurent Daubach
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Romain Urhausen – a journey through space & time
In collaboration with the curator Marguy Conzémius from the CNA (Centre national de l’audiovisuel) and the London based graphic designer Melanie Mues, we have designed a retrospective exhibition of the luxembourgish photographer Romain Urhausen.
Romain Urhausen, born in 1930, has accumulated such an enormous bulk of work over his lifetime that one of the challenges was to fit a maximum of artworks into a rather challengingly small space. Furthermore, we thought that photographs, sculptures, inventions & design objects from the 50’s up to the 90’s deserve an analogue rather then a digital display solution. The visitor therefore is invited to discover in a hands-on and interactive way, a large number of artworks from the artist’s journey through space & time.
ROMAIN URHAUSEN – FOTOGRAF exhibition at the CNA Display 01 & 02 in Dudelange, open until 30.10.2016
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Back to the stone age
The national heritage agency in Luxembourg (Service des Sites et Monuments Nationaux ) has asked me to design & develop a bespoke information panel system for two distinct archeological sites. Both sites are unsupervised, which required a simple and robust solution against weathering effects and vandalism.
The steel support structures have been designed as light & unobstrusive as possible to integrate them visually into the sensitive archeological sites.
The information panels are manufactured in the northern Vosges region in France, famous for its glass manufacturing tradition. The panels are made from vitreous enamel in one of the only remaining vitreous enamel factories in Europe. This traditional technique, where the graphics are silkscreened on low carbon steel and fired at up to 850 C°, is extremly hard-wearing, UV stable and weathering proof.
Client: SSMN (Service des Sites et Monuments Nationaux)
En collaboration avec le CNRA (Centre National de Recherche Archéologique)
Graphic design: Arnaud Mouriamé
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Work hard, play hard
The third installation of my project for the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council 2015 in the Atrium of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels.
The idea of sitting together in a more sociable and friendly way, as one does between friends that work on a common project, is also the idea behind the installation in the Atrium of the Justus Lipsius building (see previous post ‘Presidency of the European Council design project – part 2’ ). The visitors are invited to claim the space and to move the deckchairs around by reconfiguring them as they wish.
The 28 deckchairs bring together in a proportionate yet abstract manner all the colours of the flags of the 28 Member States – by collecting & rejigging these colours into a new composition which was then printed onto the fabric in a ‘traditional stripey way’. Everybody will be able to find their ‘own’ specific colours within a collectif colour scheme.
The deckchairs also refer to the poetic image of time spent with family and friends, which for many Luxembourgers, means past holidays spent at the Belgian coast – a nod also to Belgium, the country with which Luxembourg has close links, and which houses the Council.
Client: Ministère de la Culture
Graphic artwork: Laurent Daubach
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Presidency of the European Council design project – part 2
The Presidency campfire meeting room, for the Luxembourg presidency of the European Council
By analysing the usually conventional set-up of meeting rooms for diplomats & heads of state one thing becomes clear, there is always a certain distance between the individual seatings – not too close and yet not too far away from your interlocutor. On this occasion I was able to challenge this status quo by creating a space where everybody had to decide for himself how close he or she wants to sit in relation to their interlocutor (and how good a friend he or she really is).
The ‘campfire’ is a space for people that share a common project & a common cause. A place where you can sit all night talking to friends, sorting out differences and coming out with a stronger bond… even if that looks like a difficult thing to achieve at this moment in time.
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Lego style outdoor furniture for the almost grown-ups
Conventional tables and chairs wouldn’t have worked that well for the terrasse of my local hangout. The cultural centre Carrérotondes in Luxembourg, with its concerts, exhibitions, kids theatres and parties required a flexible way of sitting (and drinking). The Lego principle gives plenty of options on how to configure the modules, leaving it up to the user and the moment to choose how to use them.
Materials: Custom designed male & female rubber connectors combined with water resistant low-cost plywood.
Photo © Sven Becker
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The art of spinning
It seems you have to travel to central Paris to find somebody still able to master this craft! See also this short documentary showing the process: http://vimeo.com/85024259
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Chop chop
Chopping bloc at the Drimos Taverne in Crete, made from a single tree trunk, blood red.
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Max Planck Institute, Luxembourg
Some images of my latest interior & furniture design project for the new offices of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law located in the Weicker Building in Luxembourg-city.
The building itself was designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects, a building with a very specific formal identity. The challenge was to find a suitable visual language that fits the architecture and, at the same time, cover all the functionalities and representative needs required by this prestigious client – all of this within a framework of a EU wide open tender procedure. The result is a mix of products from high-end furniture manufacturers and a range of custom-designed objects to ensure a coherent visual language and quality throughout the building.
Developed in collaboration with Teisen-Giesler Architectes
Client: Max Planck Insitute Luxembourg
Office & library surface: 4500m2
Photos © Christian Mosar
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Outdoor furniture – extra bold
Designed for outdoor spaces like nature reserves, parks & forests, this seating range is composed of large & chunky shapes with very simple profiles. The large – single piece – wood parts are made from locally sourced oak trunks with a simply sawn finish to resist weathering and vandalism. Due to its thickness, the wood can be sanded down if damaged but can also happily live with the added texture.
The wood profiles and tubular powder coated steel tubes are both an integral part of the structure and form objects with a strong visual contrast between natural and man made materials. The simple & sculptural shapes should integrate well in natural environments, yet stand out enough to be noticed for its quality.
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Ingenious low budget playground
A resourceful approach to create a playground in Corfu… and I bet it ticks all the boxes of safety standards too!
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Concorde memorabilia
The Concorde might have been a fuel guzzling, noisy and elitist plane representing the excesses of the ‘trente glorieuses’, but it also embodies a great believe, excitement and optimism in the future. Not something you can say about today…
Also great is to see a really good quality and stylish souvenir that was handed out to every person flying with the Concorde. The pen looks as fast as the the Concorde flies and even has a bit of a nose like the real thing. Try and find a pen in your drawers that you got for free that is of any quality…
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Paris bashing
It is well known that the bistro culture in Paris is a league on its own, sitting tightly packed on street corners, coffee & cigarettes, waiters that don’t care, gazing at the people passing by …
The typical Paris bistro table with a single foot and an oversized thin metal edging embodies this way of life quite well for me. Every bash and knock the metal edging gets adds character & texture to the table, making it age gracefully without aspiring to be perfect.
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