Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance
“The process and human interaction around a project are richer than the result.”
INTERVIEW
I do my project from the context. I don’t draw before getting immersed in it. I meet the craftsmen, the workshops, the materials, their origins, and the problems that may arise while using such resources. Then comes the design.
I would love to design the void and the silence, as I think that humans have a disease; they can’t stop producing, even on top of a mountain of waste. And I’m afraid that I also have this disease, even if I control its expansion.
I was living in the countryside, a small village in Brittany on the coast. Design was far from my everyday life. At the age of 13, I saw the pieces that Philippe Stark designed in a catalog. I decided to make furniture. Then my stepfather came one day from England with an article about Ron Arad. I was shocked! We can do design and sculpture! This is the path I took.
Yes, there have been many defining moments. But the first one is the design of a desk for my degree at the “Arts Décoratifs” school. The Manta desk was in carbon fiber at this tile and became Manta in wood edited by Ceccotti Collezioni. The second one is my project for Sketch restaurant in London, and particularly the egg toilets pods!
For these projects, I was trying to feel the brands I was working with.
Is there a common match that can occur? As soon as I sensed a point of connection, I started digging. But I barely work for brands now, besides some exceptional encounters that I have, like my recent project with Steinway & Sons. How could I have said no?
Some long-term relationships that I have with friends like Bernhardt Design, or Saint Louis Crystalworks, Ligne Roset…
Most of my work today revolves around my Made In Situ project.
A city doesn’t inspire me. If I stay too long, it drags me down. But sometimes I need the city to connect me to the speed of life. Lisbon has an acceptable scale for a man like me. My best inspiration is nature, the ocean 30 km away from Lisbon, where I have a hut on the beach. It’s a pure source of inspiration. Paris is a rich cultural city, and most of my best friends are there. So, I come here quite often to get my dose of love and culture.
Design was born within the industry. Today, industry is one of the biggest causes of our problems, even though it was supposed to solve them. Designers are gradually becoming aware of this, and it’s affecting our relationship with the industry.
The product is no longer a goal by itself. The process and human interaction around a project are richer than the result. This opens the door to many non-designers who call themselves so. We’re producing fewer industrial products, but still just as much waste.
I still believe that an object needs academic roots, even if it strives for abstraction.
Picasso was a great academic painter before becoming the most modern one. You have to learn the beauty of a volume before trying to create your own.
Use your hands to draw, not to click on a keyboard. Otherwise, don’t blame AI.
My Jotter Parker Pencil.
Nothing you have done is achieved, so you will never be completely satisfied.
The design is one of the tools to reconnect us with our environment while creating a transition between the wildness of nature and ourselves. Its limits are its impact on this ecosystem. As architecture, food, and creation must be balanced with the context and the environment, without imposing its rules.
Thank you so much Noé, for this lovely interview!
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