Design X Durable X Desirable: French Design by VIA pioneering eco-innovation

The French Design by VIA presents, until July 13, the exhibition “Design X Durable X Desirable, the art of responsible living!” “, exploring a new form of creation using new materials, processes and uses that lead to a responsible lifestyle while being aesthetically appealing. It is thus fully in its role of supporting companies in their creative transformation.

If sustainable development has long been a concept, it has become a reality, and is developing rapidly, particularly under the impetus of suppliers of alternative materials, more virtuous for the environment, and manufacturing players. This is the impression that emerges after visiting the exhibition “Design X Durable X Desirable, the art of responsible living!” which is held at the Parisian gallery of French Design by VIA until July 13th. Renewable or even better recycled and recyclable materials, resulting from the metamorphosis of natural or industrial residues, with innovative processes such as 3D printing and generative design software, production processes that use living things like sericulture (silkworms) or plant growth, to the concepts born of energy sobriety and manufacturing in short circuits… This exhibition-event shows, through some thirty objects, how the ecosystem of designers, manufacturers and publishers of objects for the home are now seizing all the dimensions of eco-innovation to design and produce the objects of today and tomorrow, which combine respect for natural resources and the fight against climate change… while generating formal languages ​​and an accomplished aesthetic that makes them desirable in the eyes of the end consumer!

An exploration in five themes

The two curators of the exhibition, Carolina Tinoco and Nathalie Tinland, have taken up the architecture of the Cahiers d’inspiration du French Design by VIA, published in 2022, which bring together 100 exemplary French projects in terms of sustainable design. This is broken down into five themes, which they have illustrated by selecting around thirty emblematic projects and pieces, exhibited with comments that allow them to decipher their innovative dimension. “Their pioneering aspect, the unexpected avenues they explore, their local roots or the visionary spirit that drives their authors will surprise you! comment John Paul Bathgeneral manager of French design by VIA. They bring together innovation, eco-responsibility, fitness for use, inspiration and aesthetic qualities, and reflect the dynamism demonstrated by design offices, publishers and manufacturers, research laboratories, ecosystems of makers and other artisans all over our country. territory. »

The five themes of the exhibition are:

> New models: a revolution for the planet

This first theme shows how the new models are turning their back on the triptych of linear production – extracting, transforming, throwing away – to adopt a circular paradigm. Even if they are still in the minority, products from recycling and recovery transform the designer’s specifications and influence his approach. The creations on display make sustainable manufacturing, recycling, diversion, and reuse a source of creation for a new value, sometimes including the social and solidarity economy, which completes to give them an ethical dimension. Examples: Art 77.5% armchair (Noma Éditions), Blandine table lamp (Boutures d’Objets for Camif Édition), Bupo desk (Maximum Éditions).

> Innovative processes: nature reinitialized

To save natural resources, eliminate non-biodegradable waste, and fight against global warming, the “Innovative Processes” theme highlights a whole generation of young designers and editors who give nature a voice, by recovering waste to make bio-sourced materials, sometimes associated with the living, sometimes with new processes, or with new technologies such as 3D printing and artificial intelligence software, to give birth to a new eco-responsibility. Examples: Citrus Paradisi suspension (Repulp Design), Second Skin short bench (Baptiste Cotten), Instead high stool (Instead Mobilier).

> Conquest of territories: local is beautiful

Disastrous carbon footprint for transport, rising cost of sea and land freight, increased desire for product traceability… remote imports are no longer popular, and never has there been so much talk of relocating manufacturing to France. Contrary to “made elsewhere”, this third theme shows that the trend is towards the revival of local know-how on the verge of extinction, and the reinvention of new ways of working on our territory. Examples: H10 chair (La Chaise française), Illusion rotary desk (Gautier France), coffee table by Constance (Dizy Éditions).

> Creative visions: back to the future

This fourth theme is a hymn to nature, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for designers, who explore it with an empathetic approach to the living, and whose works pay homage to its beauty and limitless ingenuity, inspired by biomimetic processes, or by relying on progress in research to develop innovative concepts, based on renewable materials such as “augmented” wood. Examples: Harmattan I light (Galerie Gosserez), Onde(s) suspension (Editor Archik), Tamu chair (creation by Patrick Jouin with the Design Studio of Dassault Systèmes).

> Uses of the future: use based on common sense

This last theme expresses the new expectations vis-à-vis the object, which now favors its value of multiple use and its ability to assist us in every moment of everyday life, like “intelligent” furniture, which go beyond their initial function to respond to increasingly significant issues such as energy savings, while retaining their comfort qualities and decorative potential. Examples: Climate table (Valérie Guérin gallery), Gauguin armchair (Oakâme), Tracés heating mat (Anaïs Jarnoux).

[F. S.]

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Responsible scenography by Jacob + MacFarlane

The scenography, designed by the Parisian architectural firm Jakob+Macfarlane, takes up the archetype of the archipelago, made up of five islands which represent the five themes of the exhibition. In line with the purpose of the exhibition, the elements were made of Next® panels, produced by the French company Panels de Corrèze, an MDF panel manufactured using a patented technology with a natural vegetable resin, based on rapeseed cake and sunflower, developed by Evertree with the support of Ademe.