(Archive) École Camondo x Dutch Design Week

PRODUCT & CRAFT DESIGN

The Archetype Collection by Léo Achard aims to change our view of day-to-day objects and challenge the visual codes of reuse. The industrial production of the past becomes the artisanal production of the future. To do this, obsolete industrial objects are transformed to become new ones with evocative forms. From one archetype to another, from one function to another and from one form to another, the objects in the collection form a dialogue and create a new aesthetic. Magic is at work here, transforming the overlooked into the obvious.

The Vina Scaena collection by Sarah Louche offers a sensitive experience of wine-tasting in the open air. The objects create a setting and come alive in a viticultural landscape. Materiality and the formal aspect refer to the region of Maine-et-Loire, the village of Savennières and its vineyards, with their extraordinary geological specificities. The use of certain materials, such as the clay earth on the banks of the Loire which is used to make the tasting vessels, suggests a different approach to material and this unique moment. The lines of the furniture evoke a degree of solidity, rooted in the ground, in a chosen terroir.

SPECULATIVE & SOCIAL DESIGN

"TO LIVE IN SPACE" by Mathias Menager. The cosmos presents many constraints. How can spaces be designed to preserve the health and optimal performance of the crew? To do more than just “survive” in space, we must create environments that contribute positively to well-being for the months and years that the missions will last. And as more and more astronauts travel, it is important that our environments are more than the cramped mechanical interiors of the International Space Station, which represents today the state of the art for long-duration spaceflight.

Some of you may think that: "designing a space habitat is too far removed from our daily lives. What impact might this have on what we do on Earth today? We have enough problems on Earth so why venture out into the cosmos?". We are getting closer and closer to the many crew conditions of a long-duration spaceflight. Designing for an extreme environment that is the most restrictive and constraining, where no human being has ever walked before, is what gives us the best chance to creatively design solutions to problems here on Earth that seem completely beyond our reach today.

BOOSTING OUR HEALTH & WELLBEING

"The beauty of Care" by Marine Plantefeve. Hospitals are built around a single purpose: to care and heal. This is a demanding and complex role, and we are aware and appreciative of its difficulty and performance on a daily basis. Hospitals are better and better at repairing bodies, but are we just bodies? Our relationship with the world and with others is forged on emotion. A hypothesis: the beauty of the world, the beauty of things and beings is the balm that soothes us, the elixir that keeps us going. Hospitals can no longer compromise on this subtle dimension of care: its beauty! The aim of this dissertation is to confirm this hypothesis and its implications based on a study of the importance placed on beauty in hospitals.