Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance

Vitals

Born in Mende, France, in 1974

Occupation
Product and interior designer

Education
DMA (diplôme des métiers d’art) in furniture, École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d’art, Paris (1997)

Location
Paris

Selected awards
Elle Deco International Design Award, Buonanotte Valentina bed (2009)
Designer of the Year, Maison & Object, Paris (2007)
Fooding 2005 du meilleur avant-l’amour, Senderens restaurant, Paris (2005)

Selected exhibitions
Marée noire au clair de lune (solo exhibition), La Galerie de Pierre Bergé et associés, Brussels (2008)
Cinq sens, une matière – Corian, Designer’s Days, Paris (2004)
ExperimentaDesign, Lisbon (2003)

Selected clients
Zanotta, Ceccotti, Baccarat, Ligne Roset, Bernhardt, Swarovski, Paco Rabanne, L’Oréal

Sculpting shapes
I studied sculpture in school first because I really wanted to touch the materials and work with shapes. The computer was coming on strong then, and you could feel that three-dimensional digital drawings were going to be the way of the future. But I thought it was important to understand the objects and shapes in another way, beyond the computer. I specialized in metal, but as soon as you understand the possibilities of one material you can learn them for others. Today I still draw lines and write ideas on paper before going to 3-D renderings. My first drawings are often simple sketches; I want to express object, proportion, comfort and shape. Sometimes, when construction techniques are at the centre of the project, we go directly to materials to test ideas before doing renderings.

Adding function
In the end, I didn’t want to make objects without function. If there’s no interaction, objects don’t mean anything. I wanted to focus on things that we live with, but that have another dimension or trigger an emotion – simple things that you can’t fully understand in a single glance. That can happen from a philosophy, a material, a shape or sheer craftsmanship, but it can also be due to a beautiful industrial technique.

It was hard switching to furniture design. My education up to that point was about how to take a pure idea and get to something in three dimensions. But I struggled with industrial processes and functionality. My first table was made from a soft material stretched over a frame; it was springy like a drum, but you couldn’t place anything on it. The good thing, however, was that I didn’t have any limits. For me, design was really open to any kind of expression.

Read the full story in the print edition of our July/August 2010 issue
By Tim McKeough

Top left: Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance

Top middle: Working in another historical setting, Duchaufour-Lawrance created the Parisian restaurant Senderens. Its cocoon-like lighting and reflective surfaces contrast with Louis Majorelle’s sycamore carvings from 1910.

Top right above: The grandly luxurious Derby, created by ­Duchaufour-Lawrance for Zanotta, has a sculpted polyurethane foam body upholstered in leather or fabric (front) and cowhide or ecopelle (back).  ­zanotta.it

Top right below: The designer conceived Ottoman while working on a hotel project in Marrakesh. Manufactured by Ligne Roset, the line includes an all-foam loveseat and armchair covered in a quilted upholstery that comes in bold solids or two-toned versions.  ­ligne-roset.com