Eating a pork and prune-stuffed galantine on the last night of my Paris Design Week trip (at the excellent restaurant Fugue in the 10th arrondissement), I started to reflect on certain parallels between French design and French cuisine. For one thing, there is the country’s devotion to rigorous technique — which is on display as much in a flaky croissant as it in a très elegant chaise longue. But beyond that, Parisian designers — much like Parisian chefs — have a clear appetite for experimentation. On the culinary side of things, how else to explain the abundance of French dishes made with snails, frog legs or (in the case of a galantine) a savoury Jell-o made with cooled meat stock?

Meanwhile, that same experimental streak remains alive and well in the country’s creative scene. All throughout Paris Design Week, the city was serving up charming, well-crafted surprises — whether they were a coffee shop counter clad in crumpled steel takeout cups, or a water fountain topped with a spinning googly eyed disco ball. Mind you, it wasn’t just homegrown French talents delivering these spectacles — visiting designers (including quite a few Germans) brought plenty of edgy ideas of their own.

Look for a full Paris Design Week show report in AZURE’s upcoming November/December issue. In the meantime, here are some highlights from my camera roll.

1

Crushed Coffee Cups

The Marais outpost of Café Nuances provided much-needed fuel to kick off the trip. Designed by Crosby Studios, the coffee shop features a monumental counter clad in hundreds of steel takeout cups.

2

A Farewell to the Pompidou — For Now

Next up was a visit to the Centre Pompidou, which is in its final weeks of operation before it closes for a five-year renovation by AIA, Moreau-Kusunoki, and Frida Escobedo. The museum’s last show (for now) is a sprawling exhibition of Wolfgang Tillmans photographs dubbed Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us. Displayed throughout the second-floor space that would normally be the gallery’s library, the show places many of its images in fun relationship to their surroundings.

3

Ceramics on a Gentle Collision Course

Moving to the Bourse de Commerce, artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot presented clinamen, an installation in which a group of white ceramic bowls floated across a blue basin measuring 18 metres in diameter. Occasional collisions — and soft acoustic vibrations — ensue, resulting in a tranquil, meditative experience that’s hard to step away from.

4

Coral Run Amok

French artist Aude Franjou wove natural fibres into a coral-like sculpture that snaked throughout the interior of the July Column, an 1835 monument that had originally been planned as a fountain to commemorate the construction of the Canal Saint-Martin. While the landmark instead became a commemorative column to mark the July Revolution, Franjou’s sculpture (named Corals of Liberty, and commissioned by Maison Parisienne) brings an aquatic element back to the site.

5

Steely Lamps With a Soft Touch

Maison&Objet, the anchor fair during Paris Design Week, introduced two charming task lamps that both combine a sturdy metal base with a soft fabric shade. German brand Blomus unveiled the Taite lamp by Theresa Rand (shown at left), while Amsterdam accessories maker &Klevering highlighted the Phira table lamp by Martin Hirth (shown at right).

6

School Supplies for Grownups

Back-to-school season had us especially charmed by the youthful, laid-back office furnishings by Danish brand Hübsch — especially its Lure series of wall lights that can clamp to bookshelves and come in a range of splashy colours.

7

Architectural Seating

Snøhetta and Citterio introduced Borealis, a modular seating system that combines a rigid oak frame with soft cushioning. Wide armrests double as space to rest a drink or laptop.

8

Great Grates

Hall Haus, a Paris-based design quartet, led the Design District section of Maison&Objet with a collection of hole-punched powder-coated steel furnishings. Each individual piece has a strong backstory: The DKR chair, for instance, takes its form from a traditional African Palabra chair, while the Olympic Bench is designed as a rebuttal against hostile (or “anti-homeless”) architecture that prevents people from sleeping on it.

9

Hole-Hearted Shelving

Hole-punched furniture seemed to be something of a trend. At Paris Design Week’s Factory showcase of emerging designers, Office Studio (founded by a trio of ENSCI-Les Ateliers grads) impressed with its Beam shelf, a graphic composition of particleboard panels and laminated pine featuring large circular cutouts.

10

Micro Storage

At Maison&Objet, Heller introduced a scaled-down mini version (shown at left) of its popular Swell catchall designed for stashing on the-go-essentials.

11

Rising Talents

Maison&Objet’s September Rising Talent Awards focused on Germany, recognized seven studios that build upon the legacy of the Bauhaus. Friedrich Gerlach led the charge with Lumo, a 3D-printed sofa made from wood leftovers from sawmills and timber harvesting. It was shown alongside by a trio of equally forward-thinking stools, made of bio-cement, recycled fused glass, and recycled polypropylene packaging waste, respectively.

Other Rising Talent Awards exhibitors offered more great spots to kick back. StudioOE’s Silo daybed features pillows stuffed with spelt husks that reflect body heat, while Haus Otto’s Zooom Rug for Bottone exists halfway between a floor covering and a day bed.

12

Totemic Sculptures

In another zone of Paris Design Week’s Factory display of up-and-comers, Gaspard Fleury-Dugy presented a row of 3D-knitted vessels and lamps. Inspired in equal part by ancient Roman amphorae and Oscar Niemeyer’s rounded architecture, the designs take their vibrant colour palette from contemporary sportswear — resulting in time-bending, joy-boosting amalgamation of past and present references.

Additional Factory favourites included Zbeul Studio’s 5G wooden floor lamp, which was born out of research into medieval windows, and Zing’s porcleain vases, which are cast inside paper molds to achieve a cool crumpled effect.

13

Disco Fever

Design Disco Club set the standard for offsite exhibitions at Lafayette Anticipations (an exhibition space founded by the group behind Galeries Lafayette). Organized by local creative studio Pli Office, the show (which was rich in cobalt blue) set out to “rethink the relationship between industrial and human rhythms.” In practice, that meant displays that felt like a cross between a carnival funhouse and an industrial factory. A presentation of the new Ipoli swing-arm lamp by Lambert et Fils, for instance, arranged the lamps to point in all directions in a way that called to mind an automated assembly line robot.

While mannequins dressed in party outfits by designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and Christian Dior were scattered throughout the exhibition to add to the nightclub atmosphere, the furniture on display boasted its own sense of occasion. Petite Friture unveiled Eclipse, a swooping chaise longue by Garnier Pingree that is suitable for use both indoors and out. And the team at Groovido channeled hypebeast culture into its Diorama collection, which uses laser-cut aluminum embellishments to add a sense of spark to shelving units (perfect for showing off your sneaker collection).

Meanwhile, a pair of avant-garde installations anchored each floor. Downstairs, a drinking station by Studio Douze Degrés served up various flavoured waters from a jumble of taps and tubes that looked like a cross between a water tower and a jelly fish, while upstairs, a water fountain by Adrianus Kundert featured a rotating disco ball covered in googly eyes. Everything Everywhere All at Once fans were in their element.