REPORTAGE: LIGNE ROSET - RONAN AND ERWAN BOUROULLEC
14/12/2011
The shape of ploum makes it incredibly relaxed, positively encouraging the adoption of quite intimate sitting positions. It is, in consequence more a settee for the home than anywhere else.
Constance Rubini: Ronan, Erwan: how did you get to know Michel Roset?
Erwan Bouroullec: We met when we were working on the Outdoor chair, more than ten years ago now.
CR: This chair had an innovative design. It was a folding chair, with a fl exible curving hinge?
EB: Yes, it opened out like a petal. It also had the advantage of being very fl at when closed.
CR: I understand that Michel Roset’s interest was piqued straight away, since this chair demanded great precision in the execution of its seams, which of course is one of his company’s particular specialities.
Ronan Bouroullec: Yes with this chair everything depends on the success of the hinges, which must not cause so much as a single crease in the fabric. Ligne Roset’s expertise in this respect is excellent: they sew very well, they work intelligently with fabrics, they are experts in working with foam. That is their strength, the thing that makes them stand out.
EB: The ‘outdoor idea’ has interested us ever since: a seat with all the qualities of a good sports shoe – hard-wearing, comfortable, dynamic, covered in an impermeable fabric. But – with hindsight – perhaps we made it a little too dry. We developed the shape of this chair using a series of minia- ture prototypes. The design of the seat & back sections was so singular that it just couldn’t be visualised in 2D.
Sewing is a craft with so many design-related nuances that an intermediate stage of small-scale prototypes was required. This approach, developed as a result of the questions raised by this model in particular, had a huge infl uence on the way in which our way of working developed from that point on. Even when we do a lot of drawing, by hand or on the computer, it seems essential to us to compare these drawings with the miniature models.
CR: And how did things develop between Outdoor (2001) & Facett (2005)?
RB: While we were working on Outdoor, we discovered the factory’s digital sewing robots. They were programmed to pro duce mattress covers & quilts, & were perfect for sewing large areas. We said to ourselves then that these machines had yet more potential, that they would enable us to work towards ‘hyper geometry’, contrary to the normal soft, fl owing look of fabric. We did initial trial runs with paper, then experimented with fabrics on our own sewing machines. We tried to lend them form, to give them greater ‘hold’. We discussed these intuitive trials with Michel Roset.
EB: Facett arose entirely from this intuitive beginning. The idea did not come out of nowhere: it arose from the particular- ities of the Roset factories and their equipment. Its use of
“A question which is central to our work: how can one develop an individual character from often similar requirements?”
RB: Yes, as an in-house designer Ducaroy had a good under standing of the company’s identity & capabilities, particularly in respect of its work with foam. This also helps us understand the company’s success.
EB: Right from when we developed the A’Poc boutique for Issey Miyake, we have been interested in knitted textiles. In the studio there were dresses which had been knitted in one piece, without seams. And several years later we discovered a knitted fabric made from a stretchy material that was just as elastic as tights, which will never wrinkle. I am fascinated with this mate rial, which wraps itself around the body without restricting it & which allows the body to retain its freedom.
RB: We then took this extremely stretchy fabric & at the same time encouraged Ligne Roset to work with much softer memo ry foams than they usually used. Very fl exible foams were obtained, across which the fabric was pulled very tightly. The final shape of the settee arises from this marriage of foam and fabric.
EB: The body can sink into this settee as if falling into sand, or into a Sacco. With one diff erence: since the foam has an excel lent ‘memory’ for forms, it moulds itself precisely to the shape of the body. Its very shape means that one can relax complete ly, adopting relatively intimate sitting positions. This means it is more suited to the home than to public spaces. It corresponds to the intimacy of private rooms & is evocative of a nest.
CR: Yes, a completely homogeneous form: it is impossi ble to make out the point at which the back and seat be come one.
EB: Exactly. There is not one hard point in this settee, its shape is the result of a kind of magic. The fabric is pulled taut, there are no folds or creases, it stretches & fl exes, it is an abstract form, free, very organic, reminiscent of the sculptures of Sir Henry Moore or Jean Arp.
CR: You have collaborated with many other companies & brands, both Italian & German. What, in your opinion, marks out Ligne Roset from all other purveyors of de sign-led furniture?
EB: In contrast with the Italian manufacturers, whose products are mostly produced by a network of manufacturers, Ligne Ro set retains mastery of the essentials in terms of production, in its own factories. That has a far reaching eff ect. These are pie ces intended for a wider public than the Italian products, the distribution of which is much more restricted. With such a mar ket presence, Ligne Roset is able to off er impeccable product quality.
RB: It means a lot to us that our products achieve the widest possible distribution. And then there is of course Ligne Roset’s particular talent in the field of working with foam & upholstery, which of course was the starting-point for our work on Facett & Ploum. Both models owe their very originality to this prowess. Forms developed from the possibilities off ered by the digital sewing robots. The character of this piece evolved through the modern use of these tools. When one cuts a settee like a dia mond, the result is Facett.
RB: It was also the right time to rethink production methods, which had long revolved around the work of seamstresses, which were executed manually. How could one envision a mo del which lay between the two methods: produced manually, yet also using digital machines?
CR: That must have thrown up questions within the busi ness. What does ‘sewing’ mean today? And which skills does it require these days in the context of Roset? Out-
door, Facett & the latest model Ploum: all three are close ly bound up with the sewing and upholstery process which governs their outward appearance. Mind you, you
managed to give each one of them a completely diff erent, unique shape, although all three had a shared starting-point...
EB: That question is central to our work: how can one develop an individual character from often similar requirements? With Ploum, we again asked ourselves the question of comfort. We wanted to move towards the kind of comfort which emanates from extreme softness, where the body is more or less prone.
CR: In contrast to Facett, which is geometrically structured. Its highly structured form is not necessarily redo lent of comfort. But Ploum is comfortable right from the very fi rst glance, if you can put it like that.
EB: Yes, Facett’s lockstitch seam deprived the fabric of a de gree of freedom. With Ploum, we worked around the idea of a deeper, more organic form. A free form. For which we had in mind what is for us the most interesting model in the Roset collection: Michel Ducaroy’s Togo.