The (Re)Generation! of Maison & Objet January 2020: Part I
Bonjour tout le monde, ça va? I hope your holiday was magnifique. I guess we’re all winding down after the chaos that inevitably comes that time of year. Personally I’m ready to move into 2020 with a clear vision and focus on the future while enjoying every present moment!
With The Paris Apartment, I’m slipping into a new phase too. Of course we’ll still be about all things luxe, French, boudoir et belle, but promoting what’s sustainable; natural products that are reusable, recycled, up-cycled, made by hand and creative. Equally exciting is we’ll be meeting the créateurs et créatrices behind the ideas; the innovators who dream up and bring to life new products as well as those who’ve been walking a holistic path for years, paving the way.
The best way to find them all in one place is at the Maison & Objet. It’s the world’s chicest home and accessories trade show. The events are held twice a year at Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. It’s an enormous venue with multiple halls, thousands of exhibitors from all over the world, art, installations, conferences, workspaces and interactive events. This year’s dates are January 17-21, 2020 and September 4-8, 2020.
There’s a lot. The map below will definitely help.
As it turns out, Maison et Objet event planners and exhibitors are on the same trajectory as so many of us. Take a look at their theme this month:
2020 Theme: “(RE) GENERATION!” Playing the nostalgia card is out of the question! So, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, MAISON&OBJET is looking to the future and, in its upcoming January and September editions, will set out to analyse the attitudes, desires and expectations of Generation Y and Z’s digital natives. A whole year’s celebrations will be devoted to these committed millennials who, confronted with the many current crises, are looking for a better world, changing the rules and revolutionising consumer behaviour in both the home and lifestyle sectors.
I started digging around the Exhibitor List and got lost in the story of Plantes & Parfums. It’s hard not to charmed by this pure and natural business…
where they work
their instagram!
their philosophy
their blog…see what I mean? And that is just the beginning.
Anyway there’s a huge push in the sustainability movement and everyone’s into it, including the designers who received talent awards this year. They’re inventors, designers and progressive thinkers who are rethinking outmoded objects and ideas.
RISING TALENT AWARDS
maison-objet.com/rising-talent-awards-january-2020
The Paris-based duo Natacha Poutoux and Sacha Hourcade is intent of revolutionizing the world of household electrical appliances and to bring design to fields where it is often ignored. The pair both graduated from ENSCI Les Ateliers and then trained with some of contemporary design’s most iillustrious names—the Bouroullec brothers and Stefan Diez for Natacha, India Mahdavi for Sacha. They founded their own firm in 2017.
“Nowadays, technical or electrical objects are generally conceived by engineers, whereas we’d like to approach designing them in the same way as you would a chair. We also want to introduce different savoir-faire and materials. At present, companies tend to make everything out of plastic.
Sacha: For example, we’ve created an air humidifier, in which the water container is made of glass. That brings up new questions about its life cycle. What do you do with it afterwards? And do you place it somewhere visible or do you continue to hide it like most other humidifiers today?”
After studying at ENSCI Les Ateliers in Paris and the University of Arts in Berlin, Adrien Garcia worked for five years for an interior design practice specialized in wellness and spa projects. He set up his own firm in 2019 and is currently in the process of developing his debut furniture collection.
“All the materials I use are more or less natural. If not, they’re either recycled or repurposed by an artisan. I have a really, really big aversion to plastic. I can’t stand it. Instead, I prefer to use oak and have my own trees in the forest on my property.”
Nominated by the director of the Ecole Camondo, René-Jacques Mayer.
Laureline Galliot trained as a dancer and as a textile colorist before taking a degree in design at ENSCI-Les Ateliers in Paris. Using an iPad and virtual reality software initially developed for the animated film industry, she creates objects by sculpting with color. Four of them have already found their way into the French National Design Collection at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris.
“I’m really passionate about the way industry has distorted things, even in the food sector. There’s a standardization of forms, with only shapes that can be easily molded. We’ve ended up producing vegetables in that way. They all have to be perfect geometrical forms. There’s no longer a place for anything misshapen. I want to reeducate people’s eye to things that are less industrial and more organic, where the ultimate goal is no longer a sort of perfect rigor.”
Whew!
Last but not least for today’s deep dive is a list of cool places once you’re outside the fairgrounds and back in the heart of Paris. It’s some of the great restaurants, work and hybrid spaces that are embracing the philosophy of zero waste and conscious living. From the M&O website: THIS IS PARIS!
Connected, veggie, vintage, ethical, collaborative, and activist: the next-gen Parisian lifestyle in fifteen inspired spots.
Though the “(RE) GENERATION!” theme of the fair gives you the keys to understand this new context, Paris is already living in tune with the latest consumer trends. Here’s our ideal tour of the city. (this is an abbreviated list…get the full monte here:
L’Abattoir Végétal
Does a funky take on healthy tempt you? Ava Farhang advocates for the concept of a healthy mind in a fun environment. Yes, you can like healthy seeds and grains and good home cooking, too, and this is just what this new spot on the Left Bank wants to show us. Chef Jenny Boniton cooks up delicious, cross-cultural vegetarian or vegan cuisine by taking inspiration from the many flavors of the world. And here’s some good news: you can dine all day, from noon to midnight, and small bites to share (kaho pad sapparot, baba ganoush, and more) can be savored alongside stunning cocktails such as the Goji-berry and litchi Spritz.
Open Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-00:00, 9 rue Guisarde, 6th arrondissement Paris. www.abattoirvegetal.fr
Deskopolitan
Resolutely in the category of all-purpose venues, here’s a place that’s a co-working space, boutique hotel, restaurant, gym, rooftop vegetable garden, speakeasy, and barber shop, all in one! It’s an urban campus that’s one-of-a-kind in Europe, dedicated to work and to personal development. The interior design was a creation of London-based architectural firm MoreySmith, which has, in particular, crafted the design of Primark’s offices.
226 boulevard Voltaire, 11th arrondissement Paris. deskopolitan.com/
Maif social club
A hybrid space for co-working, having a cup of coffee, and getting in some culture, with an innovative, multidisciplinary program of events (exhibitions, shows, debates, workshops, etc.) that raise questions about the new ways we consume, the housing of the future, sustainable development, activism in the era of the social web, or the ecological transition. A 1000-square-meter space at the heart of the Marais that’s free and open to the public…what a dream!
Monday-Friday 10:00-20:30 and Saturdays 10:00-19:00, Le Maif Social Club, 37, rue de Turenne, 3rd arrondissement Paris. Tel. +33 (0)1 44 92 50 90. Free access.
Jours à venir
This is THE new eco-friendly boutique in the Abbesses area! Alice and Léa tested their finds online before opening a shop IRL. They’ve selected around fifty brands focused on direct distribution, recycling, and organic products. With, as a bonus, workshops on-site to help you learn to make your own cosmetics and decorative or lifestyle accessories.
Monday through Saturday 10:30-19:30, and Sundays 13:00-18:00, 2, rue Androuet, 18th arrondissement Paris. www.joursavenir.com
La Recyclerie
A social space dedicated to eco-consciousness, La Recyclerie is constantly showing a new face. You might meet up here to have a bite to eat, fix something at René’s workshop, do some gardening at the urban farm set up in the former rail yard of the Gare d’Ornano, or attend a talk. It’s the essential spot to find out more about zero-waste living, recycling, permaculture, or collaborative consumption.
Open Monday-Friday 8:00-00:00, Saturdays 12:00-02:00, and Sundays 11:00-22:00, 83 boulevard Ornano, 18th arrondissement Paris. www.larecyclerie.com
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