Bask in the 'Microarchitecture' of the Sophisticated Bouroullec Brothers

Brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, 40 and 35, were Awarded a midcareer exhibition in France in the Centre Pompidou-Metz, from October 2011 to July 2012. Following the show’s run in their home nation, it led to Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, where I basked in the remarkable output of the design-team duo over the course of the previous 15 decades. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac continues there through January 20, 2013.

The exhibit’s subtitle, Bivouac, describes a temporary camp, generally an improvised one, with no tent. This isn’t a direct reference to a particular function but to a mind-set. As opposed to focusing on stand-alone objects that fit into their surroundings in some manner, the brothers’ designs are often elements which are pieced together with the user or person to shape a distance. “Microarchitecture” is a phrase often used to describe their designs, make sure they screens made of smaller components or individual pieces of furniture.

This ideabook walks throughout the display in the MCA, highlighting a range of the designs, particularly the ones which function to transform the gallery areas. These transformations hint at the potential of the designs for functioning in residential interiors.

John Hill

The display takes up four concurrent galleries capped with barrel-vaulted skylights. In between the four galleries is a mild well that extends to the first floor.

Taking a left after entering the display, one enters the first gallery, which includes an impressive suspended wall created from their Twigs, which they made for Vitra in 2004, the identical year as their Algues modules.

John Hill

Designed for rooftops in Paris, the Twigs (or Branches) are plastic bits clipped onto flat cables. They may be put close together to achieve sufficient density for cutting down on wind, for instance. A close-up reveals the three-dimensional nature of the clips.

John Hill

The grey end of the Twig wall is the background for the Assemblage piece, made for Galerie kreo in 2004. Though the piece is more in line with traditional furniture (being a stand-alone object), it still begs the question, “What can I do with this?”

The surface is large enough for use while standing, and also the shorter one could feasibly be used as a table. The piece is really only 1 chance of Assemblage, which consists of bits which may be put together in various ways. The brothers argue that they are “bits of furniture intended to ‘sponsor’ objects that one would put on them”

John Hill

Just beyond the Twigs is a “wall” created from their Clouds layout that bisects the gallery. Clouds was made in 2008 for Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat. From Algues to Twigs to Clouds, the names may indicate lightness, however, the result is much more opacity and heaviness. Only pinpoints of light make it through the divider.

John Hill

Made of compressed foam and cloth, the divider includes a three-dimensional form.

John Hill

A close-up reveals the triangulated contours of the Clouds and how they fit together: Extension tabs are bundled together with rubber bands.

John Hill

On the opposite side of the wall is what seems to be the front of the Clouds — or is it the rear? This side does not show the relations between bits, but together with the brothers’ work, both front and rear are attractive.

John Hill

This shot is another side of the prior closeup. The red panel on the rear is orange on front, grey is green and light blue is glowing blue.

John Hill

The second gallery includes their stand-alone seats, couches and other pieces of furniture in the center, surrounded by sketches on the walls.

John Hill

One of the bits on this gallery is that the Slow Chair, designed for Vitra in 2007 and accompanied by an ottoman. Alongside the light well is a little area with Bouroullec seats for sitting in. I’ll acknowledge the Slow Chair is very comfortable for lounging.

John Hill

The Vegetal Chair, designed for Vitra in 2008, is readily the Bouroullecs’ most famous design. The title is apt, as a good surface is eschewed in favor of ribs which flow such as portions of a tree or a plant. This result is heightened from the bright green version of the chair; it is also available in gray, white, orange and brown.

John Hill

The Alcove Highback Sofa — another piece made for Vitra (2007) — epitomizes the brothers’ notion of microarchitecture. This idea was clear when I stumbled on the sofa (it was in a place near the light well where it and other seating was there to really be used); the walls are large enough that the sounds and sight of the room are cut down. It’s enveloping and quite calming.

John Hill

Filling the light well are numerous those brothers’ Cloud Modules, designed for Cappellini in 2002. Each white vinyl module is made up of eight curved openings which clip together to shape dividers between distances.

The installment at the MCA reveals an extreme possibility. The manner in which the heavy modules make it possible for glimpses through them on the axes but not in angles comes within this picture.

John Hill

In 2010 the brothers displayed at Galerie kreo in Paris. The show focused on limited-edition bits, like the Conques, wall-mounted lamps which may be ordered at will. While tree-like in how the cords are trunked together, there’s something bug-like about the lamps.

John Hill

Recall that part of the Assemblage piece the Bouroullecs made for Galerie kreo in 2004, revealed earlier, carries a helmet-shape lamp. That is a theme that the brothers carried through in afterwards kreo bits, like the 2008’s Black Light, which sits in a portal leading to the gallery.

Both lamps are suspended before a white version of the Clouds, a background which allows the form of the lamps to stand outside.

John Hill

At the end of the last gallery is a display of the Osso Collection, designed for Mattiazzi in 2011. The collection contains a chair, an armchair, a children’s chair and stools.

Each piece is made from simple wood components that incorporate computer technology (Computer numerical control, or CNC, machines manufacture the individual bits) and also an emphasis on locally sourced timber. The brothers draw parallels with an organic farm.

John Hill

A bunch of Osso seats are sprinkled among the galleries, there for people to sit and take from the different Bouroullec creations. Here is just one of those seats before a very long wall made of the North Tiles (Kvadrat, 2006).

John Hill

The North Tiles are very similar to the Bouroullecs’ Clouds, however they have a more regular size that makes an orthogonal pattern, either with the foam and cloth tiles as well as the tabs that link them to one another.

John Hill

The North Tiles were initially designed for Kvadrat’s showroom, where the dividers curved to specify space and peeled up to allow access. The color possibilities provide the user a lot of liberty, although the gray-to-green gradient of the large wall in the MCA reveals one very attractive method of assembling the tiles.

John Hill

The Honda Vase was created in 2001 as a limited-edition piece for Galerie kreo. The carefully formed and balanced fiberglass body (shiny outside, matte inside) creates a striking background for seedlings or other flowers.

The piece fits in with the Bouroullecs’ larger oeuvre: Its organic shape has an indisputable attractiveness but departs from that which we believe of traditionally as a vase. It also has the quality, consistent with all their designs, of provoking although it exudes calmness.

John Hill

The display’s entry is an archway made from their Algues modules. The spindly, plant-like pieces of plastic fit together into whatever form that the user desires. They help define a distance while letting lots of light throughout.

Exhibition information: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac continues through January 20, 2013, in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

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