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Les Belles Rencontres continues its series of meetings within its community with the portrait of a designer returned since February 1st, 2023 in the collections of the Mobilier National. He presented his creation to Brigitte Macron and… to us! We tell you.

JULIEN GORRIAS

Interview by Juliette Pourrat

As a designer of object, furniture and space. Manual creation and movement are Julien’s passions, guided by a philosophy: positive design. Julien Gorrias had several lives before design. First a craftsman of wood and leather in Italy for the manufacture of masks of commedia dell’ Arte in 2008, it is the show, the scenography and the staging that lead him a few years later on an experimental and totally innovative ground: humanoid robotics. Subsequently, he joined the Ensci-Les ateliers. Noticed by Alberto Alessi, he participated in the 2018 Maison & Objets fair and WantedDesign in New York.

Today, he integrates the collections of the Mobilier National and works, with the studio Carbone14 that he founded, institutions and companies in their transition through positive design to reduce their environmental impact.

JULIETTE

Hi Julien, can you introduce yourself ?

JULIEN

Hi, I am 37 years old, 3 children and I am a product and service designer at my agency, Carbone 14 studio, since 2020. I have a rather atypical career because I started in theater and staging. I made a first turn when I started doing animation and design for the Nao robot at Aldébaran Robotics. And that’s when I had the courage to resume my studies of industrial design at ENSCI-Les Ateliers. I founded my studio Carbone 14 as soon as I received my diploma, in full lockdown!  But beyond my background, what really characterizes me is my taste for objects, from the way they were designed, to their manual or industrial manufacture, and their wear. I love seeing time pass through the wear and tear of a cup, door handle or stair step. And that’s what I’ve tried to value in my studio. We make articles that are made to last. To gain value over the years. There is always work around the birth and death of my objects. If we take the chair that hides the forest, it is made of raw wood, French and local, but above all, without glues or solvents harmful to the environment. And it has seeds in its feet. So when it’s broken, you can leave it in the woods. The chair degrades completely without negative impact on the environment. And in addition, it replants trees! 

JULIETTE

Are you getting into the acquisitions of  Mobilier National ?

JULIEN

Yes, it’s a great honor. It’s extremely rewarding and it strengthens me in my ambitious beliefs about positive designing process that’s what I called creating objects that gain value over time unlike planned obsolescence or fashion. It is ambitious from Mobilier National to share the vision of a new, more sustainable design process. And I am very proud to be alongside other designers, big or recent, like the Brichet-Ziegler studio who are great sources of inspiration for me! 

JULIETTE

I love your 'Torii' table, can you tell me more?

JULIEN

Torri, it's the center table which enters Mobilier National. She is inspired by a print from the 19th century from the Japanese painter Kawase Hasui. I'm fascinated by Japan and its craftsmanship. I wanted to create a piece of furniture in tribute to this print. I draw with 3 different trays of different sizes and heights, supported by 6 legs. In the front, we see a Torri like in the painting. The legs are covered by 12 layers of painting inspired by this piece: blue, then white, et finally the visible part, red. With time, life and its impacts, the painting is going to wear out and reveal the colours of the under-layers: the white of the snow, then the blue of the ocean

JULIETTE

What are your projects for the future ?

JULIEN

I continue my work over the lifetime of the objects and their deterioration. At this moment I work on a stool and a service table for completing the Torri line, but also on a sofa and a metal lamp. I'd like to find bold furniture editors for my projects but also book editors pour the design methods that I have developed.
And in parallel to the creation of my own pieces, I work for diverse clients. I have, for example, a project that is still a secret, where I've been working for 4 years, with the Saint-Anne Hospital, around its sound. I also collaborate with a brand of luxury watches, with Ready-To-Wear for the conception of their showcases, stands and pop-ups or still, for the wine-producing field for conceive the client experience for the visit of the domain, and the model of the place.

JULIETTE

What's your vision of Design ?

JULIEN

To me, the design has to sign itself in the time, and has to be in phase with the challenges of our planet. To buy furniture made with wood from Eastern Europe and solvents made out of petrol, transported and assembled in Asia, then delivered in France, and all of that, for the minimum cost, that seems obsolete to me ! At the same time, I understand the financial challenges of the consumers. The design has to adapt itself to these new issues. It's because of this that our ecological challenge has to pass to the creation of values and not by the demagogy, that's also the design.

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