Design Now

Autumn in Paris: After the long summer break, the design scene comes alive, kicking off with the formidable Maison&Objet trade fair. Hot on its heels come new gallery openings, intriguing shows and alluring auctions along with blockbuster museum exhibits.

The September edition of M&O showcases outdoor furniture designs in the way the Paris ready-to-wear collections a month later preview summer fashion. One of the cleverest designs this year was the French company EGO Paris’s Puzzle Set. Made of nine sleek foam-and-fabric waterproof pieces that fit into one cubic shape, Puzzle breaks up into four chairs, two chaises longues, two coffee tables and a small gueridon table to provide a plethora of stylish terrace, beach or pool party seating possibilities. 7 rue Saint Paul, 4th, 01.42.77.27.29. website

Paris also offers some not-to- be-missed gallery shows this month. At Galerie Kreo, the fall show stars the elegant minimalism of Martin Szekely’s Heroic Carbon, a carbon fiber table/desk that lends itself to other uses in other dimensions. Naoto Fukasawa’s important Drilling table has a steel base and cylinder legs that are screwed into the floor to support the natural oak top. Pierre Charpin’s All’Aperto table has a round top with artistically irregular circles of colorful Bisazza mosaic tiles set into a fiberglass structure to ensure its resilience in outdoor weather. The show continues through Dec 23. 31 rue Dauphine, 6th, 01.53.10.23.00. website

Designer Christian Ghion, whose credits range from chef Pierre Gagnaire’s three-star restaurants to Lagiole knives and Nespresso coffee cups, was given carte blanche to design whatever he wanted for Galerie Cat-Berro’s fall show. The superb collection of hand-blown glass Vases Communicants, made by the International Center of Glassmaking Art in Meisenthal, in Lorraine, is the result—artistry and artisanal savoir-faire blended to produce vivid, unique pieces of poetry in glass. Through Dec 18. 25 rue Guénégaud, 6th, 01.43.25.58.10. website

German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop’s decorative arts collection from his 1904 Villa Wunderkind outside Berlin provides auction excitement for 20th-century design collectors at Christie’s Paris Nov. 26 sale. Highlights include a major group of furnishings by French designer Alexandre Noll, ranging in estimated price from €1,000 to €12,000 for standard sculptures and objects to a rarefied Champagne cabinet expected to go for some €250,000–€350,000. French favorite Jean Royère’s Boule sofa and chairs are estimated between €80,000 and €120,000, while an amazing Art Deco sideboard by Eugène Printz, with doors decorated with stylized animals by Jean Dunand and Jean Lambert-Rucki—all French Art Deco design stars—is expected to soar to €300,000–€500,000. 9 ave Matignon, 8th, 01.40.76.85.85. website

An eye-popping 1968 orange plastic restaurant booth by Annie Tribell for the cafeteria of the Théâtre de la Ville is the opening flourish of a fascinating exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Mobi Boom, The Explosion of Design in France 1945–1975. In that long post-war period of progress, swooping chaises longues, oversize modular sofas, ergonomic armchairs, curvy banquettes and avant-garde lighting were being produced by a raft of manufacturers—furnishings all designed by such now-familiar names as Pierre Paulin, Roger Tallon, Marc Berthier, Verner Panton, Hans Hopfer, Terence Conran, Gae Aulenti and Marc Held.

But when I arrived in France in the 1960s, none of these pieces were found in the family apartments of my French friends, where the furnishings were still strictly Louis. It has taken until the 21st century for such stars as Paulin, Tallon and Panton to be recognized. Just before Paulin died in 2009, Ligne Roset began producing updated collections of his 1960s and 1970s designs—walk down the design-happy rue de Seine today and you’ll see Paulin chairs priced at €10,000. The exhibit continues through January 2. 107 rue de Rivoli, 1st, 01.44.55.57.50. website

The ranks of 21st-century design may soon be increased by the budding talents of this fall’s MOBI Découverte show, the third edition of Galerie VIA’s biannual project spotlighting the creativity of schoolchildren, who are asked to draw furniture they would like to have. The winning designs are made into prototypes by participating manufacturers. Among the 30 irresistible pieces this year are such bright ideas as a chair with drawers; an armchair whose seat can be adjusted to different heights by adding or subtracting colorful cushions; BTT, an all-terrain desktop and seat on four wheels; Balance-Toi, a rocking sofa; and Pour se Souvenir, a colorful bed with tiny drawers for keepsakes. Through Nov. 14. 33 ave Daumesnil, 12th, 01.46.28.11.11. website

Originally published in the November 2010 issue of France Today.