3 key highlights from Maison et Objet 2020

The whole design world descended on Paris last week for the biannual international lifestyle, décor and design trade show Maison et Objet, now in its 25th year.

On between the 17th and 21st January, the design fair was awash with the latest and the best new designs from around the globe.

Three key highlights from the show included striking modern lighting designs, eco-conscious new furniture and creative ideas from France's rising stars in design.

Green Focus

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Maison & Objet looked to the future and 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.

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Greenkiss is a new luxury and eco-friendly furniture brand that was launched by Hubert de Malherbe, Thierry Lemaire and Paolo Castelli.

The three seater sofa upholstered in bouclé wool, with a frame and legs in walnut stained ash are all from sustainable supply chain.

Ligne Roset, meanwhile, have been busy working with Kvadrat to develop ‘Really’ - a solid textile board made from recycled industrial textiles including end-of-life white cotton. Shown on its Le Bibliotheque Fi shelving unit by Pierre Paulin and on the ‘EVERYWHERE’ cabinet collection by Christian Werner, Ligne Roset are hoping to offer the sufacer across its much of its cabinet and shelving collections soon.

There were also many more creative projects that continued the show's regeneration theme, such as vases made of wood, and planters made from cane.

The show was brimming with pieces made from natural materials. Bistro chairs with painted-wood frames and pale cane panels, smart daybeds with perforated textures and cabinets with cane-panelled doors.

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The Living collection by François Bernard celebrated all things natural.

Even rugs had a nod to nature, with moss-inspired rugs by FERREIRA DE SÁ.

Lighting

Spanish porcelain brand Lladró debuted its Nightbloom lighting design, made in collaboration with Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. The ethereal chandelier mimics a flower fluttering in the breeze. Its porcelain petals, dotted with gold luster paint, play with light and shadow.

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Also on display was a new design for a tripod lamp by Florence Lemoine, which was the result of a collaboration between a glass maker and a cabinetmaker.

But London based Michael Anastassiades won the prize for the show’s Designer of the Year with his creative lighting.

For this special showcase, he brought together all 16 of his Mobile Chandeliers. Super-slender strips of patinated steel improbably support glowing globes of light and gently sway, suspended from the ceiling like a mobile.

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Rising talent

Eyes were very much on the design show's home turf for the January 2020 edition of the Rising Talents Awards. Each edition of Maison & Objet focusses on a new generation of creatives from a specific country for its Rising Talent Awards. This year the spotlight was on France, as six French emerging designers were picked out by a jury that includes Pierre Charpin, Didier Krzentowski, Guillaume Houzé, Pierre Yovanovitch, René-Jacques Mayer and Françoise Seince.

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René-Jacques Mayer, one of the jury members and the director of the Ecole Camondo said ‘there are currently two main trends in the young french design scene; the first is that designers are developing stronger links with craftsmanship. They are distinguishing themselves less with industrial products than with objects produced in limited quantities using traditional savoir-faire. Secondly, they are no longer interested in simply designing a chair, but develop projects that are much more societal. Their overriding aim is to solve problems and come up with new uses’.

Studio Adret founder Adrien Garcia presented a modular furniture system contained within a huge pink cuboid, pictured above.

Meanwhile design duo Natacha & Sacha reimagined electronic goods including a dehumidifier.

Their aim is try to bring a softer aesthetic to domestic products that are not typically seen as design objects.

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Their designs include an air humidifier that looks more like a glass vase, a ceramic data server designed to be on display and a radiator made up of suspended columns.

Wendy Andreu strives for her designs to reflect how they are made.

Materials are the central focus of Wendy Andreu's work, like this rough-textured bookshelf above, and the shelving unit below...

... and a stool comprising eight steel tubes.

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Designer Mathieu Peyroulet Ghilini showcased his love of glass and simple geometric forms.