Probably due to his previous work in the field of music, François Azambourg's approach to design is based on themes and variations. If you ask him what he is working on, he'll answer: "Let me do it first, and then I'll tell you later on what it is." His fundamental theme is materials; his obsessions are variations in objects and the possibilities of light.
The "Hard Sandwich", from the "Pack" to the "Mr. Bugatti" Chair
In 1999 Azambourg initiated his collaboration with the textile company Tissavel for the opening of the new textile museum in Roubaix, the center of France's textile industry. Working with the company's engineers, he urged them not to cut the threads that join two layers of fabric in a manufacturing process related to the production of synthetic fur, and thus invented a 3D fabric, a wire-network weave "sandwiched" between two layers of fabric. It has the materiality of a supple glove held down by a thread network. One can fold it, pack it, cut it into all kind of shapes and fill it. Azambourg's initial experiments with the material led to the "Pack" Chair (2000), which initially comes as a small object no larger than a brick. An aerosol container with a two-part emulsion is inserted between the two layers of fabric, and by turning a knob and shaking (to allow the emulsion to spread), the chair assumes its final form.
First prototype of the tool for the "Mr.
Bugatti" chair
© Photo visual-research.com
In 2001 the designer continued his experiments with other articles of furniture (tables and chairs), and he worked to produce a 3D fabric lamp in 2002, in which the wire threads serve as both the supporting structure of the lamp and as a source of light diffraction. The possibilities of the material seem unending, and in the following year he independently went on to design emergency shelters and boats that have properties similar to those of polyurethane foam, so light and resistant that they could be dropped from a helicopter.
Continuing to research the possibilities of light, strong, expandable materials, Azambourg was invited by Galerie Kreo to design a stool in 2005. His response was a three-footed stool consisting of a thin metal skin filled with polyurethane foam: hard and light. This was the beginning of his celebrated "Mr. Bugatti" series, chairs made of 4/10mm crumpled sheet metal and coated with the enamel paint made for world-famous cars. Appearing in royal blue, red, yellow, and black, the chairs, produced by Capellini, weigh a mere 1.7 kg each.
Tool model and model of the "Mr. Bugatti"chair
©
Photo visual-research.com
Perhaps another talent garnered from his musical background is the designer's willingness to explore a theme through to the very end. Taking a manufacturing process to its logical conclusion, exhausting a material or a principle, that's the key to his innovative design. "Pack" and "Mr. Bugatti" are the result of his perseverance in pursuing the notion of the ´hard sandwich", the hard exterior with a soft filling. "Everything is possible and lightweight in my sketchbook, why can't it be the same with objects? Making a stable chair is simple. Making it stand up with a minimum of material is a lot harder. That's the heart of my research."
More on François Azambourg:
Review of The Design
Annual 2007, Inside: Private Identity,
Part 1 - Design & Identity
Contact:
François Azambourg
3, rue Fouquet
92110 Clichy, France
