Bernard Dubois, one of today's most sought-after young architects, designed the Ligne 102 cork installation for Ligne Roset’s participation in the 2019 edition of New York Design Week, which runs until May 22. Described by Dubois as "Windows to the Future," Ligne 102 has pride of place in Ligne Roset’s Park Avenue showroom, presenting a unique and unexpected visual concept of cork in this annual celebration of design, which attracts hundreds of thousands of international participants.
The architect designed a set of modular items, using forms that depict various architectural periods, from the 1451 "Palazzo Rucellai, by Alberti" to the 1972 "Muralla Roja". He chose cork - granulated natural cork and expanded granulated cork - since it met all the project’s structural and visual requirements. Viewed as a whole the items offer a dynamic installation, which will occupy the display windows of Ligne Roset’s shops during NY Design Week, thus offering an unprecedented focus on the launch of the prestigious brand’s new collections.
The Belgian architect, Bernard Dubois, decided to use cork because he values its lightness, softness and naturalness, and has created a series of modular objects, using solids and voids to create geometric forms with solid edges. The cork modules’ design is based on historical architectural elements, such as arches, pillars, bridge-like structures, trusses, beams and support systems. Dubois drew his inspiration from the history of architecture - from the Palazzo Rucellai by Alberti, the pictorial universe of Giorgio de Chirico; La Fábrica by Ricardo Bofill, or the Plaza de los Fueros by Eduardo Chillida and Luis Peña Ganchegui, in Vitória. All the items were produced by Amorim Cork Composites, a Corticeira Amorim company.
Bernard Dubois explains: "This installation is conceived as a system of modular elements, wherein each element resembles an archetypal architectural form. However, the way that they fit together is completely unusual, rather than archetypical. They can be combined in unorthodox manners to create coffee tables, chairs, benches, walls, or even perforated partitions that resemble ancestral architectural forms." The architect hopes that his exploitation of cork, as an architectural material, will highlight its special attributes.
Felix Burrichter, PIN-UP Magazine’s creative editor and curator of this initiative, explains "Dubois has surveyed the geometries of centuries of design, compressing them into elegant shapes produced using one of the world’s oldest and most sustainable materials: cork."
For Cristina Amorim, of Corticeira Amorim, "It’s a great pleasure to be involved in this project, developed with wonderful international partners, such as Ligne Roset and PIN-UP Magazine, who are outstanding promoters of creativity and international design. The development of the creative concept by Bernard Dubois - a brilliant architect seduced by cork - allows us to exhibit a unique visual concept of cork, and present an irreverent approach to its unique natural texture."
About Bernard DuBois:
Adopting a rigorous and analytical approach, Bernard Dubois draws on different tendencies to create coherence and combine opposite trends in the history of architecture. Regardless of the project’s nature, the vocation of Bernard Dubois's architecture is to be informative, contextual, and fundamentally cultural.
His architecture reflects his personality: he graduated from La Cambre in 2009, where he studied chemistry and photography for three years, but steered away from the family heritage of engineers and doctors. He worked with a former associate of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) on a project aimed at presenting a strategic vision for Brussels’ European district. This work was a genuine springboard for his career, which paved the way to him becoming Belgium's representative at the 2014 Venice Biennale. His approach to Belgian interiors created a basis for a new architectural grammar.
About Ligne Roset:
The company’s headquarters has been located in Briord since 1973, but the company has evolved considerably since it was founded. Jean Roset, Pierre and Michel shared the belief that the corporate office should be preserved, in tribute to the history of the Roset family and everyone who has shared the company's evolution.
Synonymous with modern luxury, the brand invites consumers to revel in a design-oriented contemporary lifestyle. It is renowned for its ingenious collaborations with established and rising talents from the world of contemporary design.
Ligne Roset’s products are developed at the Briord factory in France, where quality control is guaranteed from start to finish. The Ligne Roset brand is stamped on each product, and represents an external symbol of perfection.
About PIN-UP:
PIN-UP is a prestigious architecture and design magazine, based in New York. It was founded in 2006 by Felix Burrichter. The magazine regularly interviews renowned architects, complemented by critical essays and photography portfolios on contemporary architecture, art and design. In 2011, the Art Directors Club awarded PIN - UP the Gold Medal for Editorial Design. In 2013, PIN - UP published its first book, which compiled a collection of 68 interviews from the magazine’s early issues.
In addition to its 6-monthly print publication, PIN - UP maintains a successful online presence, via pinupmagazine.org, that features original content - in the form of articles, interviews and videos. PIN-UP also organizes lectures, dinners, seminars and special projects, in collaboration with some of the world's leading institutions (The Met, Palais de Tokyo, Museum of Arts and Design) and design brands, including Adidas, Herman Miller, Vitra, Yeezy and B & B Italia and, of course, Ligne Roset. www.pinupmagazine.org
