Inside La Grange, Erwan Bouroullec’s distant artistic retreat

Welcome to the fifth instalment of Wallpaper’s video sequence, The Stuff That Surrounds You. Watch as we’re invited into the intriguing and idiosyncratic properties of creatives and makers (together with, to date, Veronica Ditting, Yasmin Sewell, Glenn Sestig and Michael Anastassiades), catching a glimpse of their inside lives by way of the objects with which they encompass themselves, all of which inform a narrative.

Erwan Bouroullec, recognized for his modern, minimalist strategy to furnishings, interiors and industrial design, is predicated in Paris. However when he must create, he retreats to his distant property within the Burgundy countryside. ‘I’ve been residing in Paris for 35 years, however I form of wanted one other place within the countryside,’ he says. ‘I wanted house to work, to experiment, to attempt issues out.’

What he and his spouse (and their canine, Patapouf) found was an deserted farm constructing, steeped in historical past. Quite than erase what was there, they selected to ‘layer’ their life onto it, working with LVA Architects to protect and respect its authentic parts. A lot of the home’s current options and supplies have been retained, with a couple of up to date interventions added on. ‘The most effective inside you may ever have is [one where you’ve done] as little as attainable,’ says Bouroullec. ‘Maintain each tiny signal of the previous. Add what it’s essential to add, however don’t take away the rest.’

Half sanctuary, half laboratory, the house he has created – often known as La Grange – is a hive of design experimentation. Tractors, instruments, woodwork, even the grass – the whole lot turns into a ‘toy’ to discover, manipulate and be taught from, says the designer. ‘Once I’m right here, I’m constructing rapidly, roughly, however all the time on the lookout for fact within the roughness,’ he displays. ‘It’s grounded, mandatory and playful.’

For Bouroullec, who has labored with main manufacturers equivalent to Vitra, Magis and Alessi – and in artistic collaboration together with his brother Ronan till 2023 – design is greater than inspiration, it’s ‘extremely necessary for on a regular basis life’. He believes areas ought to provide as a lot stimulation as attainable; sterility, in his view, is ‘dangerous to your physique’.

At La Grange, he surrounds himself with objects that turn into small ‘treasures’, inviting interplay, curiosity and marvel. These embrace items sourced from across the globe – a minimal, vibrant, geometric paper field found in Korea, flea-market finds, and design icons just like the outsized, crumpled-paper ‘Maap’ lamp he designed for Flos, in addition to objects made in his personal workshop, equivalent to a picket stool, alongside his personal work.

‘I really like distinction,’ says Bouroullec. ‘Minimal with one thing soiled, geometry with pure imperfection. It creates rigidity, it creates life.’ This sensibility runs by means of his work, which spans furnishings to coding experiments. Take, for instance, the ‘Mynt’ chair, which he developed with Vitra (and which he mentioned with Wallpaper* when the design was launched final yr), which resides at La Grange. It blurs the road between a home and a job chair. ‘I attempted to design it like a motorbike,’ Bouroullec explains. ‘In case your physique is in a foul place, your mind gained’t really feel relaxed. Objects turn into lovely when the consumer shapes them by means of interplay.’

Elsewhere within the designer’s studio are new tasks such because the Samsung Music Studio 5, developed in collaboration with the tech firm – a wi-fi speaker conceived as a gentle, round type, meant to really feel like furnishings quite than a bit of equipment (introduced at CES 2026, it’s not but on the market within the UK).

A go to to La Grange makes evident that, whether or not crafting a high-tech speaker or reimagining a centuries-old fisherman’s instrument, Bouroullec holds quick to a single perception: that design is a fluid, residing and ever-evolving follow.