home office modern – DesignApplause

Interview with designer toan nguyen. Neocon 2013.

Oct 10, 2013

Laguntas was debuted at Salone 2013 but we wanted to the the designer of this interesting hybrid sofa/lounge, Toan Nguyen. We find him at Neocon 2013
[DesignApplause] Toan, tell us about the big idea within this product.
[Toan Nguyen] The Coalesse current tagline is ‘Work and Home’ and our concept maybe brings a little of the home into the office, a little office into the home. The home is more private, typically, than in the office, and a screen concept is incorporated early and the sofa can now function as a divider. An when we’re in a more expansive environment such as common space within and office or public space such as the lobby of a hotel, an aisle in an airport, we can feel more private with this concept.

Once we address the space issue we ask how to possibly add a little more versatility which we achieve with two operative sitting positions. And maybe you need to write and you don’t have any tables and we can add a table accessory. We also offer both high and low options and the low behaves as a sectional sofa. We just have a range from a lounging to an architectural product. Once the applications are met we realize we’ve created an all-in-one tool with applications that range from lounging to an architectural product. Laguntas is really a tool.

[DA] You’ve described shape and application. Tell us about the technology, the engineering.
[TN] At first glance this is a low-tech item, i.e, not made for gadgets. But the engineering of the product itself embraces technology. This collection is completely engineered, not a craft project but a complete industrial production product. We experimented with plastic: recycling, separation processes and injected several plastic pieces where metal was used before. Plastic today is really strong and light. Another innovation is a three-dimensional mesh on the panels. The metal frame under the bench is an innovation with a very thin and strong profile. A very durable fabric. The back cushion is innovative in shape and works as a complete upright back cushion or turn it around and it supports only your lower back. Two ergonomic options. The cushion surprisingly was a very long process because it’s difficult to create soft things. And no levers, knobs, motors to achieve this new shape. Simple.

[DA] I sat in the lounge and the cushion concept is unique. The down position of the cushion gives great support for the lower back.
[TN] Yes, you get lower back support with minimum materials and structure and all the support that you need.

[DA] Toan, what did you learn?
[TN] Many of the processes to engineer the sofa were new to me. I’ve mostly worked with Italian and German companies and this was my first project with an American brand and Coalesse has a very detailed process. It was interesting how all the challenges were addressed and overcome considering the numerous options offered in this collection. I also wanted to keep the look very clean and simple, with no visible fasteners and effortless adjustments.

[DA] We have a couple of Eames Sofa Compact’s at home, and you see springs and screws, everything, in this 1954 product.
[TN] The evolution of the chair began before ’54. But the sofa’s evolution is very recent and still going on. A lot of innovation is happening right now. I feel fortunate to be designing a sofa in this period. It’s challenging and rewarding.

[DA] I’ve talked to several designers about the construction of your frame. It’s very thin and light but strong.
[TN] We refer to the frame as a table. There are no springs but there is softness. And the cushions are independent. If more than one person is sitting and one moves the movement is contained with that person. Which is more important at the office than at home. The contract demands are greater as the user is quite diverse. We wanted a sofa that fits your needs but at the same time the main goal was application.

[DA] What do you see today that excites you?
[TN] I enjoy working with a good team, a creative team. And the team is the design firm as well as the client. You need to find the people who really want to step forward to create a product with the right edginess. A recipe with stimulating ingredients but with a common vision. That’s exciting.

[DA] How were you brought into this project?
[TN] It was very simple. I had common friend with the director of photography for Coalesse. And we met over dinner, which is the best place, to share a discussion. And from this meeting we were asked to work on a small project. Then asked again for a slightly larger project. And then we were asked to develop Laguntas. Finally.

[DA] What’s next?
[TN] I usually prefer not to speak until I can touch it. There are some things going on for sure, but you will see later.

[DA] How do you reach the conclusion of a project?
[TN] The first process is generating ideas and then translating ideas through sketches. Then to computer renderings which refine the shape. Next, and what I really like anyway, is the prototyping. That’s when we start to touch and I like to touch, to feel, to see. The drawings and small models only take you so far. We need to taste and touch it. Prototyping consists of making parts, stitching fabrics, testing, putting all the pieces together. Everything is a question of making.

[DA] Who’s doing the prototyping: Coalesse, you, both?
[TN] We jumped directly to 1:1 scale prototyping at Coalesse. Each part was arrived at through detailed drawings. After trial and error with this part or that we arrive at 90% of the final.

[DA] A two-year process?
[TN] Even more.

[DA] Is there anything that we didn’t talk about?
[TN] Now that we’ve presented this product, I’m very curious about how will it be received, how will it be applied. It’s not a sofa confined to the living room where tradition gives us insight on the life of a living room sofa. That alone makes me wonder if I will try it and how that plays out. There’s the feeling that I’m not controlling things now and I’ve now passed Lagunitas along.

[DA] For me, when I’ve done something and it’s over, I’m a little sad. I grew comfortable with the process and the relationship and it’s like saying goodbye.
[TN] I’m quite happy. Because I can get back in the mix. There’s so many ideas, so many projects and so few good products. You know, we both about the sadness and the happiness but I feel we’re both about the drama and the passion.

[ toan nguyen ] was born in Paris in 1969 and graduated in Industrial Design at ENSCI-Les Ateliers in Paris, in 1995. After experiences in several design studios in Paris, Barcelona and Milan and notably ten years of collaboration with Antonio Citterio as design director and design partner, signing products for many brands such as Axor-Hansgrohe, B&B Italia, Flos, Fusital, Guzzini, Iittala, Kartell, Metalco, Skantherm, Technogym or Vitra, Toan Nguyen founded his own design studio based in Milan in 2008.

Toan Nguyen Studio is a multidisciplinary Atelier focused on design development in many different design fields, from furniture to technological products, in partnership with leading international companies based in Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and USA such as Accademia, Coalesse, Dedon, Fendi Casa, Gruppo Busnelli, Laufen, Lema, Moroso, Urmet Group, Varaschin, Viccarbe and Walter Knoll.

The Bellows Collection designed for Walter Knoll has won a Red Dot Design Award in 2010, Antero, designed for Laufen, has obtained the Red Dot Design Award 2012 and Lagunitas, designed for Coalesse, has won the Best of Neocon award 2013.

[ coalesse ]

Interview with designer jean-marie massaud. Neocon 2013.

Sep 16, 2013

[DesignApplause] Jean-Marie, tell us a little bit about the project you’re working on for Coalesse.
[Jean-Marie Massaud] We are working with Coalesse on a liberal amount of products. which are not just products. Today, companies realize that work is being rephrased, today it’s about work and life. You see, the space and timeframe for working has changed, and Coalesse is trying to provide solutions that’s linked with this new way of living and working.

Some of us either have to work or if lucky, choose to work. My life today is to work on vacation and it took 15-years to accomplish this. I have been working this way for two years. I live near Saint Paul De Vence, in the city of La Colle-Sur-Loup. Part of my team is in Paris, part of my team is in Brittany.

[DA] How big is your team?
[JM] We have 15 people, not so much, but involved in big projects in architecture and the car industry. And these are few projects, not so many. I live alone with my family and I don’t have any people that are working with me in La Colle-Sur-Loup. And I work with my graphic tablet, receiving and sending drawings. I’m linked everyday, but I live on vacation.

I’ve proposed that my team also work on vacation. A lot of them want to stay in Paris, in Brittany. And they are not students, which was another kind of life scenario. They are efficient professionals, not obliged to be a prisoner of an office tower at work.

And so we tried to develop with Coalesse this idea, because it’s natural for them. It’s can be said, it’s a philosophy in which they believe. And when they came to visit me, I told them my dream is to be able to work and also be able to enjoy simple dalliances. So after I drop off my kids to school, I have a coffee. I’m looking at the sea, looking at the mountains. There is the snow.

During the coffee, I discuss with the waiter – he knows me – “Voila! What are you doing?” “I don’t know.” And: chat, chat, chat, chat. After half an hour, it’s done. And then I have to communicate. So I come back to the Wacom tablet, usually, to sketch. Or, when I have a very good connection with the iPad a video conference is possible.

And once I send the sketch to my office I’m free! And because I’m free I might do some sailing. And in this space my brain, packed full of many things suffers little constraint but just thinking about what’s next. I am always writing notes. While lying on the bed when I’m at the hotel or after I go do a run like I did this morning, I write more notes. And the work of the day is done.

[DA] So you write many many notes. You draw with a tablet, you have an Ipad, do you write digital notes or on paper?
[JM] I have – what do you say – a love for notes? My office manager tells that I have too many papers. My system works for me though I’m still waiting for an iPad with a graphic sensitivity.

[DA] There are applications and pressure sensitive styluses for the iPAd.
[JM] Not quite, yet. What I would love, let’s say, during a video conference, sketches could be sent, corrections made on the tablet and then sent back. It would eliminate the need to refine the sketch on paper and scan it. I could correct the exact curve, or exact section… I had this same conversation with Jonathan Ives three years ago. There’s a market. My freedom is linked to this product!

[DA] You want to do everything while on that boat!
[JM] That would be fantastic!

[DA] Tell us what your doing with Coalesse.
[JM] Our first attempt was to put the task into perspective. Coalesse creates classic furniture that’s relevant for the work space or home. I told them the best lounge chair in thw world is the Eames chair from Herman Miller. There’s no other product so smart and competent. If we are to do something – another one great one – maybe it’s not about the architecture, maybe it’s about the integration of your way of living, the sensitivity of the finishes. And so the final customer or the architect specifying the project, makes this product their own because of the link to life, to work. All of this made possible, not with a high-tech solution but with a lounge chair with an ottoman.

The chair is kind of an evolution. It now has a movable work surface in which to place an iPad, to…

[DA] Take notes. Jean-Marie, this chair is designed for you!
[JM] Yes yes, quite possibly. There’s a light in the canopy. A hands-free clip-on device holder. We can video conference in this lounge. A further evolution is maybe the need of intimacy, because if I am in a hotel, a creative agency, there is need for quiet space with little visual disturbances so we pull over the canopy.

If we reconsider the space of walking in an office or a dorm, the space has to be thoughtless. It only has to look like your private place, because more and more people want to feel- how do you say- to feel love more than efficiency. (laughing) So we developed these kinds of ideas.

And the ottoman is more than that (removing the cushion), it is storage space.

And the hood is very light. And there’s no need for electrical wire because of bluetooth, a wi-fi area. The beauty of the hood is how minimal and simple, a really elegant small space.

[DA] The acoustics under the hood is really good. Very little outside noise and we are in a very noisy showroom. You know it looks very twenty-second century.
[JM] Yes, but at the same time, the space is neither the mechanical expression where you feel it’s an office, and yet it’s the office of the familiar, something very natural.

[DA] Jean-Marie, what did you learn from this project?
[JM] Many things, but of interest to me, firstly, I learned to work with American companies. Yes. Working with Coalesse and the collection involving many pieces and several design destinations. No offense here but my experience working with European and an American company, the cultural differences became apparent first hand.

First of all, for me with this experience there were many more people involved on this project. In general, European meetings tend to be smaller, maybe two or three. But this collection, at times maybe 15 people in a meeting and I learned to be more clear in the detail of the message I have to give, because we are doing a lot of meetings. And everybody is very good at method, a very strong method in order to be sure that everybody (15 brains with their own culture and knowledge) shares the same content.

And it was interesting how to fertilize ideas together, with different cultures with the same vision, the same stakes. The vision was simplicity, to create some evolution, and not for the day after tomorrow. To be elegant, but in a sensitive way, not just to be efficient or just to be smart. Just to be elegant. And a merger of all things in today’s world, the work, the play, a way of living. Very cool and I love this feeling of being cool. Really.

[DA] Tell us a little about your philosophy, how materials seem to drive your solutions. The Toyota Me.We is a good example. Do the materials come into play with a project like this?

[JM] Material is just one part of the puzzle we need to accomplish a vision or project. Design adds value in this respect because design is about creative synthesis, and there are a lot of stakes we wish to unite. There is of course, the quality of the service we want to provide. There is usually an economical scenario we need to factor in. So we have to do things which are smart, we can share and to create value.

There is, the technical means and the technical states about lightness, about doing better with less, about the world’s soul which speaks to sustainability. So materials are super important.

For example, the hood on the lounge is made of synthetic felt. It’s made of reclaimed materials, and we see it mostly in a car, the ceiling, the doors. Actually the construction of the canopy, is very much like the ceiling of a car. The synthetic felt is easy to work with and do not forget, our brain is programmed to associate felt with acoustics, noise dampening. The cover on the lounge not only has good acoustics but it persuades your brain too. When you see it, you’ll understand. It will be quiet inside.

[DA] Tell us about the Massaud Collection.
[JM] I think the chairs are quite unique. And there are so many office chairs! For me it wasn’t a question of good taste or bad taste, I wanted to provide some sort of affordable solution of – a chair being a chair. The solution has to be elegant, but it’s about doing business. It’s using the same shell, the same little wire frame for all options.

And we do a lot of things with this principle. The collection doesn’t look plug-n-play, but it is. It’s a flexible collection which gives you, the person, many options to choose your condition, choose your identity. And these options both mix and match, there are low solutions and high solutions. The same with the armrest. And far from the very technical office chair.

The low chair is very low and the armrest disappears to make it more – could be like the shoulder bag for a girl. This chair for the female, it’s my favorite.

[DA] Yes, I like the armrest. Very stylish. Very efficient.
[JM] Efficient but not too arrogant.

[DA] Can you tell us a little about the Toyota Me.We concept car?
[JM] For me, this is an urban car concept which implies what you might expect. First, your eyes tell you it’s not about arrogance or sharpness of the shape- it’s friendly. It’s for the guy walking the street and seeing the car, it catches his eye. It’s for the user who isn’t scared anymore about the scratch or the maintenance of the scalp. Your eyes tell you don’t worry.

[DA] So the anti-crisis car.
[JM] Yes! There are dozens of materials or processes that are smart and we have to choose. The car appeals to many because we have many options to choose from. It has an aluminum frame and renewable bamboo floor and also recylable polypropylene panels with not only color options but texture options. After enough scratches and maybe dents simple replace a panel. The material here was a big part of this vision. You have to crystallize this vision in matter. Material is very important.

1/2> lounge with hood
3/4/5> lounge
6> height adjustable, swivel tablet | cord pass through at base for charging devices
7> ottoman storage
8> low-back executive
9/10> mid-back executive
11/12> high-back executive

Jean-Marie Massaud is a French architect, inventor and designer. He was born in Toulouse, France in 1966. Massuad graduated from the École Nationale Supérieur de Création Industrielle – Les Ateliers, Paris in 1990 and began working with Marc Berthier. In 2000, he co-founded the Studio Massaud with Daniel Pouzet and expanded his interests in the fields of architecture. [ massaud ] [ coalesse ]