Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, a talented French designer, draws inspiration from nature and has achieved remarkable success by combining "soft, organic and smooth natural lines with rigorous structures". In his designs, Noah Duchaufour seems to have an innate sense of materials, the properties of which he explores and then presents in a simple form, resulting in unique works with a natural affinity.

Noah was born in 1974 in the small town of Munde in the south of France. Influenced by his sculptor father, he studied metal sculpture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Art et de Design d'Appliqué and later studied furniture design. In 2003, he set up his own studio in Paris, which means "New Life" (Néonata), and in 2007, he was awarded the title of "Designer of the Year" by Maison&Objet show, which was highly recognized by the industry. In 2007, he was awarded "Designer of the Year" at the Maison&Objet show, and received high recognition from the industry.

Noah spent his childhood in the seaside, far away from the city. In the design of his water ripple coffee table series, he made real water waves flow slowly on the turquoise glass table top. In 2015, he designed a series of diamond-shaped chairs for the American brand Bernhardt Design, 12 simple chairs that can be used individually or connected in combinations for public spaces of different sizes, and whose shapes are very attractive in modern architectural spaces. The series is named "Colors", and the different colors come from nature, such as river rocks, trees, etc.

In 2012, he worked on the architecture and interior design of Chalet Béranger, a villa in the French Alps, which echoes the surrounding mountain scenery and is structured in such a way that the spacious living room becomes the focal point of the entire space. The continuous wood grain weaves in and out of the mountain house, and he uses a smooth and modern sculptural language for the architectural space.

From a cup to an interior architectural design, Noah reveres natural forms, but he does not simply imitate nature, but draws inspiration from the universality and mystery of things themselves - Noah is a keen observer who distills his encounters with nature into practical and life-affirming design works. In his view, there is a special force deep behind everything, a force that acts as an invisible bond that connects humans to nature.

In the summer of 2017, he drove through a forest devastated by fire in the mountains of Pedrigo Grande, Portugal, to observe the destruction caused by the fire. In a former cork (Portuguese Cork) forest, he found charred cork oak bark, which he believes is an underrated sustainable material: "Cork is one of the most resilient natural materials, and the cork bark protects the oak tree during a fire, when it first burns and peels off the tree. Peeling off, the next layer of cork will continue to grow on the tree." He felt the power of the material in the relationship between the cork and the oak tree itself, and he wanted to use it as a raw material to design a series of works.

After two years of research and development, he created a series of furniture pieces made from charred cork, called "Charred Cork". The series includes a chaise longue, a table and chairs of various sizes. In this series, the rough and fine irregular grain patterns of the cork become natural textures, and in terms of form, he uses blocks as structural elements, combining traditional and modern techniques. branches, all expressing an organic and sensitive connection between materials, nature and people.

In 2018, he moved from Paris, France, to Lisbon, Portugal, to open the "Made in Situ" studio. This was transformative for Noah, whose Parisian studio was thriving and was a favorite of major brands, but Noah "always felt something was wrong". In his opinion, life in Paris made him feel more and more distant from his inner values and self, and that the relationship between nature and the environment, materials, craftsmanship and human skills was what he was looking for. And his encounter with craft traditions and indigenous materials in Portugal allowed him to discover ways to explore the depths of his heart. According to Noah, Portuguese design remains committed to a certain formal "simplicity", a return to its roots, both changing and transforming, but also rooted in tradition, and this dynamism is one of its assets. His choice of Portugal means a new way of designing - close to the artisan, close to the workshop.

The ability and motivation that a strange country brings him is like the beginning of a love story. Noah's debut work in Lisbon, the BARRO NEGRO series, an immersive installation that uses sound and film to amplify a series of objects made of black ceramic, is both his personal project and the result of a long collaboration with Portuguese artisans. For him, craftsmanship is first and foremost about humility, and again, this is a quality that designers should possess. While craftsmanship has long been considered a secondary art, his work does not worry about showing signs of handcraft, even erasing the line between concept and realization. He understands both art and design as "manual work", where inspiration can only be realized when hands are directly involved in the model.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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