The duo that displays elemental sensitivity and pays immense attention to the details and to the conceptual background.

 

 

Aki and Arnaud Cooren graduated from École Camondo in Paris in 1999, then in the same year they formed their studio. Since then, they have become one of the most important practices in contemporary design.

 

 

Their self-definition is composed of two parts. First, looking back to Sori Yanagi, there is the use of subtle references to nature in their work coming from Japanese aesthetics which strive towards simplicity. The second part is the high level of collaboration between manufacturer, craftsmen, and designers to create quality products.

 

We would not argue the latter, since it will be obvious at first sight regarding all their products presented here later. The former however does not cover the whole truth, because it is only a superficial statement about their objects. With their structural depth, their objects exceed simple natural inspiration and Japanese aesthetics a good deal.

 

Borrowing the words of Tomás Maldonado, design is not merely the creation of external features, but at the same time its role is to establish the fundamental structural and functional relations of an object, which determinate the the object’s method of usage, and to a point, its looks as well. In contrast to Yanagi, all this will appear in a rather spectacular way in the work of A+A Cooren, because it is not simply about nature inspired form-giving, but the high level understanding of the structure of objects.

 

The consequences of this understanding are the interplay between various opposites, the deliberate subversion of conventional ideas, and the nature inspired, poetic reinterpretation of functionalism. Hereafter, this thesis will be proved by the analysis of the duo’s most important objects.

 

 

 

The Tourbillon vase one of last year’s sensation due to its extraordinary form. The form of the vase incorporates a whirlpool, this serves the function of holding the water and plants. However, it was made of borosilicate glass, which besides high resistance to heat and chemical compounds, is of a lower density than ordinary glass, making it optically clearer, more transparent: the objects made of it might appear more delicate and beautiful.

 

However, the typology of the vase and the refutation of the related preconceptions are more important traits. Due to the air bubble surrounding the whirlpool—opposed to ordinary vases—the interior and exterior surfaces part from each other and can be interpreted separately. The exterior takes the shape of a neutral solid of revolution, the interior takes the mentioned whirlpool’s, the fluid dynamic of which is opposed to its “frozen in glass” shaping.

 

 

There are probably evolutionary reasons why our relationship with natural elements may seem “magical” till today. Magical is the fire worship of the pyromaniac, and magical is this vase-can as well, which keeps this once ephemeral, another times terrific phenomenon—now its attractive danger neutralized, magnified or miniaturized—in a frozen state to eternity in my hands.

 

The possession of this phenomenon filled with child-like wonder is invaluable.

 

 

Debuted at this year’s Art Paris and the Nouvelle Vague exhibition of the Milan Design Week, the Void stool and the Orbit Spot lamps have one peculiarity: they are made of Carrara marble.

 

The choice of material is remarkably unusual, however, the conceptual background justifies it. The stool has a shape so flexible and curvilinear that it is usually made of molded plywood or plastic, but now A+A Cooren “coerced” the high-prestige marble to take this shape, causing an insoluble tension between matter and form, which directly affects the institution of the stool: sitting down on a thin ribbon of marble is a rather unusual experience.

 

 

Somewhat related to this is the astronomical inspiration the designers vaguely put into words on their website. Space and matter, matter and anti-matter: the train of thought has a metaphysical sense, similarly to the elliptical plans of Italian baroque churches (e.g. Sant’Andrea al Quirinale by Bernini) which denote the incomprehensible nature of the universe, the stool’s ring of marble also holds an intangibly magnified space straining to excess, yet taming it.

 

 

Contrarily, the Orbit Spot is an ice-covered, rounded comet, the tail of which is the trail of light.

 

Similarly to Void, this lamp subverts the conventional shaping approaches as well. Lights placed on the ground and positioned by mere touch are not regarded as novelties. Which is surprising—and thus requires the reconsideration of previous ideas—is the employment of marble as lamp-shell, and that thinness of which the lamp is able to illuminate through, virtually giving the marble a whole new materiality.

 

 

The lamp called Hippo was also introduced at Milan, the subtle lines of which might evoke a hippo’s head—like Yanagi’s Elephant stool does with elephants—thus recalling the childhood image of animals idealized to no small extent by fables. An otherwise improbable object, a lamp comes to be the subject of emotional design when connecting the sheet of past to the present’s, yet the question of vacuousness never arises.

 

 

What is of more importance however, is that like the rest of the Cooren-objects, this lamp also refutes previous expectations, because here another conventional solution comes to be the subject of criticism. A formal separation is made between the part which holds the lamp and the power supply cable, since the object is secured magnetically via the metal top—named as anatomical term “calyx” by the designers—while the cable approaches from a different way. All this, of course, complicates the structure of the lamp, since the magnet is an extra agent in the system. However, its simplicity still remains, for it is only one extra step which does not affects fundamentally the lamp’s spacial distribution.

 

 

The results of A+A Cooren’s experiments with lamps were already visible in the 2007 lamp called Loup-O. This object is not conceptually mature to that extent today’s ones are, but represents the same questioning attitude and reinterpretation of expectations towards various objects, for the 50 percent of the light does not reach the user directly due to the deflection caused by the optical dish. It is mood-lighting the other way around.

 

 

The critical reflection can be observed in the case of bigger pieces of furnitures as well: the shelving system called Metal Band and the chest of drawers Yabané serve as good examples.

 

 

The former—as opposed to ordinary shelves requiring screws or wood plugs—uses metal bands to affix the shelves to the structure. Hereby, the creative process became freer, since it was not hold back by certain formal requirements: the shelves became longer and curvilinear. This has an obvious practical benefit, and a special aesthetic, which might not win everybody’s approval, but this is not even the goal of this piece of furniture.

 

 

Lastly, Yabané might be one of those objects of the duo besides Torii, which represents most effectively the Japanese simplicity and excellent craftsmanship mentioned in their introduction. This 177 cm (5.807 feet) long chest of drawers opens in two directions—which alone makes it an exception on the market—enabling it to function as a space divider since it’s big enough, and the direction of its use is not determined.

 

 

It was named after a motif used since the Heian period (794–1185) resembling the fletchings of an arrow, which was mostly used by men in the beginnings, probably due to its connection to kyūdō, the art of archery. Later on, during the Edo period (1603–1868) it was popular on servants’ livery, then by the Meiji period (1868–1912) it became associated with schoolgirls’ clothings. Today, yabane is almost exclusively found on women’s items.

 

 

However, the chest of drawers doesn’t directly evoke this fletching-motif, but by the placement of its drawers upon each other; the rhythmically repeated formal dynamic is caused by the shorter and shorter pieces. This denotes an exceptionally deep (not only formal) sensitivity, similar of which can be also observed in the objects of SANAA. The piece of furniture thus created becomes truly timeless not only because of the age of the motif but of the high quality craftsmanship as well.

 

 

During the previous examples it became apparent that the A+A Cooren design studio does not merely manipulate the exterior characteristics of their objects, but create their deep structure with a peculiar, elemental sensitivity while paying immense attention to details and to the conceptual background. They play off various opposites, subvert conventional ideas, and poetically reinterpret functionalism with a natural inspiration employing such intellectual discipline and determination which make their work rightly exemplary and lasting.