French designers Sophie Françon and François Mangeol have collaborated to create a range of modular school furniture.
Called Saint-Etienne, the series was designed for the new building of the Ecole superieure d’art et design Saint-Etienne in France.
The project comprises chairs, stools and benches, and worktops with trestles in various heights.
The furniture can be stacked or dismantled for storage.
Photographs are by Johan Meallier.
Here’s some text from the designers:
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It’s a project of office furniture design. Saint-Etienne is an order of Saint-Etienne Metropole with the agreement of the Cité du design, the architect and the school for the new building of the school of art and design which joined the Cité du design inaugurated in October 2009.
It proposes various complementary typologies of seats, and heights of work-top. In this particular case for the students of the new building of the school of Arts and design of Saint-étienne in the Cité du design; but it could be imagined in lots of design studios or actually in every studio looking for office furniture as modular as possible.
The range is currently being sold by Souvignet Design, Saint-Etienne, France.
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Posted by Ruth Hynes
November 7th, 2009 at 11:16 am
see also the flip system by swiss adrien Rovero in a french blog (between bouroullec and hutten, he says ? )
http://sleekdesign.canalblog.com/archives/2009/07/16/14409060.html
November 7th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Nice, clean designs… the modular aspect doesn’t seem to be very strong though.
November 7th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Two-leg chairs don’t go well with two-leg tables. Very basic fault.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
i really do not like these “modular” school furniture. Really.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Beautiful, and great for the office space… I like the simple lines
November 8th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I think these are fantastic designs which are far more versatile than to be used purely as school furniture. I think any institution, office or studio would find this range well suited. Like how there are no tube ends, very well finished.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:23 am
It seems designers were inspired by a prison interior.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:58 am
sophisticated
November 9th, 2009 at 10:48 am
They look good, but they’re not versatile, which is surely the point of school furniture. There is no way a person could sit on the chair at the short end of the table, as the chair legs are not designed to sit on the table legs like that. It’s strange that it has even been suggested by some of the photos – basically highlighting this system’s shortcomings. In fact, the design and size of the table legs inhibit most seating positions apart from around the centre of the long sides of the table. Even if multiple tables were put in a row abutting each other, only the central section could form proper useable desk space. If these desks were put perpendicular to one another, again there would be problems in achieving the most amount of useable desk space accessible to the chairs.
This system, whilst aesthetically pleasing, does not seem at all appropriate for a design school, and I would even doubt their effectiveness in an office environment.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
French designers Sophie Françon and François Mangeol have been selected by Li Edelkoort to exhibit at Talents 2009 in Eindhoven…. but not with this collection of furniture more near english designers Morisson and Hecht than conceptual design and art design from Design academy of Eindhoven …
November 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Prof. Z, sometimes you can be the most boring guy on the planet.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Yes,it looks so good!