The Inspiration pavilions at Maison & Objet are always a must see on my biannual trips to Paris.  The exhibition and accompanying publication illustrate the shift in consumer desires and social needs that are motivating the European interiors industry.

What fascinates me most about these installations is how the ideas and motivations correspond with those that we’re seeing in Australia – the elements that are new, the ones that have already taken hold, and those that will require some translation either of the concept or the context.

The theme this season is Vivant (Living), and explores some familiar as well as some very new stories in natural beauty, new beginnings, comestibles as both form and material and bio-inspired design.  Here’s a glimpse of some of the highlights.

NOURRITURES PREMIÈRES (Primary foods) by Elizabeth Leriche is the most delicious of the three themes and focuses on food as a subject, as a material and as a point of inspiration.  Our appetite for authenticity and connection to natural substances leads designers to create products that celebrate the nourishment of the body and pleasure of the senses.

 

RENAISCIENCE by Vincent Grégoire (NellyRodi) takes visitors into the strange laboratory of our times and explores how ideas inspired by nature and revealed by the microscope are invigorating design.  “In the test tubes of bizarre beauty, an intriguing alchemy is distilling the lines of a bio-phantasmagoria.”  Complex forms and motives are inspired by biology, chemistry and natural mutations.

 

PIONNIER by François Bernard shifts our focus from the ornamental to the exquisitely utilitarian.  Modernity is becoming gentler as innovation sends positive energy through the field of design.  “Materials and their performance are sketching out a future in which the senses and sensuality are combined.”  Forms are fluid and light, practical yet not without fine detailing and intricate embellishments.

 

Of course the highlights of Maison & Objet are not limited to the trend areas and full reports will be available in limited number later this month.  Alternatively, you can pre order reports for Maison & Objet’s September exhibition from June 2013.