Harkening back to the salons that characterized 17th and 18th century France, Boisbuchet's Summer of Design workshops will run from June 15th through September 13th, bringing together students and teachers from the fields of architecture and design to share share ideas, inspiration, and techniques. Though, instead of the crowded drawing rooms of Enlightenment Paris, this annual series of workshops will be held at Domaine de Boisbuchet, an historic estate in the south-west of France.
This year’s theme is “the Natural and the Artificial,” and will act as a common thread stringing together the multitude of seminars, which range from industrial design to innovative food preparation, encouraging artists to investigate the contrasts and transitions between artificial and natural elements.
“Liquid Fusion” is one such workshop, which will explore the idea glass as a liquid form and the inherent beauty that is the process of art making. Led by designer and architect Paul Haigh and utlizing the “GlassLab” lightweight hot shop from Corning, the course will offer participants a chance to focus on “the ephemeral and sublime qualities of glass as a rich palette for innovation and intervention,” according to a press announcement. Under the guidance of these experienced glassmakers from the Corning Museum of Glass, they will create conceptually driven pieces that range from furniture to architecture. Each design will be crafted into multiple prototypes through a variety of processes, such as pipe blowing, hand pressing, fusing, and cast glass forming.
Other workshops include African artist Cheick Diallo’s “Developing Modernity,” which will center on the creative potential latent in recycled materials and deviating from the norm as participants modify existing objects to transform their function. “Survival Food,” headed by Katja Gruijters, Netherland’s first food designer, is a workshop that examines the art of what we eat. Students in this intensive course will work with a survival kit and available ingredients found on Boisbuchet’s natural estate with attention focused on inventive preparation and cooking methods.
Boisbuchet’s annual workshops are able to be offered due to the cooperation of the Vitra Design Museum, Centre Pompidou, and CIRECA (Centre International de Recherche et d’Éducation Culturel et Agricole), a nonprofit, French government certified organization that runs the program.