Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

Ronan Bouroullec (born 1971) and Erwan Bouroullec (born 1976) have been working together for some ten years. Their collaboration is a permanent dialogue nourished by their differing personalities and shared perfectionism.

In 1997 they presented their “Disintegrated Kitchen” at the Salon du Meuble in Paris and were spotted by Giulio Cappellini, who gave them their first industrial design projects, notably the Lit clos (Closed Bed) and Spring Chair. In 2000, Issey Miyake asked them to design a space for his new collection of A-Poc clothes in Paris.

Then came the decisive meeting with Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, which resulted in their conception of a new kind of office system, Joyn, in 2002. This was the beginning of a special partnership which has borne fruit in numerous projects, including Algues, the Alcove Sofa, the Worknest and the Slow Chair. Since 2004, the Bouroullecs have also been working with Magis, for whom they have designed two complete furniture collections, Striped and Steelwood. Finally, they have worked on several types of textile wall systems, such as the North Tiles, in close collaboration with the Kvadrat brand, for whom they designed a new Stockholm showroom in 2006.

Today, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec design for numerous manufacturers, notably Vitra, Kvadrat, Magis, Kartell, Ligne Roset, Issey Miyake and Cappellini. At the same time, they maintain an experimental activity which is essential to the development of their work at Galerie Kreo, Paris, where four exhibitions of their designs have been held between 2001 and 2008. They also undertake the occasional architectural project, such as the Maison flottante (Floating House) in 2006.

Voted Designers of the Year at the Salon du Meuble in 2002, their other awards include the Grand Prix du Design de la Ville de Paris (1998), the New Designer Award at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (New York, 1999) and the Finn-Juhl Prize (Copenhagen, 2008). Their Facett collection (manufacturer: Ligne Roset) and their Worknest office both won the “Best of the Best” Red Dot Design Award, respectively in 2005 and 2008.

Several exhibitions have been devoted to their work, notably at the Design Museum, London, in 2002, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and La Piscine, Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Roubaix, in 2004. It can be found in the collections museum such as the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Design Museum, London, and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Two monographs have been published about the design of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Ronan et Erwan Bouroullec – Catalogue de raison (Paris: Images Modernes / Kreo, 2002) and Ronan et Erwan Bouroullec, (Paris: Phaidon, 2003).

Website by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec