Invited to dream up an original “vegetable action”, the great designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created Petite Loire for the Domain’s Stables – a spectacular work in green marble inspired by the river and Chaumont-sur-Loire’s trees alike.
"I wanted to address the garden with water as my muse. The water whose presence you sense even before you first catch sight of it down there below the Château, flowing uninterrupted to the ocean. Some say the Loire is France’s last wild river; it shapes and nourishes the landscapes it passes through without ever pausing along the way. "Petite Loire" is a freeze-frame, the river’s perpetual movement caught in a frozen, fossilised moment. A few dozen metres above the river’s natural level, Petite Loire cuts cleanly through the garden’s surface, delving into the soil to reveal a fluvial relief, both vertiginous and practicable, in dark marble …”. Mathieu Lehanneur
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Mathieu LEHANNEUR
FRANCE
At the forefront of international design, Mathieu Lehanneur, named among the “100 World top designers and influencers” by the magazines Wallpaper (UK) and Surface (EU), 2014 and 2015 editions, is one of the few designers in his generation to have successfully embraced so many different fields beyond mere furniture.
He innovates with magical architecture and objects that blend design, science, art and technology for the improved well-being of users.
A graduate from the ENSCI - Les Ateliers / (École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, Paris), his graduation project, "Objets thérapeutiques" – a study on the ergonomics of medicines – was immediately snapped up by the permanent collection at the MoMA – NY.
Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, at the MoMa – NY describes him as "a champion of the intellectual agility of today's design".
In 2008, he won the US magazine Popular Science's "Best Invention Award" for "Andrea", an indoor air filtering system using plants, invented in partnership with Harvard University and on the basis of studies conducted by NASA.
Mathieu Lehanneur works with leading companies in their sector, such as Veuve Clicquot, Audemars Piguet, Hôtels Pullman, Nestlé, Christofle, Cartier, Poltrona Frau, JCDecaux and Nike, with the same skill for which he has been praised for his designs for the chancel in St Hilaire Church, a UNESCO World Heritage (Melle/France), Château Borely, Musée des Arts décoratifs, de la Faience et de la Mode (Marseille/France), Hôpital des Diaconesses and the Centre Pompidou (Paris), as well as the multicultural venue Café ArtScience (Boston/EU).
He also designs innovative and hi-tech products for international brands, such as the bluetooth speaker Boom Boom (Binauric); the Wiser range of smart energy-saving objects for the home (Schneider Electric); Take Time ! watch and Hybrid radio (Lexon); the Strates furniture and office collection (Objekten); and the Cloudy suspension lighting collection (Fabbian).
In 2009, he was invited to the prestigious TED talks. A monograph was published on him by Gestalten in 2012. He is currently Chief Designer for Huawei.
