Paris Design Week 2017: Arronde by Camille Ravanel

As regular readers will be aware, for us there is little more elegant and logical than the modular shelving system.

And in the variety of systems developed, little which better illustrates both the multitude of options available for the seemingly most simple of functionalities, and thereby the talent required, or perhaps function, of the designer in developing something meaningful, interesting and, ideally, attractive.

Of late we have seen several interesting new modular shelving propositions, Arronde by Camille Ravanel being one of the more pleasing.

Arronde by Camille Ravanel, as seen at Paris Design Week 2017

Presented at Paris Design Week 2017 in context of a competition for young designers organised by the French garden and DIY retailer Leroy Merlin’s Du Côté de Chez Vous label, a competition in which it was awarded Le Grand Prix, Arronde is centred around a pre-prefabricated dovetail joint.

Or perhaps better put around a family of prefabricated abstracted dovetail joints which allow for both the construction of individual modules and their connection into larger units. And just as importantly, for the continual and endless deconstruction and reconstruction of both units and modules as and when required/desired.

Presented in Paris with plastic dovetail pieces, Camille does also suggest metal as an alternative. A list to which we’ll add the sawdust/PLA mix used in her Marqueterie collection; appearing as it does to be the much more logical utilisation of the process than ornamentation. Charming as the Marqueterie objects would appear to be; and used in Arronde it also has a very subtle, and important, ornamental function

No, there is nothing particularly revolutionary about Arronde, but then as we all know, or at least should know, good design isn’t about innovation, the “new”, but also about rethinking and further developing the existing, for all to incorporate new material and technological possibilities.

Something Camille has achieved in Arronde with a very pleasing grace and intelligence; not least because, based as it is on one of the classics of carpentry, the modules have an inherent universality which expresses itself through a very accessible, self-explanatory character.

Indeed so self-explanatory is Arronde, we have nothing else to add…….

……except that full details on Arronde, Camille Ravanel and her work can be found at http://camilleravanel.fr/

Arronde by Camille Ravanel, as seen at Paris Design Week 2017