Ronan Bouroullec teams up with Manufacture de Sèvres for stunning aluminium lamp collection

Ronan Bouroullec partnered with Manufacture de Sèvres, a porcelain manufacturing business founded in the 18th century in France, to develop a set of aluminium and ceramic lamps that will be on display at Galerie de Sèvres in Paris until November 25th, 2023.

The most recent contribution to the designer's body of work, as examined in a newly published Phaidon book, "Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day," is the introduction of the "Sèvres Lamps." These lamps are offered in three different heights and are characterised by a porcelain aureole upheld by essential aluminium profiles of varying heights. This design approach combines a minimalist aesthetic with the surprising use of colour on porcelain.

'It all quite delicately explodes in the kiln, and when the pieces are taken out, you're not quite sure if they might be alive. [Each lamp] could be a sea anemone, a portion of sky, a flash of light in space. I wasn't at all aiming for this, but there is a very natural quality that appears; natural and uncontrolled," said Bouroullec.

The trio of lamps, which resemble exotic mushrooms or intriguing sea creatures, include smooth, precisely shaped aureoles that were hand-thrown in the huge Manufacture de Sèvres studio and then spray-glazed to generate the colour effects. According to Bouroullec, the glazing results from his inquiry into the company's archives, where he discovered examples of previous crystallisation experiments.

Owing to the inherent unpredictability of the procedure, every individual item exhibits distinct characteristics, characterised by intricate abstract patterns with several tonalities that evoke the dynamic visual impact of pyrotechnics or heavenly constellations.