Ronan Bouroullec (1971) and Erwan Bouroullec (1976) are graduates of the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs de Paris and the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Cergy-Pontoise, respectively, and joined forces in 1999 to work in constant dialogue and with a shared desire for greater precision and finesse.
Their work has spanned many fields, from the design of small objects such as jewellery to spatial organisation and architecture, from craft to industrial scale, from drawings to videos and photographs.
When they presented the Disintegrated Kitchen at the Salon du Meuble in 1997, Giulio Cappellini noticed them and entrusted them with his first industrial design projects, such as the Closed Bed and the Pier Chair.
In 2000, Issey Miyake called on them to design a space for his new APoc clothing collection in Paris.
Subsequently, a decisive meeting with Rolf Fehlbaum, President of Vitra, led to the design of a new type of office system under the name Joyn in 2002. This meeting marked the beginning of a privileged collaboration that has led to numerous projects, including Algues, the Alcôve Sofa, Worknest, the Slow Chair, the Vegetal Chair, L’Oiseau, the Workbays system and, more recently, the Belleville collection.
Since 2004, they have been designing for Magis. Initially three complete furniture collections, Striped, Steelwood and Officina, which have been followed by other projects such as the Pila chair, the Pilo table and the Central and Tambour tables.
They have developed several textile designs for walls, such as North Tiles and Clouds for the Danish company Kvadrat, with whom they have also developed Ready Made Curtain (2013) and Roller Blinds (2015).
Since 2010 they have also worked for Alessi, Axor Hansgrohe, Flos, Nanimarquina, Mattiazzi, Mutina, Iittala, Kettal, among others. In 2015 they started working with Artek, the Finnish brand founded by Alvar and Aino Aalto, with whom they developed the Kaari system and presented their SERIF TV screen for Samsung.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec currently design for numerous manufacturers, including Vitra, Kvadrat, Magis, Kartell, Established and Sons, Ligne Roset, Axor, Alessi, Issey Miyake, Cappellini, Mattiazzi, Flos, Mutina, Hay, Glas Italia, Artek, Iittala, Kettal, Glas Italia and Samsung.
At the same time, they conduct research – an essential element in the development of their work – at Galerie kreo, which has produced six solo exhibitions between 2001 and 2016.