A TIME FOR TEAMWORK
HW
Thousands of offices around the world are equipped with your furniture – how does your own office look?
RB
Honestly – I don’t like offices, and I spend as little time as possible in them.
HW
But you still have one. How can we picture the Bouroullec office?
EB
Our studio in Belleville has a cellar and two floors, which receive lots of light
through a large northern window. On the ground floor are desks and computers, papers and
glue, which we share between our collaborators, Ronan and myself. The first floor is for a bit of
administration and a large empty place to visualize projects and store assorted mock-ups, pro-
totypes and sketches. Usually it’s pretty chaotic. Finally the cellar: it’s full of dust and chips,
because that’s where our woodworking machines and do-it-yourself tools are. It’s where I work
on our prototypes.
HW
That doesn’t sound so big.
EB
It doesn’t have to be; we’re a small team of seven people plus an intern or
two. Considering this, 350 square metres are plenty. On the other hand, we work on numerous
projects at the same time, so our studio is always full of multiple blueprints and models from
different projects. Interestingly, this is quite advantageous.
The history of office furnishings knows two eras: before and after the Bouroullecs. In
recent years the two brothers from Brittany have brought humanity and teamwork into
the office – precisely because office furniture isn’t Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec‘s par-
ticular area of interest.
INTERVIEW BY HARALD WILLENBROCK
RONAN & ERWAN BOUROULLEC
