Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec combine steel and wood in an exploration of traditional materials and contemporary manufacturing techniques. The resulting Steelwood Chair is an innovative and striking design that uses steel to provide a structural framework, that is then enhanced by the use of wood for supporting elements. The function of each component is easily discernible and helps give the design a sense of cohesion.
Winner of the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award, the chair is produced by Mags, undergoing nine separate industrial processes that alternate between mechanical precision and artisanal attention to detail. The Bouroullec brothers’ trademark understanding of both form and function makes the chair a future design classic.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the Breton-born brothers, are the stars of European design and the most promising industrial designers to have emerged from France since Philippe Starck in the 1980s.
A combination of romanticism and functionality runs throughout both brothers’ work. Like all truly talented designers, the Bouroullecs have defined a distinctive visual style, which Jasper Morrison (one of the designers they most admire) described as “thoughtful and disciplined, with a real spirit and poetry”.
