2024 Marks 30 Years of Maison&Objet
In 2024, Maison&Objet marks 30 years of French-inspired excellence in the home decor, design and lifestyle industry. Marking this occasion, the show will take visitors on a journey to a re-enchanted future, where technology and nature exist in harmony. Challenging the antithesis in its title, TECH EDEN, the theme of this anniversary year will be explored throughout 2024 at the Paris fair, in the city’s showrooms, and on M.O.M marketplace. It will be embodied in the three areas of expression dear to Maison&Objet: interior architecture, retail, and hospitality. In continuation of last year’s theme “ENJOY!”, TECH EDEN conveys a dream-like optimism through shape and color, focussing this time on futuristic biophilia, a new world of well-being.
“Maison&Objet is more attentive than ever to its customers and their needs, positioning itself at the heart of key challenges, now and in the future, by connecting creativity, innovation and eco-responsibility. Our ambition is to illustrate all the opportunities available to the home décor, design and lifestyle sector, and actively support its development. This is reflected in the quality of the program of events for the upcoming edition: the Designer of the Year’s innovative project, the development of a What’s New? space providing concrete responses to the challenges in retail, and the Hospitality Lab, embodying a unique forward-looking vision of the hybridization of hospitality venues.” – Mélanie Leroy, Managing Director
New Futures and Paradise Regained
Maison&Objet’s 2024 theme TECH EDEN was devised in collaboration with the creative strategy agency Peclers Paris, which sees it as an opportunity to “highlight the profound evolution in the relationship between science and nature, and project it into a sustainable and desirable future.” Seeking to bring substance and poetry to the notion of progress, Peclers offers a progressive concept enriched by scenographic interpretations, at times soothing, at times energizing, and always inspiring. This narrative, reconciling a futuristic utopia with new realities, will feed into the show’s activities, encompassing all sectors of interior decoration and design, arts and crafts, retail, decor and hospitality. Through immersive experiences, TECH EDEN invites professionals to rethink spatial design and layout, augmented by technological innovation, and employ innovative aesthetic and environmental approaches. Science fiction has entered a new era and adopted a new discourse. It is no longer modeled on the kind of journey through space and time at the mercy of mysterious aliens filmed by Stanley Kubrick in his cult movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). While James Cameron’s latest epic Avatar 2 (2022) immerses us in a fantastical natural environment, Thomas Cailley’s Animal Kingdom (2023) explores the idea of mutation in a world of half-human, half-animal hybrids, symbolising profound cultural and societal change, all enhanced by a poetic and emotional narrative. The desire in this new-generation narrative is no longer to reclaim space, but rather an original paradise and a return to a wild existence exalted by scientific progress.
Soft Tech As A Driver Of Well-being
As societal crises and tensions reinforce our need to feel at ease in our own homes, cutting-edge technologies are responding with new services inspired by nature and offering a sophisticated version of it. Such is the case with Once Upon a Dream, a capsule room designed by Mathieu Lehanneur for the reopening of Hôtel de Marc. To encourage more restorative sleep, the principle of this ideal room is based on artificial and programmable management of natural day/night cycles. Reflecting this quest for well-being at home, indeed in all the places we occupy in our everyday lives – the office, a hotel room, even the spa – Maison&Objet launched its new ”Well-Being & Beauty” sector in September 2023, featuring a selection which reconciles feel-good rituals and soft technological innovations to create a cocoon-like feeling at home. Advances in digital technology, smartphones and tablets with ever more functions, 3D printing processes, the exponential growth of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and numerous connected and increasingly intuitive objects, are also supporting service design and mobility, reinforcing this quest for well-being. In the words of Jean-Louis Frechin, director and founder of NoDesign.net, as well as an author, teacher at École Camondo in Paris, and specialist in digital design and innovation: “We are embarking on a fusion between our natural environment and technology. This new natural epoch, the Anthropocene, suffers from imbalances brought on by abuse of technology and reckless use of the planet’s resources, something which must be readjusted. It is through physics, scientific phenomena and the right technologies that designers will be able to develop sustainable and balanced solutions. In the age of Artificial Intelligence, when many objects can be designed and produced automatically, the only question is how we wish to inhabit this world…”.
Technophile Explorers In Search of Utopia
“Sensitive explorers are embracing technological advances and using them to develop an augmented, tailor-made form of everyday life, with the goal of creating a soothing, dreamlike environment”, explains Brune Ouakrat, Strategic Planner & Futurologist, and Charlotte Cazals, Designer & Trend Forecaster at Peclers Paris. This gives rise to the concept of biophilic design and awakening, sustainable and technological experiments aimed at an emerging tribe brought together by social media. In a hyper-connected, digitised and physical world where reality and fiction meet, virtual tours and 3D augmentedreality glasses go hand in hand with aromatherapy and light therapy, stimulating all five human senses in the hospitality venues of tomorrow. Restaurants designed in welcoming “home-like” decor are re-emerging, while the Savoy Palace’s Laurea Spa offers total immersion in greenery, in imitation of Madeira’s legendary forest. Tomorrow’s consumers are seeking more qualitative experiences, but with great development potential and a resolutely eco-responsible dimension, such as the 3Dprinted hotel project, El Cosmico in Texas, designed in collaboration with BIG, ICON, and Liz Lambert.
“This anniversary edition will mark a significant development in Maison&Objet’s ability to support its customers, while also celebrating 30 years of inspiration, creativity and closeness to its community.” – Mélanie Leroy, Managing Director of Maison&Objet
Maison&Objet is back in 2024 from 18 to 22 of January in Paris. Stay tuned!
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