Faced with the climate emergency, many of us see no other option than to bury our heads in the sand or, at most, switch to recyclable or secondhand designs where we can. Not so French designer Fran\u00e7ois Champsaur, who, in the past few years, has largely turned away from the...
For the French interior designer, tackling the climate emergency means reducing our ecological footprint and avoiding dead materials Left, interior shot of Champsaur’s house in Marseilles. Right, the shop at Villa Noailles in HyèresFaced with the climate emergency, many of us see no other option than to bury our heads in the sand or, at most, switch to recyclable or secondhand designs where we can.
He has narrowed down his list of clients, reduced his ecological footprint, and eschewed supermarkets in favour of local organic schemes. In his new take on the ‘less is more’ mantra, ‘less’ refers not so much to a certain minimalist aesthetic but to an entire downsized way of life.
The designer views our current situation as a brutal comedown after decades of excess. ‘The world we have built in the past 50 years is based on consumption, on ultra-liberalism; there is permanent abundance for some, and nothing at all for others,’ he says. ‘We think we are happy because we have access to everything, but it’s like a big shot of illicit substances – now we’re seeing the consequence of this artificial happiness.
Humble towards the power of nature and the beauty of our planet, which we have neglected for so long: ‘We are at a very important historical, moral and aesthetic crossroads: we must reconnect with the Earth.’ And this goes for designers, too, of course: ‘Ecology and neoliberalism are totally incompatible. As the ecologists say, in a very precise phrase: there is no infinite growth in a finite world. And if designers do not realise this, they will disappear.
‘With all these things still to be invented, we cannot continue to make plastic chairs,’ continues Champsaur. ‘Design is both content and form; if the substance is void, the form is void.’ The designer goes one step further, adding: ‘I think we also have to give up 3D and digital techniques a bit to come back to the intelligence of the hand. I make terracotta models to visualise my projects. It’s more pleasant to work with organic, living materials, not dead materials.
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