The French designer and artist Emmanuelle Roule founded her design studio in 2007, developing a transversal and multidisciplinary approach between object, image and space.
In 2012 Emmanuelle started working with clay, and in 2019 she focused on earth material and its possibilities. Her work questions the production and construction methods of spaces, furniture and objects in an economic and ecological context using clays and biopolymers such as natural beeswax and vegetable fibres.
BOLD
The design studio Bold was founded by William Boujon and Julien Benayoun in 2008. They are inspired by the latest technological developments, science, and art, which has led the studio to become a research lab utilising digital technologies such as 3D printing since 2015. The design studio collaborated with the Le Laboratoire Cambridge, MIT Media Lab, Centre Pompidou and other important cultural centres worldwide.
Project Terres Imprimées
Emmanuelle Roule and Bold shared an interest in earth materials which guided the experimental and production of works that combine their respective research fields.
From this collaboration originated the UKU collection (part of the Project Terres Imprimées). It consists of four pieces: a vase, a jug, a teapot and its tray. The pieces are the result of exploration between the colour of the material used for printing and its reaction to the high temperature used to waterproof them.
The UKU collection also uses variations of a pattern that is inspired by a microscopic view of the clay's molecular structure. The pattern, applied with digital printing techniques to the clay's surface, alludes to the variability of the object's rendering, texture and shape.
The first pieces, part of table service that plays with the importance of earth and water, were conceived as edifices, objects bearing witness to a timeline that combines ancestral knowledge and technological innovations questioning social and environmental issues.
The project Terres imprimées was developed for over two years. Other object typologies such as plates, glasses, fruit bowls and candlesticks were created during the research process.