The Future On Stage competition returns to the forefront of the Maison&Objet stage in September, with plans for a brilliant and innovative start to the 2024 season! For the past three years, Future On Stage, Maison&Objet’s major showcase for French and international talent, has been rewarding companies of less than three years old that are ahead of the game in terms of innovation, business and creativity in the world of design, decoration and lifestyle. Each year, three inventive young start-ups who are real game changers in the market are given exhibition space at the show and support from market experts.
To help the winners increase their visibility and business, Mélanie Leroy, Managing Director of SAFI, is working with the Maison&Objet teams to develop a truly forwardlooking programme, in tune with a constantly evolving market. A mission of discovery and follow-up capable of creating a real impact now and in the future.
Chaired by Mélanie Leroy, the Future On Stage jury is made up of: Vincent Grégoire, director of consumer trends & insights at NellyRodi; Franck Millot, Director of Paris Design Week; Florence Delage, Director of the Le Bon Marché sales department; Cristiano Benzoni, co-founder of the REV studio; and Vincent Romeo, founder of Blog Esprit Design and director of Agence 14 septembre. For the new talents, three young companies adopting forward-looking, positive and empathetic approaches that are full of promise for the future will be given a stand at the heart of the Maison&Objet Paris show from 5 to 9 September 2024 and will be promoted through its communication channels. These are: Sungai Design (Bali, Indonesia and Paris, France), Konqrit (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs (Bois-Colombes, France).
Sungai Design.
Sungai Design – From the rivers of Bali, year of creation: 2023
Sungai Watch and Sungai Design are sisters. The first is a three-and-a-half-year-old environmental foundation that collects and sorts plastic from Bali’s rivers. Over the last few months, the youngest of the family has been paving the way for a new era of sustainable design by turning a global scourge into a sustainable material. This project is the brainchild of French siblings, Kelly, Gary and Sam Bencheghib who, from Bali, Paris and New York, present Ombak, a carefully polished seat assembled by hand at the rate of one chair a day. The Indonesian president follows them!
“We are ecological activists. Our sorting warehouses were piled high with plastic bags that cannot be recycled in Indonesia. Thanks to the Dutch platform Precious Plastic, we found out how to recycle on our own, with the aim of producing an unbreakable object that we could sell to finance our clean-up operations. We named it Ombak and it has received a tremendous response, far beyond our expectations!”, Kelly Bencheghib, co-founder of Sungai Design.
www.sungaidesign.com
Cecilia García Galofre, founder of Konqrit.
Konqrit – Bathtubs that are works of art, year of creation: 2022
Attractive bathtubs celebrate beauty in the intimate space. It’s the creation of a former fashion consultant who used to change her ideas every six months. This freshness of spirit is reflected in the ever-changing motifs of the artists who now see bathtubs, both inside and out, as blank canvases. Bathroom curator? This is unprecedented, even in the luxury segment, which is finally able to experiment with a different idea of the bath.
“In designing my home, I wanted to create spaces for relaxation and connection with the present. The bathroom turned out to be the right place, but I couldn’t find anything on the market. No brand works with artists in a space as private as the bathroom! So I undertook the project myself, devoting two years to product development. In the end, I had a small factory on hand, so I launched Konqrit without a plan for the future, like an explorer. People liked it, they came to my workshops, I got articles in the press: it all happened very quickly”, Cecilia García Galofre, founder of Konqrit.
www.konqrit.com
Paul de Livron, founder of Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs.
Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs – Stylish wheelchairs, year of creation: 2023
Paul de Livron has perfected a manufacturing technique that makes it possible to produce the only wooden wheelchairs in the world. Creative and hands-on, this engineering graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers has developed self-taught skills in working with materials and in design. Unique pieces made from okoumé wood (or with splinters of charred Notre Dame beams), he sits in the most stylish armchair to collect his Olympic medal and, miraculously, changes the way people look at him! The Pope is a partner in the project.
“I see myself as a design consultancy providing technical know-how and demonstrations on a market to be created and partners. I need support for production and marketing. The chair offered to the Pope was an example of the fact that even in the Holy See, medical chairs are not very attractive or comfortable. It’s important to create objects that look less like medical equipment and more like something beautiful. Since I saw seventy people sharing three enormous tanks at an institute in India, I’d like to enable developing countries to produce low-tech wooden chairs”, Paul de Livron, founder of Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs.
www.apollo.fr