At last year’s Collectible fair in Brussels, Paf atelier made a name for itself with its stunning inflatable structures. Suspended from the ceiling of the Tour & Taxi complex, the whitish cylinders were intended to direct passers-by during their visit.
Founded by Christopher Dessus in 2017, Paf atelier is a Paris-based architecture and scenography studio. Through its many projects – including the scenography for the LGN SS 2024 fashion show and the Carven boutique on the Champs-Élysées – Paf atelier demonstrates that a new practice of architecture is finally possible.
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
German engineer and architect Hans Walter Müller inspired Christopher Dessus to create his inflatable structures. Now living in France, Müller has been working on movement architecture since the 1960s. He was one of the first to build an inflatable church in Montigny-lès-Cormeilles.
After numerous exchanges with this emblematic figure of kinetic art, the inflated prototypes of Collectible 2023 slowly took shape in Christopher Dessus’s mind. In collaboration with a workshop of craftsmen, the scenographer set out to find a material that was sourced, easily transportable and lightweight. The set design for the contemporary design fair was therefore destined to be reused for another project. The Centre de Design de l’UQAM proves the point.
THE ARRANGEMENT OF POSSIBILITIES
For the occasion, UQAM students came up with “Les langages du possible”, an installation that questions the various possibilities concealed in public space. Together, they discuss a principle that goes beyond the laws of classical layout. In the same way as the set design for the Brussels design fair, some cylinders are held in place by bluish ropes, while others stand against a wall or are stacked on the floor like a construction set.
Read more about Paf atelier’s research on inflatables in a book to be published by Pli in 2024.
BELGIUM – BRUSSELS