Studio Dessuant Bone was selected by the town hall of Saint Denis, Paris as winners of the prestigious competition within France; ‘1% Artistique’. The competition encourages art and design to be embraced with the building of every new government project or building constructed.

We were tasked with designing a furniture collection for the community centre “Maison de Quartier Sémard” in Saint Denis.

We arrived at ‘Collection 22’. A furniture collection of 4 tables, 8 chairs, 8 stools and 2 kitchen trolleys. The collection was designed to help and improve the communal/meeting area in the community center. All the furniture was made by the woodwork students at the Lycée Bartholdi school in Saint-Denis, in an aim to help bring the community closer together. This allowed us to design using sophisticated joinery, but also allowed us to question the concept of a unique piece of furniture.

The idea of colour and pattern felt the most relevant in order for each piece of the collection to become unique. We decided to work with traditional marquetry but with a contemporary execution and aesthetic. Each piece was given its own graphic marquetry that acted as a logo or mark; alongside this, laser embossed under each piece of furniture was the name of each student that worked on the project.

Collection 22 is now at the heart of the community centre in Saint Denis and used everyday by the people that visit and hold the center close to their heart. Collection 22 was a fantastic opportunity to create social links and stimulate meetings and exchanges between Saint Denis inhabitants from all walks of life, thanks to local knowledge, an understanding of the communities needs and a promotion of young skilled woodwork students. The collection is intended to further help and encourage these exchanges for generations to come.