The “Essences” collection designed by Jean Nouvel is a bid to revitalize the furniture industry of the Périgord region through contemporary creation. It is a bid to achieve quality through the use of solid wood, to pass on knowledge and know-how and support the local economy (timber, the craft industry, business). Starting with a model table, chests, trays and boxes, of the same dimensions and available in several local timbers (ash, oak, cherry, walnut, cedar, pine, birch), the collection will gradually be extended in the months to come [vrai ou pas vrai?] to other typologies of furniture and objects.

“It’s not just about the species of wood, its essence, but also the essence of things: of a table, of touch, of the nobility of a material, of a mode of assembly. It seems to me to be urgent for us to retrieve the essence of things, to fight against this ‘Canada Dry’ age–meaning, the elimination of all essences. I believe in the modernity of wood. An object should correspond to a series of sensations, to the logic of a material, of a program, of proportions: we need to retrieve qualities that old objects had naturally, since they’re essential, and use them in objects corresponding to our way of life, to the evolution in the world’s aesthetics: they are testaments to the era. They are also the expression of a successful end result and a refinement; from the logic of proportions, an obviousness emerges: the object is beautiful in itself, it doesn’t owe its elegance to any technical feat. It comes close to being a work of art. It has a feel, a smell, a colour, an aesthetic: the softness of wood is unbelievable. The collection suggests the hyper-sensorial nature of wood, its tactility. We’ve worked hard with Eric Rouchon to bring out the veins in the wood, to soften the edges and smooth out the surfaces. But we’ve still got a lot to learn. In developing this collection with Eric and his team of journeymen, we hope to retrieve techniques for selecting, joining and finishing different kinds of timbers–so we can radically reinterpret them in contemporary forms. Skilful assembly processes that create anomalies produce little refinements and define the singularity of the project.

This collection is a demonstration: it promotes awareness of the differences between species of wood and is in that sense educational. It proceeds as a series: the same table is available in the same proportions but in different species of wood: birch, oak, cedar, cherry, pine, ash, walnut. Ash is the palest and most even-grained, walnut is the darkest but it can have a lot of variations; then there is the powerful smell of cedar, grey-veined cedar; and so on… What is thereby revealed, without their being toned down by varnish or stain, are the variations and natural rhythms of wood.

Each different wood has a different kind of finish, corresponding to its aesthetic. Every object is precious, defined by a notion of ultra-refinement. Every object, particularly in the ways it is assembled, is an expression of a culture that is still very much alive. The objects are monolithic, made of mono materials, and assembled in different ways according to each object’s functionality. They reveal the ‘body’ of the wood. In that sense, they are emotional.

In terms of typology, the project’s starting point is a series of tables available in 7 different species of Périgord wood. The tables act as supports for assorted objects: pouf-chests and small stackable boxes for this preview. These objects will be completed by new objects in the months to come to quickly create a true collection.” Jean Nouvel