The ultimate island survival checklist serves as a definite icebreaker, prompting intriguing responses and reflections. If you were to seek refuge in a secluded haven nestled within the embrace of nature's vast expanse, what essentials would you prioritise, and how well-equipped would you be to sustain a self-sufficient lifestyle with your chosen provisions?

Multidisciplinary creator Mathieu Lehanneur brought his unique take on this premise to life with the unveiling of his sunny installation, Outonomy, a standout attraction at the recently concluded January edition of Maison&Objet 2024. Stepping into a city blanketed in delicate layers of snow, I represented STIR at the multifaceted design fair in Paris, where I had the privilege of meeting the esteemed French designer in person for an exclusive interview. Lehanneur was celebrated as Maison&Objet’s Designer of the Year in M&O's January edition this year.

Myriad design figurines dressed in yellow found their positions across a levelled yellow stage, accompanying a yellow, house-like structure clad in yellow square shingles and crowned by a flat yellow roof, greeting us at the design installation on the fairgrounds. The bright architectural module exuded a presence inquiring, pleasant, contemplative, and ever-beckoning. These companions outside—a low-lying circular pond hosting baby orange fishes frolicking and swimming at ease, a vertical garden rising to meet the ceiling with plants encased within incubators, a strictly geometric armchair, a modern bench resembling a finessed tree trunk, and a punching bag suspended from the under roof—projected wonder. A suggestive transparent bubble seemingly frozen in time remained affixed to the wall of the home, throwing cartoonish, elastic reflections, while a door-shaped opening revealed ever so slightly, an all-white, pensive interior, as a small crowd started to condense, preening, inquiring, and touching the installation with extended hands. No matter how you ended up near Outonomy, you simply went towards it.  

The intent, the reveal, lying almost beyond reach, summoned you to observe, to find what lay within, in service to the most fundamentals. With these suggestive elements, Lehanneur interprets the theme of the bi-annual design festival, TECH EDEN, which implies a dream-like optimism to regain a paradise through technology, edging closer to futuristic biophilia. Most aspects of the fair related or responded to the theme in which, a relationship between science, nature, and technology was hinted at, a synergy that projected us into a sustainable future of well-being. Sampling what it meant to get and remain close to nature while selecting the essential comforts that are aided by advancements in technology, Lehanneur, warm, slender, and indulgent, shared his interpretative stance with us: “TECH EDEN can be perceived as an oxymoron, a delightful yet contemplative one, combining technology and Eden, which is supposed to be a paradise in nature. The idea was to find a balance between the two. How can technology provide or assist with its services, to bring you closer to nature—an ultimate quest to reach our age-lived bonds of co-existing with nature?”

According to the France-based design studio, Outonomy is conceived as an ecosystem of life that is simultaneously minimal and optimal—an innovative habitat and a new imagined lifestyle constructed around a virtuous collaboration between humans and their environment, responding to the design event’s theme. “The idea here is to invent a new way of living,” said the multifaceted French designer, addressing the crowd’s inquisitive gazes.

I wanted to suggest an alternative vision to the modern representation of man dominating nature. The history of civilisation and architecture is punctuated by attempts, solutions, and propositions for an isolated dwelling: the igloo, the cabin, the hut, or the yurt. The idea here is to combine our needs with current technologies. - Mathieu Lehanneur

“The project is based on the idea of independence and freedom, far from all the noise and density. It looks toward another place where each of us can rethink our way of living and interacting with our environment. A place to invent and to reinvent ourselves,” the studio based in Paris elaborates.  

And it was all yellow

Popularly associated with optimism, energy, warmth, spontaneity, and hope, the colour yellow is known to implement a therapeutic effect, which fed into the intent of Lehanneur’s installation, its entire skin clothed in sunny yellow, an acme of energy as a design motif. At Parc des Expositions de Paris Nord Villepinte, home to Maison&Objet Paris from January 18 – 22, 2024, Outonomy stood as a monochrome, radiant beacon in ‘vibratory pale yellow,’ at the crossroads between the fictional and documentary, an ensemble of architecture and objects connected to each other, and its onlookers, through its energy and ‘solar’ surface.

“Far from being nostalgic or trying to backtrack, Outonomy attempts to respond to the question: what do I really need? Without aiming for total self-sufficiency, the desire for independence implies that we must first consider the pillars of our basic needs: my food, my energy, my activities, my security, and my comfort. Outonomy is inspired by the emergence of survivalist notions that are currently appearing in numerous ways around the globe, from the mild to the highly paranoid. The idea here is not to go down the road of the bunker or to contemplate the apocalypse, but rather, to question the life that we wish to lead,” Lehanneur asserts.

Escape, breathe, live elsewhere… It’s a project about a possible life, a way to ask each visitor the implicit question: are you ready? - Mathieu Lehanneur

As the industrial and product designer explained to STIR, “the idea was to literally, shoot you with energy at first contact. Afterwards, you enter a more reduced interior, minimal, simple, efficient, encouraging one to relax, become quieter, and come closer to the fundamentals of sustaining a comfortable life. So, you are met with energy outside, step in with it, to find quiet, setting in motion, an intentional cycle of slow living.”
For this to manifest through architecture and design, the designer insisted on removing, reducing, and decluttering—essentially, Marie Kondo-ing your way into this new existence. Simply let go of things that we do not really need: things that feed our ego and only keep what nourishes, and eventually, bring us back to nature as the distractions melt away; keep only services that assist and do not distract; revel in the essential.

A perpetual summer

Led by a desire to install this prototype of living in the middle of nowhere—nestled deep in a verdant forest, resting next to a pacific river, or perched on a faraway promontory—Lehanneur’s checklist for this new module of living consisted of fundamentals, yet necessary aspects of living—clean air to breathe; food that replenishes (a small fish pond and a vertical garden grow outside); surrounding yourself with good energy (it was all yellow); water (a transparent, organic shaped-bubble attached to the front façade acts as a wall sculpture and doubles up as self-filtering water tank, and a rainwater harvesting vessel that cleans, filters, and uses it, as well as a wall art piece emulating flowing water); places to rest (a bed, a chair, a table, a stool, a base verandah, and a bench); storage spaces in the wall; a few artworks that soothe and inspire you; light (a skylight that reveals the sun’s journey to you inside, a sculpture impersonating fire, and a suspended flower lighting design that mimics a blooming flower); physical movement for fitness (a boxing punching bag suspended from the roof); a micro vegetable garden grown on the roof; as well as a helium drone and domestic wind turbine system were developed specifically for the installation.  

Inside, Lehanneur desired to simulate a never-ending summer, in tandem, with emulating our lives lived in prehistoric caves, those which were inextricable with nature, one that worshipped and nurtured it, while integrating it with things that sustain our modern existence of ease and comfort, and simply, retain a balanced, wholesome life. “A paradox, really, to intend to stay close to nature while enjoying the benefits and systems of modern living. It is always a question of balance," mentioned Lehanneur.

Inside the light-filled interior, the energy subdued as an invitation to slow down. Here, the designer invoked nature and its elements within pieces such as the Guernica light, a ceramic floral explosion. The Pocket Ocean wall sculpture offers a surreal, materialised vision of a sea frozen in its movement. In the hearth burns Permanent Flame, an eternal fire in polished bronze, and the Happy to Be Here table seems to float and defy the laws of gravity.

“In the end, Outonomy is a possible return to our original cave, while being sure to bring the comforts we’re no longer willing to live without,” the studio sums up.

An autonomous Factory

Through his eponymous brand, MATHIEU LEHANNEUR, the designer emphasises deep wonder that arises when you least expect it with his designs, which frequent the points where technology, science, art, and design converge. Part of the press tour was visiting his recently inaugurated HQ, The Factory, in a historic, brick-clad building in Ivry-sur-Seine. As radically multidisciplinary as himself, The Factory barely gave away the design wonders housed within it, from the twinkling Ocean Memories table design to his myriad prototypes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch. The tour began with servings of champagne and hors-d'œuvres passed around, coats safely resting in cloakrooms, and the crowd starting to relax after a long day of walking the fair. Inside the 800 sqm space, a manifesto of independence and design marvels were revealed, again, suffused with the same concept as the installation—a decluttered, spread-out space that invited and enchanted with Lehanneur’s collectable design and functional art pieces, arranged and brimming with promise.  

The essence of The Factory, (as Lehanneur revealed in his speech during the Designer of the Year award ceremony held here), was a matter of being autonomous, of dedicating itself to creation, production, and exhibition, in a self-sufficient system. From an idea’s development to its fabrication and building prototypes, the 50-year-old does it all here, cutting out middlemen and systems.

Listen carefully to what the world is telling you. Observe the way people are living, thinking, and loving—get as close as you can to who you are deep down—this is where you can create your own inspiration. - Mathieu Lehanneur

Within the confines of his dedicated space at Maison&Objet Paris, Lehanneur's cultivated ideas and creations coexisted harmoniously, embodying the carte blanche approach embraced for the scenography. The Factory, a manifestation of the designer's creative journey from intuitions to tangible products, resonates with his transformation from someone who never truly aspired to be a designer initially. It serves as a testament to his process of exploring, experimenting, and keen observation—ultimately inching closer to an autonomy that every creator aspires to achieve.

Tap the head banner to watch STIR’s full interview with Mathieu Lehanneur at Maison&Objet Paris 2024.