The Bouroullec brothers’ ’Album’ show, Bordeaux

They are known for their designs for the likes of Vitra, Magis and Cappellini, so you’d be forgiven for a expecting another polished selection of products from the Bouroullec brothers at their latest show in Bordeaux. But there’s not a new chair or lighting design in sight at the Arc en Rêve Architecture Centre. Instead, the exhibition space’s walls are given up to some 800 documents, photographs, sketches and mock-up outlines taken from the Ronan and Erwan’s archives, giving a rare glimpse into the minds behind the hugely successful designs.
Titled ’Album’, the show is about ’translating the multiplicity of what we do in a panoramic set up,’ they say. Despite the wealth of material on display, no hierarchy is given to individual items, whether they relate to industrial projects, galleries, architectural designs or research projects, and all are framed in the same way. An entire wall is even given over to a hundred drawings of chairs that made it into production.

From what looks like doodles with felt tip pens, through to photographs of their latest designs for Alessi, the exhibition acts as a kind of treasure trail through the creative world of the French duo.