


Architonic ID: 20780605
Year of Launch: 2024
Structure:
Wood and wood-derivative products and moulded flexible polyurethane with down insert (seat- backrest)
Final cover:
Removable cover in fabric- leather
Concept
With Ernest, Jean-Marie Massaud tackles the theme of comfort in a radical way. The result of this approach, which makes modularity its strong point, is a sofa with soft, deconstructed volumes inspired by a down cushion for natural comfort. The juxtaposition of the different elements results in small or large, linear or L-shaped sofas, without ever losing the expressive power of the design.
This product belongs to collection:
Structure engineered wood

France
Since the beginning of his career (a 1990 graduate of Paris’ ENSCI-Les Ateliers, Paris Design Institute), Jean-Marie Massaud has been working on an extensive range of works, stretching from architecture to objects, from one-off project to serial ones, from macro environment down to micro contexts. Major brands such as Axor, Cassina, Christofle, Poliform, Toyota have solicited his ability to mix comfort and elegance, zeitgeist and heritage, generosity and distinction. Beyond these elegant designs, his quest for lightness – in matters of essence – synthesize three broader stakes: individual and collective fulfillment, economic and industrial efficiency, and environmental concerns. “I’m trying to find an honest, generous path with the idea that, somewhere between the hard economic data, there are users. People.” His creations, whether speculative or pragmatic, explore this imperative paradigm: reconciling pleasure with responsibility, the individual with the collective. When asked to imagine a new stadium for the city of Guadalajara, Mexico, he comes back with a never seen before cloud and volcano-shaped building, integrated in a vast urban-development program that re-unite leisure and culture, nature and urbanization, sport aficionados and local citizens. Instead of implanting a stadium, he proposed an environment. And the initial vision has proven a realistic approach: the project has come to life in July 2011. More recently, his concept car developed in partnership with Toyota, has the same objective. MEWE is a synthesis of economical and ecological concepts, integrating issues specific to each stakeholder: the user, industry, and the environment. A pioneering multiple-use platform that is a car for the people, with a body in expanded polypropylene foam: a major innovation. “When I’m working on a project, there’s always an attempt to renew the subject I’m involved in”. Another distinctive aspect of his approach.