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Mourgue: The Designer Who Shaped the Future's Look
21 Oct
Summary
- Olivier Mourgue designed furniture that blurred architecture and design boundaries.
- His Djinn chairs appeared in Kubrick's iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey film.
- He aimed to make beautiful, functional furniture accessible to everyone.
Olivier Mourgue, a visionary designer known for his flexible furniture that defined futuristic living, has passed away at 87. Growing up in 1950s Paris, he rejected ornate traditional pieces, seeking instead to create furniture that was informal, affordable, and close to the floor, blurring the lines between furniture and architecture.
His most celebrated contribution to popular culture came when Stanley Kubrick used a cluster of Mourgue's Djinn armchairs in the lobby of the moon-based Hilton hotel in "2001: A Space Odyssey." These chairs, with their floating appearance and seamless design, became synonymous with cinematic visions of the future.
Mourgue also championed accessible design, creating mass-produced ranges for the French department store Prisunic. His 1969 collection aimed to "bring beauty at the price of the ugly," featuring dismantled, lightweight chipboard pieces like bookcases, beds, and seating.
Educated at Paris's École Boulle and École Nationale Superieure des Art Decoratifs, Mourgue was influenced by designers like Jean Prouvé. His early career saw him collaborating with Airborne to produce his Joker chair and the Djinn range, before establishing his own studio in 1966.
Beyond his commercial work, Mourgue contributed to French national pavilions at world expos and undertook radical experimental housing projects. He also pursued painting and sculpture, exploring personal visions of the future through his "Imaginary Gardens and Little Theatres."
