Magazine T : Spring/ Summer 2024

Elegance

For the seventh edition of T magazine, we wanted to demonstrate elegance in all its forms. During the Renaissance, the word "elegance" became intertwined with the prized qualities of courtesy and refinement. Since then, the "science of the beautiful" has found expression in varied ways, enlivening our everyday experiences, without ostentation — this is very much the spirit that has guided us since the creation of Tectona in 1977. In this edition, we are delighted to share some of our news and our favourite places and to reveal the secret of our workshops.

Since his famous umpire’s chair, Pierre Charpin has regularly collaborated with Tectona. His design, characterised by sober lines, expresses the very essence of the object via its function, its construction and its material. Evidence of this can be found in the bench created for the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts and Photo Élysée in Plateforme 10 at Lausanne.

As admirers of gardens, we are delighted to pay tribute to the absolute elegance of Louis Benech, a proponent of the art of functionality who considers himself first and foremost a gardener, then a creator. His delicate touch and his respect for plants and landscapes comes through in his parks and gardens.

Pursuing your passion for photography can be an arduous task if you attend Rencontres d’Arles

The biggest international photo festival entrusted Tectona, sponsor since 2015, with the task of outfitting break areas with Tectona furniture. The refined and discreet settings interspersed throughout Rencontres help visitors recharge physically and mentally.

In Alpes de Haute Provence, guests at Couvent des Minimes Hôtel & Spa can enjoy the beauty of a jewel of medieval architecture, the purity of Provence light, the unmistakable scents of garrigue during a stay suffused with equilibrium and serenity. Wellbeing becomes a holistic experience.

We interview AC/AL, the design studio behind the Horizon sun lounger. As proponents of the school of functionalism, they focused on ergonomy and lightness to fulfill Tectona’s desire for a sun lounger that is stackable, light and easy to use. The very essence of the form reveals itself in the simplicity and purity of the horizontal lines.

In Normandy, we pull back the curtains at our workshop dedicated to making showers. Did you know that some tried-and-tested techniques date back to Ancient Rome?

Finally, we present our spring-summer 2024 selection of furniture to accompany you during the hot season, for a sweet, sunny and refined lifestyle… Elegant!

By Christian Simenc Portrait by Pierre Antoine

Designer and visual artist Pierre Charpin has been collaborating with Tectona for nearly two decades. His agenda this spring 2024 includes, among other things, the scenography of an exhibition dedicated to the Italian maestro Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019), entitled Io Sono Un Drago [I am a dragon] and present at the Milan Triennale from 13 April to 13 October. Pierre Charpin has chosen three projects that provide a glimpse into his creative process.

THE POETRY OF RAIL LINES

A simple form without digressions, devoid of superfluous details. This bench, designed for two flagship institutions of Lausanne —the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, and Photo Élysée— that were united in the same building in 2022, explicitly expresses what the object is: its function, its construction, its material. Pierre Charpin drew inspiration from "the sleepers of railway lines that evoke the history of this place, situated right next to the central railway station, on the site of the former locomotive hangar" and from the work of the minimalist American artist Carl André, a master of raw materials and simple forms in whom he declares "an unwavering interest". His goal: propose an object of obvious simplicity, an object that affirms its presence while remaining discreet. "A museum bench must not under any circumstances grab your attention, hence the lack of a backrest," underlines Pierre Charpin.

"Working with large sections allowed us to give a certain 'weight' to the object, and not only from an aesthetic point of view." The bench combines a single material, oak, with elemental geometry: two sleepers held in place at their ends by a junction piece.

"Like the museum, railway tracks symbolise, among other things, the possibility of discovering and connecting with other worlds, other horizons," Charpin adds.

© Daniela Droz and Tonatiuh Ambrosetti

CELEBRATING THE ARCHETYPE

Do not reinvent everything — on the contrary, sublimate the qualities of an object that has demonstrated its worth for nearly a century. This was one of the starting points for the reflection around the "renewal of the umpire’s chair," a commission to Tectona by Jean-Claude Blanc, a connoisseur of design and the then Director General of the French Tennis Federation with responsibility for organising the French Open tournament. "My design was not conjured up out of thin air," relates Pierre Charpin. "It adopts, with more sobriety, the original dimensions of the popular and archetypal model dating from the 1920s. The angle of inclination of the steps, for example, is designed so that, in the event of a disputed point, umpires can rapidly descend without taking their eyes off the ball’s mark on the court, then climb back up with the same rapidity." The elegant new umpire’s chair, combining teak slats with powder-coated aluminium tubing, was intended for the main courts of Roland Garros stadium such as the Philippe-Chatrier and Suzanne-Lenglen courts; this plan didn’t come to fruition after the departure of Jean-Claude Blanc. All was not lost however: after being stripped of "official" accessories —microphone, score-keeping computer, advertising spaces—, the chair entered the Tectona catalogue in 2007. The late designer Karl Lagerfeld, an avid bibliophile, repurposed the chair to make a… bookcase ladder.

DESIGN TIMES

For Pierre Charpin, design is not an ancillary activity but a discipline in its own right. In 2022, visitors attending his monographic exhibition at the Hôtel des Arts de Toulon, could admire for themselves the virtuosity he has attained in a diverse range of techniques: graphite, coloured pencils, crayons, chalk, felt-tip pen, ink, paint… For Charpin, the purpose of design is not to formalise; it simply is. "I have to feel the need for tension, which does not rule out pleasure, for the design to come into being," he says. Design is an integral component of every one of his projects. At his workshop, in Ivry-sur-Seine in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, hangs an engraving of his father, the artist Marc Charpin, who he himself was initiated into this technique in the 1950s by the sculptor and engraver Henri-Georges Adam: "The lines and the hatching, I can always see them," confides Pierre Charpin. "They are omnipresent for me." In one of his current projects, with beach towels for Tectona, he is playing around with colours and motifs; specifically, a solid background on which are drawn two layers of lines: one with gently waving lines spread across the longest side, the other with curvy lines with bold diagonal slanting. We eagerly await the outcome…

PLAYERS' BENCH

TENNIS COLLECTION

135 × 67 cm

UMPIRE'S CHAIR

TENNIS COLLECTION

87 × 142 cm

The Pastural Poet

By Tania Compton Portrait by Éric Sander

From Avignon to the Auvergne and Versailles to Villandry, there is barely a corner of France that has not profited from the elegant interventions of the Paris based garden designer Louis Benech. Well known for his impeccable understanding of space and a knowledge of plants sans pareil Benech’s horticultural odyssey had auspicious beginnings.

A LIFE PEPPERED WITH PEOPLE AND PLANTS

He credits his two grandmothers, both of whom he claims were "keen but not very good gardeners" and his mother for nurturing his early talent. With a strewing of benedictions along the way from Madame Mallet at Les Bois des Moutiers and Jelena de Belder in Belgium. Aged 7 young Louis was sowing nasturtium seeds on his paternal grandmother’s Paris balcony ready to be transplanted to her potager in the Pays Basque where her bedroom overlooked a park; "il y avait un vallon, très joli, avec un ferme posée a l’est". The garden of his maternal grandmother was full of "old pear trees, which I always loved, only pear trees, and some Iris unguicularis that she had transported from her childhood home in the South of France". These snippets of conversation with Louis sum up a life of acute observation where memories are peppered with place, the contours of the land, architecture and, always, plants.

MASTER OF MODERNISM AND TIMELESSNESS

The French maestro of garden design has a client list that runs the gamut from départements to divas, he has worked on countless monuments historiques with the ruins of Jumièges currently on his drawing board. Louis is also the go to person when the work of Russell Page or Achille Duchène needs sensitive remodelling to accommodate 21 st century life. He is a past master at practicality and when congratulated on some beautiful creation tends to brush compliments aside with the retort that it was just the practical outcome rather than an artistic one. The extraordinarily beautiful canal in a Greek fretwork motif he delineated to join ponds on a project in the Sologne is a case in point, a nod to a device he had seen on old maps of the estate but dismissed by him as "more to do with the circulation of the water than the design". To everyone else it seems a masterful marriage of modernism and timelessness.

THE BLEND OF PRACTICALITY AND POETRY

There is a Benechian style but it is not a wildly obvious one, there is little repetition in his gardens, his response to scale and the situations he faces being so varied. In many places clearing and simplifying take precedence over adding. As Louis carries an expansive lexicon of horticulture in his head each situation can be met with nimble agility whether he is conjuring a sense of woodland privacy for an hôtel particulier in the 7 ème arrondissement with a brightening understorey of variegated cornus and cherry blossom or creating an arboretum of rare oaks from acorns. Louis Benech has cut a discreet but remarkable swathe through French design like the piercing vistas he has orchestrated in his work, earth and sky meeting in a particular Louis Benech blend of practicality and poetry.

Downtime with Tectona at Rencontres d’Arles

By Valérie Duponchelle

As anyone who has experienced Rencontres d’Arles in the Provence summer will tell you, it requires planning, energy and perseverance. And plenty of breaks! The biggest photography festival in the world features a multitude of exhibitions spread out in the old town: it is best enjoyed at a steady pace with fresh eyes and sharp mind…

Not only the photographs but the settings compete for your visual attention, from the sea of ID photos of immigrant workers in "Ne m’oublie pas" by Collection Jean-Marie Donat at the Espace Croisière to the large-format photographs of the group exhibition "Sosterskap. Photographes contemporaines nordiques" at Sainte-Anne church. Traversing various and diverse artistic worlds sharpens our concentration, from the melancholic New York of Saul Leiter at Saint-Trophime to the freeze-frame images by Gregory Crewdson at Parc des Ateliers, from the secrets of artist’s books in "Scrapbooks" at Espace Van Gogh to the strange life seen by Diane Arbus at Fondation Luma. Arles 2023 was intense. Arles 2024 promises more of the same.

For your breaks, you need shade and somewhere to sit. The latter is where Tectona, a proud sponsor of Rencontres d’Arles since 2015, steps in. Tectona furniture provides comfort and so much more: their models are built for long life outdoors, are easy to use, are light, optimise space, demonstrate expert craftsmanship and feature sleek lines originally inspired by British chic. In most places, the furniture is an invitation to slow down, to indulge in the art of doing nothing. At Rencontres d’Arles, they provide a brief but necessary respite from a gruelling schedule.

Arnaud Brunel, President of Tectona France, is a passionate devotee of photography. The stalwart attendee of Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo confides in us, "I started getting interested in the early 1980s while living in New York. At the time, few people were interested. I had the good fortune of meeting several leading figures from the world of photography, the major dealers Harry Lunn, Peter MacGill, Howard Greenberg, Edwin Houk and Maria Hambourg, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They taught me the history of photography and influenced my first choices. In the last twenty years, I have trusted the eye of Alexis Fabry, not only for his unrivalled knowledge of South American photography, but also his knowledge of contemporary design. This is how I asked renowned designers to work for Tectona." He continues, "I met Sam Stourdzé when he was head of Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and followed his trajectory when he became, on 16 April 2014, the Director of Rencontres d’Arles, an event I had come to know well over many years. This was the genesis of the partnership between Tectona and Rencontres d’Arles. It has continued to this day, at every edition."

The man who provided the furniture for the garden of Musée Rodin in Paris and Villa Medici in Rome is a collector of Diane Arbus (small-format postcard, signed, of her iconic Identical Twins, 1967), Robert Frank (The Americans, a groundbreaking book published by Delpire in 1958), the historical Charles Nègre and Eugène Atget, the masters Brassaï and Irving Penn, the sensual Seydou Keïta but also the transgressive Andres Serrano and Martin Parr. It was in his capacity as a seasoned visitor that he teamed up with Rencontres d’Arles, laying out Copacabana deckchairs at the Parc des Ateliers and wooden Circle benches around trees of the old town. It does sometimes seem that emotions evoked by photographers drain physical energy too, for example those of Bettina Grossman, Frida Orudapo, Lee Miller and Ana Mendieta for Rencontres d’Arles 2022. Even as the mist descends at the entrance to Espace Croisière to refresh visitors half-way along Boulevard des Lices, between Forum and Fondation Luma, there is always more to see, more to do, more photos to take in. Comfort is key.

DECKCHAIR WITH HEADREST

COPACABANA COLLECTION

105 × 70 cm

SEMI-CIRCLE BENCH

CIRCLE BENCH COLLECTION

220 × 100 cm

UMPIRE'S CHAIR

TENNIS COLLECTION

87 × 142 cm

An Ode to Provence

By Dany Sautot

Tectona whisks you to the Alpes de Haute Provence department for a holistic break infused with serenity and beauty. Couvent des Minimes Hôtel & Spa invites you to share a sublime experience for all five senses under the wonderful light of Provence.

A DISTINCTIVE HISTORY

In 1613, the Order of Minims devoted to preaching and penance, established itself in Provence, where the Marquis Forbin de Janson had a convent built near the village of Mane. Later, from 1862 to 1999, it was occupied by Franciscan Sisters, before becoming a hotel in 2008. It was only in June 2023, after a 3-year transformation, that this jewel of medieval architecture underwent a veritable renaissance. The 5-star hotel belongs to the L’Occitane group and is today one of the most beautiful venues in the Luberon massif of central Provence.

SHOWCASING HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE

The restoration and fitting out of the convent were underpinned by a respect for its history and the excellence of its hospitality. Thus, the original facades have been preserved. The scene is set as soon as guests enter via the original doors into the former chapel converted into a lobby from where they can admire the impressive framework culminating 10 metres above the Burgundy stone flooring. Eighteen lovingly restored 17th-century stained glass windows bathe the entire space in a special light conducive to tranquillity. Among the treasures discovered during the restoration are frescoes, also from the 17th century, including one of the face of an angel, attesting to the vibrant artistic culture of this spiritual site.

EXTRAORDINARY GARDENS

Outdoors immerse yourself in Provence: traditional restanque dry-stone walls surround Mediterranean gardens from which emanate scents of garrigue. One of the students trained by the monks of the monastery, Louis Feuillée, became the botanist of Louis XIV. From his expeditions to Latin America, he would bring back new species of nasturtiums and fuchsia. The restanque plots received the attention of the Franciscan Sisters, who planted fruit trees and vines. The gardening tradition has continued to the present day, with almonds, wormwood, rosemary, olives, and last but not least, lavender, being grown. And not to be overlooked: two ornamental ponds.

PROVENCE SOUL

Without a doubt, the single most important element that ties everything together is the natural light that bathes the convent and the new buildings housing the spa. Every one of the 48 rooms and suites is in osmosis with the unique purity of the Provence sky and exhibit a soothing palette of colours spanning beige, white, flaxen, grege and, echoing the olive plants outdoors,

green. The materials selected for the furniture also blend in with the soft ambience, with oak, linen, sandstone, terra cotta and wicker worked by local artisans. The good life continues in the fine-dining restaurant Le Feuillée, the bistro Pamparigouste and the bar L’Alambic, all three dedicated to the flavours of Provence.

ABSOLUTE WELLBEING

Designed to blend into the landscape, the spa covers an area of 2 500 m 2 divided into a dry zone for treatments and a multisensorial wet zone. You can enjoy Tectona comforts alongside the pools, including the teak sun loungers from the Camarat and Southampton collections, the essential Copacabana deckchair and the modular Exeter sofas. Alongside them, Duxford coffee tables in teak, square and rectangular, further urge you to take a break. Roma parasols provide the necessary shade and respite from the blazing sun, which will be without a doubt the protagonist of your stay.

TABLE 140 CM

Interview by Marie Godfrain Portrait by Laurent Cazot

AC/AL is a design studio founded in 2013 by Amandine Chor and Aïssa Logerot, two designers who met during their design studies at ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres before entering ENSCI Les Ateliers. They combine a tropism for industrial manufacturing processes and a valorisation of use via minimalistic lines… This passion was put into use for the Horizon sun lounger, a perfect distillation of their philosophy.

How would you describe your work?

We are fervent subscribers to the school of functionalism. We like to meet challenges surrounding use, ergonomy and function; this is our starting point every time. Next we look at the client’s story to propose to them essential lines, clear silhouettes, while also playing around with the details that will provide the project’s singularity. We do a lot of prototyping.

What piece did you want to propose to Tectona?

After Tectona informed us about their desire to remedy the lack of a stackable sun lounger in their catalogue, we thought it would be interesting to propose furniture in aluminium, a material that we have mastered and that is particularly well suited to the outdoors, especially the hotel sector, as it is both light and stackable, qualities that are highly prized in this field.

How did you translate these intentions into lightness and ergonomy?

The technical starting point for the piece was to ensure that it had fine features and was light and easy to use. Our work concentrated on improving comfort, both comfort in everyday use and when manipulating the lounger, particularly the backrest. We focused on making it easy to adjust the recline angle, which we achieved with a simple and effective manual system. As for aesthetics, we favoured horizontality, to allow the lounger to blend into the landscape, optimising enjoyment of whichever setting it was in.

The materials also contribute to the fineness of the sun lounger. Why did you choose Batyline®?

We experimented a lot with braiding and stringing… and the results were extremely complex from a visual and technical standpoint. Finally we opted for Batyline®, a material that is both comfortable, due to its softness, and light, both in terms of its visual impact, given that the weave is translucent, and in terms of its weight, making it portable. Batyline® is also highly durable, able to withstand all weather conditions and UV.

I would say that the other materials used and the lines of the design also contribute to the finesse…

Yes, a lot of work went into "finessing" the elements, the flat base in aluminium, light and corrosion-resistant, ideal

for the outdoors, and the horizontal bar in teak. This solid teak bar emphasises the horizontality of the sun lounger’s profile. Together these two materials make for an interesting contrast, because teak is not only a nod to Tectona’s historic know-how but adds a natural warm finish, and clarity to the ensemble. A detail, which actually isn’t one, that lends cachet.

Horizon is also highly mobile…

We came up with a system incorporating caster wheels on the rear legs to allow users to lift the lounger and move it around like a wheelbarrow. The wheels are almost invisible, discreet elements adding an essential quality for outdoor furniture without subverting the design.

HORIZON COLLECTION

200 × 75,5 cm

SUN LOUNGER

Tectona showers: Refreshingly good

By Dany Sautot

If our showers are the final word in the art of outdoor living, it’s because they’re the products of meticulous and rigorous know-how. Here we present a little glimpse into our shower workshop situated in the Pays de Caux region in the heart of Normandy.

THE TECTONA SPIRIT

Whether made from teak, stainless steel or powder-coated aluminium, every one of our showers and posts meets the same criteria as our furniture: they are easy to use and suited to the outdoors, they have the right proportions and they blend in harmoniously with their environment, whether it’s plant or mineral.

IN OUR WORKSHOP

All the pieces making up our showers are worked using traditional manual techniques. For the plumbing, we use traditional know-how including oakum for connections, a technique that was being used by Ancient Romans and which makes it possible to screw seals to make them airtight without blocking them, such that you can unscrew them if necessary. We only use quality pieces from Europe. External piping is made from brass with a chrome coating for corrosion resistance.

The Tropic shower illustrates all the know-how implemented for the creation of our showers. The column is cut from a single section of premium teak. To fix in place the mixer valve lever and the shower arm, the boards are inserted manually. The final step is precise and manual chiselling of the teak. All our showers are connected to a water supply for testing before they leave the workshop. Packaging is carried out with great care, providing protection and making assembly easier. Once they reach their final destination, they take moments to install and provide years of service!

SOUTHAMPTON SUN LOUNGER

Dreaming in colours

The elegance of this sun lounger derives from its ethereal design, created by the diagonally cut legs in teak. The marine blue colour of the Batyline ® fabric is a resolutely summery colour and also enhances the beauty of the teak. If you desire, you can choose another colour for the fabric from the extensive palette.

BAMBOO LOW ARMCHAIR

Botanical inspiration

The design of this armchair is inspired by the structure and knots of bamboo canes. It has a structure in aluminium offering generously dimensioned seat and backrest, and two extremely comfortable deep cushions available in two colours, white or green, both of which feature subtle black piping.

1800 SOFA

The cult of detail

From whatever angle you view it, the 1800 collection exhibits extreme attention to detail, whether in its proportions, its shaping, but also in the arrangement of the famous nub motif, borrowed from the Directory style, at the intersections and junctions of the aluminium elements.

TWO-SEATER SOFA

154 × 91 cm

ROMA PARASOL

Peerless!

Since 1986, this Tectona icon has been recognisable by its unique silhouette: a corolla topped by a small hat to allow air to pass through. It has been fabricated in the traditional manner in the same Rome workshop since its launch. Over the years, new colour options have been added; here ochre harmonises with the Sunbrella mattress of the Camarat sun lounger.

ROMA ROUND

PARASOL 3M

Ø 300 cm

Steel parasol base (sold separately)

Sunacryl ® colour fabric on request

CAMARAT SUN

LOUNGER

200 × 64 cm

1800 TABLE WITH MARBLE TABLETOP

The grandeur of marble

Used in architecture and sculpture since Antiquity, marble fits in perfectly with the tables of the 1800 collection. Its beauty is further enhanced after polishing, which gives a soft satin appearance. Marble is solid, dense, nonporous and impermeable. As such, marble tabletops are easily and quickly cleaned, a real convenience especially for restaurants and bars.

SQUARE TABLE

MARBLE TABLETOP

90 × 90 cm

CHAIR

44 × 55 cm

ARMCHAIR

TROPIC SHOWER

56 × 53 cm .06

Refreshingly good

TROPIC SHOWER

Height: 215 cm

Attractive, weather-resistant and easy to install, the Tropic shower consists of a column cut from a single section of teak. Its large square overhead showerhead releases water as fine continuous rain. For practicality, a handheld showerhead is included for when you only need to quickly rinse off.

GOA LOW ARMCHAIR

Simply timeless

Since the 1980s, the Goa collection proposes a sleek design showcasing the beauty of teak, worked according to Tectona’s know-how in cabinetmaking. The low armchair incorporates an ingenuous system that allows you to recline the backrest into one of two positions. As for the footrest, it puts the finishing touches on the armchair: absolute comfort!

LOW ARMCHAIR

FLORIDA INCLINABLE PARASOL

Keeping track of the sun

The structure in aluminium and the corolla in Textilene fabric lend incredible resistance to Florida. It is inclinable so you can protect yourself from the sun whatever time of day without moving. Florida is easy to move around; it is easy to open and close; a ventilation system on top of the mast keeps it firmly grounded in windy conditions. Here, it casts shade over the stackable sun lounger Horizon, designed by AC/AL.

Where to find Tectona !

Stores

Paris

36 rue du Bac 75007 Paris

Tel. +33 1 47 03 38 05 paris@tectona.fr

Lyon

8 rue Antoine de Saint Exupéry 69002 Lyon

Tel. +33 4 78 37 05 05 lyon@tectona.fr

Saint-Rémy de Provence

7 avenue Albin Gilles 13210 Saint-Rémy de Provence

Tel. +33 4 32 62 05 05 saintremy@tectona.fr

Vallauris 3015 chemin Saint-Bernard 06225 Vallauris

Tel. +33 4 92 96 92 29 vallauris@tectona.fr

www.tectona.fr