Math­ieu Lehan­neur at the Laboratoire

Art Meets Science

Labo­Brain — French designer Math­ieu Lehan­neur at the Laboratoire.

Labo­Brain is a tailor-made all-white stu­dio. Photo © Fabien Thouvenin

Design­ing new lay­outs for the Labor­atoire, Math­ieu Lehan­neur has cre­ated func­tional spaces on the bor­der­line between art and sci­ence: Labo­Brain is a private think-tank.

The Labo­Brain is a tailor-made all-white stu­dio for David Edwards, the founder of Labor­atoire. It is a gym, a place for work­ing out thought, with all the appro­pri­ate tools cereb­ral ath­letes need to hone their per­form­ances. Pro­jec­ted in brain­storm­ing mode, the user does not have a sit-down work post. He works mov­ing about in front of a con­cave Velleda screen, a secret alcove that is also a sur­face where this space age cave-man scrawls ideas and draw­ings, a sound­ing board for the cre­at­ive intellectual.

Buck­min­ster Fuller haunts this altern­at­ive space for thought-on-the-move. In homage to his geodesic dome, a half-deflated leather soc­cer ball offers laid-back rest between two work-outs, while under the floor-level grate, plant-life is busy eat­ing CO2 and pump­ing up oxy­gen to bring organic relief to the interior.

Almost clas­sic, the table and chair in the office of David Edwards’ assist­ant is the right-side lobe of this brain, the rational part for organ­iz­a­tion and stor­age. But there is one con­straint: not a single stray arte­fact to catch the eye. A wall of immacu­late white card­board boxes salutes the iMac in manual mode, and will serve for sev­eral years of paper archives.

A wall of boxes also fig­ures in the main space, but in sheet metal. Their sides embossed in a wafer pat­tern call to mind a New York hot dog stand revamped to Italian design codes. Pop-style lux­ury in a place that pulls together the USA and France.

The user does not have a sit-down work post. He works mov­ing about in front of a con­cave Velleda screen. Photo © Fabien Thouvenin.

The Velleda screen in front of geodesic dome inspired seat. Photo © Fabien Thouvenin.

Under the floor-level grate, plant-life is busy eat­ing CO2 and pump­ing up oxy­gen. Photo © Fabien Thouvenin.

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