Julie Richoz is a Swiss-French designer. After graduating from ECAL, Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, she started working for Pierre Charpin as a project assistant. In 2012 she set up her design studio in Paris where she enjoys with curiosity and sensibility to develop her own language through objects. Richoz has won the “Grand Prix” of the Design Parade 2012 at the Villa Noailles. She was a designer-in-residency at Sèvres, Cite de la céramique, as well as at CIRVA, international research centre on arts and glass in Marseille, where she was given the chance to explore the materials and the savoir-faire behind them. The results of the residencies as well as a lamp developed with the support of the Galerie Kreo where it was exhibited at a touring solo show at Design Parade 8 in Hyères, imm Cologne, and the Paris Designer’s Days. Besides her gallery work she collaborates with companies such as Alessi, Artecnica, Louis Poulsen and more recently Louis Vuitton. In 2015, she received a Swiss Design Award, which is the Switzerland’s leading national design competition organized annually by the FOC (Federal Office of Culture) since 1918.
www.julierichoz.com /@julierichoz
The Cong Collection
Design : Julie Richoz (Switzerland – France) & Craftsman : Huang, Chin-Mei (Taiwan)
Richoz discovered the Cong vase at the Taiwan National Palace Museum and was really fascinated by its shape. She felt in it a very contemporary and timeless design, and was impressed by its aura. She decided to reinterpret the Cong vase by using lacquer ware. Having never seen this shape with very sharp edges made using the traditional techniques, she knew in advance that it would be a very challenging as well as rewarding experience if she could achieve it. Her main objective has been to create the sharpest appearance including the corners of the lacquer ware. The Cong Collection is composed of three archetypal pieces: a high vase, a box and a tray, tableware elements that play with this game between the circle and the rectangle. This quest for universal shapes allows Richoz to have a better flow of understanding with the craftsman she works with, Huang, Chin-Mei. The lacquer is also capturing the natural light in a very organic way thanks to its successive layers. By using black lacquer, she reinforces the deepness and the eternal aura of this material used for centuries in Extreme Asia.
The craft and design process of The Cong Collection
The Cong Collection final prototypes
