atelier oï officially launches atelier oï PRIVÉ:
a limited-edition series of artworks exploring craft and materiality

Renowned for its imaginative collaborations with globally leading brands, from Louis Vuitton to Foscarini, atelier oï is an international architectural and design studio based in the heart of Switzerland. atelier oï’s philosophy and practice is marked by a transdisciplinary approach: with experimentation and craftsmanship at the forefront of its attitude. For the first time, atelier oï has now launched its own collection — atelier oï PRIVÉ — composed of limited-edition works from collaborations between the studio and carefully selected international craftspeople. The collection uses craftsmanship to explore and celebrate the natural world — its resources, phenomena, and our relationships with it — and will exemplify atelier oï’s very personal vision.

Collection Gaïa is the debut capsule for atelier oï PRIVÉ, produced in collaboration with Venetian glass experts WonderGlass: a family-owned company that bonds traditional Venetian craftsmanship with contemporary design. The collection’s name, Gaïa, references the personification of Mother Earth within Greek mythology — serving both as inspiration for the inaugural collection and a symbol for atelier oï PRIVÉ itself.

The five glass artworks that form the collection — Marea, Éos, Parhelia, Séléné and Aura — are unique and produced in a limited edition. Each work is designed to share a dynamic relationship with light, which come together to transform the static works into vibrant moving pieces. By treating glass here as a solidified liquid, the ensuing interplay between light and glass brings each work to life transforming the solid object into a vibrant moving piece, creating distinct identity, harmony and movement, akin to the natural phenomena that originally inspired them.

MAREA

Marea, named for its reference to the rise and fall of the tide, is designed to mirror the impression of light moving on water. The work consists of stacked suspended discs of clear glass featuring radial micro-grooving on the base which casts a shimmering pattern when lit reflectively — an effect reminiscent of sparkling stars on water. The suspended ‘floating’ pendulums above the glass discs are held by the earth’s magnetic forces: casting light downwards and adding to the spectacle of moving light and pattern that replicates rippling water.

ÉOS

Éos, a work inspired by the flow of lava, is designed to represent the transitionary moment when liquid turns solid. The resulting glass pieces are shaped by gravity to create the illusion of a liquid on the brink of overflowing, and combined with the light source, produce a pattern of oscillating shadows.

PARHELIA, SÉLÉNÉ, AURA

Parhelia, Séléné and Aura represent the explorative process and character of the studio’s work. These pieces share a process whereby the liquid glass, while molten, is allowed to collapse in on itself. The resulting glass piece has been cut, arranged and illuminated to create three different artworks — the cuts profoundly changing the shape of each work, and how they interact with light.

INSPIRED BY NATURE

Together, the collection explores the often-ambiguous yet beautiful states of glass in both its solid and liquid states, and the material’s ability to change when interacting with light and dark. On choosing glass as the first natural material for atelier oï PRIVÉ, the founders Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Reymond state: ‘We wanted to explore the many different states that glass can reflect, and were inspired by nature and our contemplation on its phenomena and celestial forces. Collection Gaïa reflects back to us the visceral beauty and ever-changing nature of the natural world through the beauty of the glass, as well as its transience and impermanence — the insight that the only permanent thing is change.’

EXPERIMENTATION WITH LEATHER

atelier oï’s thinks with their hands and their never ending strive for experimentation and material transformation has already given birth to the first attempts for the next collection of atelier oï PRIVÉ: a series of limited edition works made of leather.
Collaborating with a small Italian tannery, the studio’s objective is to let the material speak and to guide the material through transformation in a way that brings its real nature to life. To allow this in the most profound way, a part of the production process will be ‘Made by Moïtel’, by the hands of the atelier oï team in La Neuveville.
This allows this second collection to exemplify atelier oï’s personal vision in an even more pure way. Stay tuned for more by end of the year 2021.

Please find here a talk between Dezeen and the founders of atelier oï.