What’s the position of a designer? It’s a query that Hicham Lahlou – who’s each an interdisciplinary designer with tasks and shoppers criss-crossing the globe, and in addition an advocate for modern design and designers throughout Africa – has lengthy sought to reply.
Over a 30-career, Lahlou has change into an simple voice in world design conversations. His ‘disco’ hookah pipe is within the everlasting assortment on the Victoria & Albert Museum; he was considered one of 60 designers chosen to be featured in Milan Design Week’s sixtieth anniversary exhibit, in 2022; and in 2016 was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic. As he prepares for the thirtieth anniversary of his follow, he speaks from his studio in Rabat, Morocco, about his private journey and the collective potentialities for the continent at massive.
In dialog with Hicham Lahlou
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
Wallpaper*: When did a profession in design really feel like an inevitability and what’s your earliest design-related reminiscence?
Hicham Lahlou: My earliest reminiscence was once I was seven or eight, on the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam right here in Rabat. My dad was a golf participant, however the membership itself had stunning furnishings, masterpieces actually, and it was these chairs by Warren Platner that had been my first interplay the place I believed, ‘Wow, that is how somebody creates one thing.’
‘Chairs by Warren Platner had been my first interplay the place I believed, “Wow, that is how somebody creates one thing”’
Hicham Lahlou
W*: You studied in Paris on the Académie Charpentier and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière for a level in Inside Structure and Design. Provided that your adolescence had been in Africa, how do you are feeling that coaching in Paris knowledgeable your strategy to design?
HL: I used to journey lots with my mother and father, not solely to France, nevertheless it was attention-grabbing for me, being there as a pupil. I can bear in mind renting my first condo, not removed from the Jardins du Luxembourg and Montparnasse. I used to be there for a few years earlier than and after, and if you find yourself in Paris, you work together with structure and design on a regular basis, every single day, so it means you get some influences, you get some references. [Being] there bought me into an interdisciplinary mind-set. And then you definately construct your self, [because] you sculpt your interiority.
‘Dakka Dakka’ assortment
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
W*: When you graduated, was a return to Rabat inevitable? And the way did constructing a follow in Morocco change into important to fulfilling your artistic imaginative and prescient?
HL: No [return was not inevitable]; I travelled lots. I used to be transferring lots in Europe, going to festivals and being invited to indicate in numerous exhibitions. Whenever you begin to be recognised exterior your nation, you must work out ‘how can I’ve my place?’ It might really feel like a struggle. Afterwards, I made a decision to return again to Morocco to work, in 1996. It was [during] the beginnings of inside structure and I needed to contribute totally. That’s to not say that earlier than me there was nothing. Africa has so many elderly civilisations and cultures, and if you come from a rustic like Morocco, which is a gateway to Africa (being very near Andalucia and the Center East), you are feeling you might be already used to multi-cultures. I knew the place I used to be from and the place I used to be returning to, and that is how I made a decision to work on tasks in Europe and Africa, and afterward the Center East too.
‘Pink one’ lighting design
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
W*: Why was it so essential so that you can place your self as an interdisciplinary designer?
HL: It was crucial for me to indicate that design is just not ornament. Design is absolutely useful for human improvement. It may be the general public sector, it may be the personal sector, however we ought to be pondering of how design can alleviate social issues, have fun our mosaic of tradition and the way we are able to use design for innovation. After I was in class there was discuss of Charles Rennie Macintosh, Mies Van Der Rohe, Achille Castiglioni and plenty of, many different names and also you suppose, ‘Wow, think about if in the future I might be a part of it? Why not? I come from an incredible continent.’ Additionally, Morocco is usually stated to be a part of the ‘Arab World’, however it is a very new idea, and it’s the heritage of colonisation. I used to be born in Africa. I’m from right here. And my design follow is about me sending a message; we give tradition, we give love, we give method, we combine supplies.
‘I used to be born in Africa. I’m from right here. And my design follow is about me sending a message; we give tradition, we give love, we give method, we combine supplies’
Hicham Lahlou
W*: You might have labored extensively with designers, municipalities and heritage homes. How do you convey your individual design credo to wider tasks?
HL: As a agency, we imagine in collaboration. For instance, we designed the [stations for the] first high-speed prepare line in Morocco, together with the furnishings, the interiors, working for over two years with the Nationwide Workplace for Moroccan Railways and different stakeholders. We additionally designed bus shelters in Fez and Rabat, taking inspiration from Moroccan structure and Zelige artwork. I additionally did a collaboration with [French porcelain manufacturer] Haviland and developed a restricted version assortment named ‘Morocco’ that was rooted in our design codes.
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
I began to collaborate with [French crystal manufacturer] Daum in 2008. It was an enormous alternative, as they’ve been going for greater than 145 years and are recognized for ornamental arts. They’d labored on a number of animals, however I developed the oryx, as it’s a very recognised image within the Center East, and also you even have the African oryx. It was essential for me to indicate that these two components of the world are linked.
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Hicham Lahlou)
I additionally did a collaboration with Daum and my fellow African brother Cheik Diallo, with whom I first linked on the Worldwide Design Biennale in Saint-Etienne in 2000. We labored on the undertaking [a design object] from 2020 till 2025. It was a very long time in improvement. I travelled to [see him in] Mali and we travelled collectively to Paris, and we lastly got here up with ‘Constellation’, impressed by the Canine Star but additionally associated to 2 civilisations, the Marinid Dynasty of Morocco and the Dogon of Mali. Each civilisations had a excessive information of structure, geometry and the cosmos, and so we included design motifs from every. [The piece] is an incense burner, however for us, it’s a masterpiece that sits between a design object and artwork.
‘Narguilé Disco Pipe’ for Ardiem
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
W*: Advocacy and growing Africa’s design ecosystem have change into private missions of yours; how did this come about?
HL: Africa is 5 areas, however really there’s a sixth, the world of individuals of African descent dwelling exterior the continent. As I saved on being invited around the globe, I saved on pondering how, with all its traditions, hand crafts, and a couple of,200 languages spoken, Africa remains to be not a lot recognized [for its design]. So, I made a decision to do one thing. I reached out to Professor Mugendi Okay M’Rithaa and collectively we co-authored African Era: The Energy of Design. I additionally organised African Design Days in 2017 with the World Design Group right here in Rabat. Are you able to think about how a lot work, how a lot organisation that concerned? Nevertheless it was important to create methods for us all to attach, for the youthful era to study and be impressed. There may be nonetheless plenty of work to do. I’m engaged on an African Design Academy; we’re nonetheless on the lookout for traders to construct the college, however we have now began a partnership train an government grasp’s in Design Considering and Innovation. I’m very pleased as a result of we simply launched the undertaking on the finish of Could; we’re going step-by-step.
‘In design, I feel we ought to be speaking extra about what is going on on the African continent, and the way it intersects with what is going on globally’
Hicham Lahlou
W*: What would you want your design legacy to be?
HL: Considering of my 30 years in design, I feel issues shouldn’t simply be self-focused. In design, I feel we ought to be speaking extra about what is going on on the [African] continent, and the way it intersects with what is going on globally. I grew up in a household; we talked about Africa, visiting my cousins between Senegal and Morocco, consuming [Moroccan] tagine and [Senegalese] thieboudienne – it was very open. As I bought older, I travelled extra, found different designers and realised there may be a lot extra creativity that we have to promote collectively. I don’t need to be ‘the one’ or ‘different’.
hichamlahlou.com
Inside design for Maymana
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Hicham Lahlou)
Supply: Wallpaper
