Michel Arnoult Franco-Brazilian, 1922-2005
Michel Arnoult was a French designer who was active during the second half of the 20th century. Born in 1922 in Paris, Arnoult studied architecture and interior decoration at the École des Arts Appliqués de Paris. He began his career as a decorator for theater and cinema, working on productions for renowned directors such as Marcel Carné.
Arriving in Brazil in the 1950s, Arnoult was struck by the lack of furniture adapted to the modern and more modest interiors of the time, especially in the context of social housing projects. He then decided to embark on the design of furniture with a simple and functional design, with particular attention to dimensions and adaptability to different living spaces.
Arnoult also emphasized the modularity and demountability of his creations, which allowed users to easily adapt them to their changing needs. This innovative approach was praised by critics and helped establish Arnoult as one of the most important designers of the time in Brazil.
Over the years, Arnoult has continued to collaborate with Brazilian artists and architects, contributing to the creation of modern and functional living spaces across the country. His work has had a lasting influence on Brazilian design and remains a reference for contemporary designers who seek to combine aesthetics and functionality in their creations.
This innovative and bold approach for the time was immediately successful and Michel Arnoult became, a little in spite of himself, the first kit furniture entrepreneur in Brazil and founded his company Mobilia Cotemporânea in Curitiba in 1952. This company was one of the very first companies in the world to devote itself exclusively to the design and manufacture of Kit furniture. He is particularly interested in the optimization of production through the use of standard parts, common to several pieces of furniture, and the optimization of volumes through the design of flat-pack packaging.
Through this perpetual search for the minimization of production costs and the implementation of industrial processes adapted to large series, Michel Arnoult offers the Brazilian middle class good quality, cheap and easy-to-assemble furniture. Its flat-pack packaging concept allows customers to take their chair or armchair under the arm, a revolutionary approach for the time. These are the premises of the current Cash & Carry. One of the best examples of this concept is its "Ppeg Lev" chair literally "I take and take away". His fully removable chair in solid imbuia "Ouro Preto", created in 1958, received the Roberto Simonsen Industrial Design Award in 1964.
Another concept developed by Michel Arnoult is that of "hard comfort": a well-studied design combined with a very high quality of realization brings comfort to furniture composed only of wood. In 2003, at the age of 81, Michel Arnoult received the Museo da Casa Brasileira Prize, showing the new generation of designers that his concept has never ceased to be topical in a global and competitive world. His desire to offer the middle class beautiful furniture at an affordable price has been more than widely achieved.
Died at the age of 83, this French designer with a humanist vision is recognized by all as the father of the modern Brazilian furniture industry. Brazil is now one of the world's leading suppliers of kit furniture. Michel Arnoult has always ardently defended the democratization of design at the expense of any creative vanity.
On this subject he said "It's true, I've been doing the same thing for 30 years, with this same passion for wood and work well done. I am not interested in this search for novelty. Moreover, the furniture has not evolved. Since Tutankhamun the chair as a "project" is the same".
