The exhibition design by Paris-based practice Archiee merges tradition and technology searching a simply expression by using only fabric, wood frame and LED lighting.
This project is simultaneously an idea for a product and an element of scenography for an exhibition. The exhibition titled “Tradition and high Technology” took place at Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris. Archiee decided to create an intimate internal space, sheltered from the public noise, in order to provide the viewer a calm atmosphere. This was achieved by composing each booth in a circle, but also served as a way of giving the viewer with a panoramic overview of the exhibition.
The challenge was to design a system that was compact to transport and quick to set up. This led us to design the scenography with folding screens, referring to the traditional Japanese byobu. Traditional byobu is composed of two panels with a vertical junction and is opened to form a V-shape in plan in order for it to be stable. The innovation was to divide this composition into four panels including horizontal junctions to allow them to be more compact when folded.
The second challenge was to integrate lighting inside the product. As a strong expression of the theme of combining tradition and high-technology, Archiee decided to use LEDs directly inside folding screens.
With two technical developments, namely the fabric hinge and using foldable lighting, Archiee was able to merge tradition and technology, and do so in a simple expression by using only fabric, wood frame and LED lighting.