How Belgian Designer Lionel Jadot Is Championing Zero Waste
MILAN — If Belgian interior architect, decorator and artist Lionel Jadot could have it his way, he would take a hotel — or any structure for that matter — break its walls down to the bare bones and rebuild it anew with zero waste. That includes the furniture, the art, the lighting, all of it.
“Everything can be compressed in a machine and reused,” he told WWD.
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Jadot has been named Maison&Objet Designer of the Year — Hospitality and will receive the award at the upcoming edition of the Paris trade show that will run between Sept. 5 and 9. Currently his team of designers and visionaries involved in his Zaventem Ateliers collective are gearing up to create a space around the future of hospitality.
“The idea is to create a dream place,” Jadot said, explaining he recruited 20 designers, some of whom collaborate with his workshop to integrate their concepts of upcycling. “I don’t want to have anything you just throw away; this is not my philosophy, so everything we create for the fair is going to be reused,” he said.
Bio-solutions, he said, will be key at the next Maison&Objet, where Zaventem Ateliers will propel to the fore new designers like Precious Peel, who created leather with discarded eggplant skins.
Zavantem Ateliers has a collaboration with Mathilde Wittock, a new designer working with plants that grow into distinct shapes that can be used to build furniture. The firm also works closely with fellow Belgian firm Grond Studio, which works with raw earth and transforms it into unique surfaces, furniture and objects, using century-old construction techniques but updating them with novel material knowledge and contemporary aesthetics.
“We try to bring this kind of natural concept into all our projects,” he said.
A member of the Vanhamme family of furniture-makers, Jadot will have carte blanche for his pavilion, thus allowing him to showcase his interior design philosophy.
Maison&Objet said he epitomises “an era of profound ecological change, intuitively mastering its codes.”
Maison&Objet’s managing director Mélanie Leroy told WWD that Jadot’s vision in the sphere of design is remarkable.
“It’s really important to us to showcase his new, sustainable vision with regard to hospitality. We have hospitality stakeholders, trade professionals and his installation will be a very coherent way to display his specific vision to our visitors,” she said.
The project that is most indicative of his work, Jabot said, is the Jam Hotel in Lisbon, a repurposed office building turned temple of upcycled art and design. Jam brand operator Jean-Paul Pütz tapped Zaventem Ateliers and gave them total freedom in designing the dilapidated space. They employed locally sourced materials like cork and worked with Romanian designer Mircea Anghel of Cabana Studio to use burnt eucalyptus wood for modular bunk beds, while Porto-based Flowco made eco-tiles for them out of upcycled shoe soles.
Elsewhere, Pieter Van Bruyssel of Grond Studio deployed lime plaster, cork waste and terracotta clays.
Last year, Jabot once again made waves with the conversion of a ’60s-era office block that was once home to La Royale Belge, the insurance company known today as AXA. With a team of 52 designers and makers, including himself, he turned it into the ultra contemporary Mix Brussel’s hotel.
He’s also the partner of Cohabs, a sustainable- and community-driven firm that builds shared homes around the world for young workers and interns with locations in Paris, Brussels and New York.
His interest in upcycling is “in his blood” and it started during his early years. At eight years old, he built his first stool out of scraps from his family’s furniture factory. “My father and my grandfather taught me to respect materials and even if it’s a plank of wood, you need to respect it. When you cut it, you need to think about the best way to use the wood. It’s about respect and about what nature gifted us. This is my way of working.”
Since selling his family’s furniture business that survived six generations, he’s been dedicated to residential and hotel projects that promote sustainable living practices worldwide.
A solution finder, his Zaventem Ateliers has become a breeding ground for fresh and established talent and innovators pioneering sustainable solutions, for which they determine their own pricing and deal directly with the client. “There is total freedom,” he said.
He’s since expanded the project to Portugal in collaboration with designer Mircea Anghel, in a design heartland between Comporta and Lisbon. “We try to bring clients to open their minds and try to work with leftovers, to try to work with reused materials, but also try to work with designers making strong, durable and beautiful objects,” Jadot said.
Recent editions of Maison&Objet have been dedicated to promoting pioneering solutions to address key challenges of professionals in the home decor, design and lifestyle industry.
Last January, Maison&Objet named Mathieu Lehanneur designer of the year. Over the course of his career, Lehanneur’s creations have been as varied as the torch for the Olympic Games in Paris and public projects incorporating solar-powered street lamps and air purifiers. His installation named “Outonomy” was set in a world in which nature dominates human lifestyle and technologies cater to human needs.
Like Lehanneur, Jadot’s appointment furthers the message to the design community that this next era is more about changing human habits and habitats than putting sustainable initiatives on show.
