“My first collector’s piece as a child was a gigantic Turkish army’s coffee pot, then, as an adult, it was a typical Thonet bentwood chair,” recalls Alexander von Vegensack, one of the best-known collectors and curators of furniture and design objects. “I started collecting objects when I was very young, while wandering through the bazaars of Cairo”, explains the German-born co-founder of the Vitra Design Museum. He is now showcasing his own center for design education and research: the Domaine de Boisbuchet in France, which is holding a series of summer events.He says of his collecting: “The activity became more conscious ten years after Cairo when I was living in Hamburg. I was running a cultural center there in a former factory where we offered exhibitions, concerts and plays. It had a restaurant and a dance-club. Chairs became a topic because the audience had to sit somewhere. I luckily discovered early bentwood furniture at some gipsy dealers during my horseback-riding trips in Spain. These matched the center’s industrial ambiance. This was the beginning of my collecting: I found objects with a meaning and context that fascinated me and which I wanted to convey to others as well.”He set up Vitra in Weil am Rhein in 1989 and directed it for 23 years, and in 1990 he started on Domaine de Boisbuchet.“I fell in love with this spot in the Charente, which offered all the space and the buildings I thought were necessary for all the dreams I wanted to realize,” he says.First mentioned in documents dating from the 16th century, the Domaine includes the imposing Manor House built in 1865, whose style could be defined as a precursor of 20th century’s Deconstructivism.The Dépendance also includes a Gallery furnished with design pieces and works of art from von Vegesack’s own collection. There is also the Barn and the Mill, a café on the river Vienne and an extensive landscape park. Walking along the fields and hidden paths, visitors will discover a group of disperate buildings. For example there is the old Japanese Guesthouse, dating back to 1860 and transported from Japan. It contrasts with many experimental buildings by internationally architects such as the Log Cabin (2006) by Brueckner & Brueckner; and the Paper Pavilion (2001) by Shigeru Ban, his first permanent paper building in Europe. There is also the Bamboo House and Bamboo Conference Pavilion (1999-2000) by the Columbian architect Simòn Vélez and the Techstyle-Haus (2014) with the roof and walls made almost entirely of durable, high performance textiles. One of the few so-far unrealized architectural projects is the one that will host von Vegesack’s vast collection of design pieces.“Based on the estate’s existing 19th-century layout, Bavarian architects Peter and Christian Brueckner have developed a masterplan which helps us to orient and respect certain areas where no buildings should stand,” explains the collector: “We must avoid a kind of Disneypark for innovative architecture and are very conscious about the sensitivity of Boisbuchet’s nature and historic buildings”.Each summer the Domaine stages a program of residential workshops open to students, professionnals and design addicts coming from all over he world. For 2016 the theme is “Origin and Translation,” says Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, the Domaine director. He is also the curator of travelling exhibitions on design and architecture, and explains: “The 26th edition of our workshops puts creativity to the test: what are role models, what is authentic and original, and how are projects influenced by reproduction or imitation, interpretation and a translation of the existing?”From the end of June though early September, 42 tutors from 20 countries will lead the workshops. Among them are Faye Toogood, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, Nigel Peake, Jaime Hayon, and Moritz Waldemeyer.Meanwhile the exhibition “Origins of A Work,” developed with Parsons Paris, will be on show at Boisbuchet. The show covers everything from copyright to prototyping and redesign. It will present furniture designs by Thonet & Sons, Verner Panton, Achille Castiglioni, the Bouroullec brothers and Tokujin Yoshioka, architecture by Fernando and Humberto Campana and works of art by André Cazenave, Katsuhiko Hibino and Joseph Beuys.Domaine de Boisbuchet, 16500 Lessac, France, http://www.boisbuchet.org/
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