Olona for Vertime

— Les-Sables-d’Olonne (85) — 2024
Architect: Jean-Benoît Vétillard
Client: Private
Location: Vertime Hotel

“This series of objects – reception desk, console table, DJ booth, mirrors – should be seen as a contribution to the existing signs defining seaside culture, that space of the ephemeral and the spontaneous. OLONA develops at the meeting point between natural landscape and domestic scale, between local and tourist context, between permanent and temporary habitat, culture and consumption, between real needs and seasonal fantasies. OLONA draws its inspiration from collective experiences, from Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday to Ugo La Pietra’s Design Balneare, as well as more intimate ones, from our own relationship with the seaside. The ergonomics of these mobile and modular objects are part of a common unit of measurement: the repetition of thin, vertical, horizontal, sometimes reflective, sometimes shiny bands, evokes the omnipresent bichrome stripes on beaches, cabins, awnings, bath towels, parasols (which fly away without warning). The simple geometric forms evoke their use, suggesting appropriation.” J.B. Vétillard

© 1&3 – Nicolas Anetson