Michel Buffet

After a double education of engineer and interior designer, Michel Buffet begins as a creator of models for house environment. He regularly publishes in the review Arts Méganers articles on the modification of the interior space. Implicated in the serial production, the designer early exhibits in 1953 at Salon des

Artistes Décorateurs in collaboration with Jacques Debaigts by presenting in particular a chair with its seat made up of thermoformed plywood elements lying on a tubular metal base that permits a cantilevered seat. This model is designed for the embassies pavilion of UNESCO in Paris. And then exhibited at the Milan triennial in 1954 and Salon des Arts Ménagers in the section Formes Utiles where he is marked out by the realisation of lights executed with a high control and a strong research on the white colour. He meets in 1951 the light designer and editor Robert Mathieu for whom he will design his first light system with theFloor lamp B211. This model is exhibited at Foire de Paris and admired byJacques Biny who just arrives in Paris after working as a decorator in Valence. This meeting is decisive for the two men. The installation of the workshopLuminalite rue de la Folie Regnault permits him to concentrate on the conception of some of the most beautiful models made by the edition house and is the occasion to work with a man attracted by the modernity ideas and serial fabrication principle. He then works with Jacques Vienot, founder of Technesand later participates in 1956 for Knoll International to the creation of a research department working on the Europeans needs of the American firm. From 1965 to 1985, he collaborates with Compagnie d’Esthétique Industrielle founded in Paris in 1952 by Raymond Loewy as the director of the industrial architecture and transport section. In 1986, he creates Vecteur Design Industriel and continues his transport researches.