Outside the Box

The University of Art & Design in Lausanne, Switzerland—in Swiss-French, “L’Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne,” or ECAL for short—is one of the world’s leading names in design education. Much of its status is thanks to Pierre Keller, who in 1995 took the reigns as director of the school and made it his mission to increase the institute's international status, enlisting teaching staff including Ronan Bouroullec (of the Bouroullec Brothers) and Jay Osgerby (of Barber Osgerby). One of ECAL's most unique attractions is the MAS-Luxury—a one-year course that aims to ready talented students for working in the luxury world, in part by pairing them with established global brands ranging from Hermès to Coca-Cola. This April at Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile design fair, the school is previewing the fruits of a new partnership between its MAS-Luxury students and Reuge—a Swiss manufacturer of high-end music boxes established in 1865 by watchmaker Charles Reuge. The exotic items produced by the students will be narrowed down to five prototypes to go into production, chosen by visiting professors (and wildly experimental furniture designers) Humberto and Fernando Campana. Today, we present a portfolio of our favorites, shot exclusively for NOWNESS by Theo Cook.