Marc Held: 50 Years of Design

In 1968, the molded white plastic bed designed by Marc Held appeared on the cover of the famous Prisunic catalog and his Culbuto armchair was published by Knoll: design for all began its triumphant journey through the different classes of society. From the 1970s to today, from the Lip watch to the furnishing of the Élysée apartments, Marc Held's designs are a notable part of this happy period for French creation.

Alongside his career as a designer, Marc Held is an architect. He designed many houses, for which he also made the furniture. Today he devotes most of his thinking to the relationship between popular architecture and modernity.

Born in 1932 into an emigrant family from Central Europe, Marc Held grew up in Bagnolet, near Paris, in a world permeated by communist ideals. After the war, he discovered the theater of Jean Vilar and jazz in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He observed the beginnings of design in the windows of Knoll and Mobilier International. A great admirer of the Scandinavians, like Alvar Aalto or Arne Jacobsen, who then dominated the international scene, or of the Americans Charles and Ray Eames, he launched himself into this world of convivial modernity, and he made it his profession.

Sensitive to the spirit of the times and the needs of a generation breaking with the French tradition of family furniture, he quickly played a leading role. Creator, entrepreneur, gallery owner, he opened L'Échoppe, at 51 rue de Seine, then carried out major interior architecture commissions for IBM, in Provence, and the Frantel hotels, notably the one in Reims. His approach to housing, design and architecture remains constantly imbued with the humanist values ​​that were instilled in him during his childhood. From the first teak furniture of the 1960s to the most recent creations, this catalogue raisonné looks back on fifty years of design, covering areas as varied as tableware, furniture, the layout of the Élysée lounges and the construction of the IBM tower at La Défense.

• 28 x 28 cm
• 380 pages
• 200 illustrations
• ISBN: 978-2-915-54263-9

Text in French only

MICHÈLE CHAMPENOIS est journaliste, critique d’architecture et de design. Au Monde, elle a couvert l’actualité de ces domaines dans les magazines de fin de semaine, dès les années 80, puis au Monde 2, de 2004 à 2009. Elle a collaboré à d’autres publications, comme L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, et à de nombreuses émissions de France-Culture. Elle est l’auteur d’Andrée Putman, ambassadrice du style (Skira Flammarion, 2010) ; elle a postfacé Chroniques d’un portraitiste, Gérard Rondeau 1986-2006 (Le Seuil, 2006), ouvrage qui témoigne de la place de la photographie dans un grand quotidien.