Talented tenants

The thought of letting students loose in an apartment is enough to give some landlords nightmares. But when those students are some of the best and brightest product designers in Europe and the landlords in question are design aficionados Patrick Blauwart and Jean-Marc Drut, the idea starts to make more sense.

After spending three days experiencing life in the Cité Radieuse, architect Le Corbusier’s modernist masterpiece and now one of Marseille’s most sought-after properties, the students were tasked with creating a collection of objects to meet the everyday needs of its residents.

The resulting collection includes paperweights, crockery, bedding, mirrors, toy building blocks and storage containers designed for life inside the restored 1950s building. A rechargeable desk lamp by Stanislaw Czarnocki, for example, doubles as a spotlight for the building’s communal roof, while square cushions by Roosa Ryhänen can be linked together to create a seating area.

The Big Picture: Designers are using eclectic, curated living spaces to show off their designs in situ. Find out more in our Home-tail microtrend.