Philia & Kids

In the French village of Breil-sur-Roya, 19 children aged six and seven were invited to approach furniture design without the usual rules and references that come with it. Over several months, they developed their own ideas for sculptural furniture, beginning with simple drawings and gradually seeing their sketches transformed into physical objects. The project, Design Brut, was the first edition of Galerie Philia’s philanthropic Philia & Kids programme. Founded in 2015 by brothers Ygaël and Emmanuel Attali, Galerie Philia is a global platform for contemporary sculptural design and fine art, known for bringing together works and ideas from different cultural contexts. With Philia & Kids, the gallery extended this interest in design and creative exchange to younger generations.

Working under the supervision of their teacher Virgile Ganne and the artistic direction of Antoine Behaghel and Alexis Foiny of Studio Behaghel Foiny, the children were encouraged to draw shapes, forms and ideas for furniture without worrying about how they could technically be made. Their proposals included chairs, benches, stools, tables, pedestal tables and coat racks, ranging from familiar furniture silhouettes to much more unexpected forms. The designers also encouraged the children to look at each other’s drawings, borrow elements and develop ideas collectively, making the process as much about exchange as individual expression.

The project takes its name from Jean Dubuffet’s concept of Art Brut, which looked beyond established artistic traditions towards work created outside academic and cultural conventions. For Galerie Philia founder Ygaël Attali, this became a way to consider what design might look like when approached before formal training and established ideas of taste have taken hold. The children’s drawings were therefore not treated simply as exercises, but as genuine starting points for a collection of one-of-a-kind furniture. As Attali has described it, the meaning of furniture design emerges gradually through the children’s drawings and their physical realisation.

The next stage brought the children’s ideas into the hands of Behaghel and Foiny and a local cabinetmaker. The designers organised the drawings into different furniture typologies and worked from the children’s silhouettes to create the finished pieces in locally sourced olive wood. The material was chosen for its strong connection to Breil-sur-Roya, known as the “country of olive trees”, and created an interesting contrast between the spontaneity of the children’s ideas and a material with centuries of history. Some silhouettes were enlarged or reduced to achieve the necessary balance and stability, while details from the drawings, from leaves and branches to horns and animal-like forms, remained visible in the finished works.

The project was also intended as an introduction to the wider process behind design and making. During the workshops, the children visited a local sawmill and were introduced to the different stages of carpentry and production. Once completed, the furniture was first presented in the chapel Notre-Dame-des-Monts in Breil-sur-Roya, allowing the children and the local community to see the results of the collaboration in their own surroundings. The works were subsequently exhibited in Paris at Espace Meyer Zafra, accompanied by a film directed by Benjamin Juhel documenting the process from the initial workshop to the finished pieces.

Design Brut established the model for Philia & Kids, which has since continued through further collaborations in different places and with different designers. The second edition, Chantiers Partagés, was developed with Société du Grand Paris and involved local children in creating collectible design from regional stone excavated during new train works. The third edition moved to Petrópolis, Brazil, where Galerie Philia partnered with designer Gisela Simas, students from underserved communities and the local organisation SOS SERRA.

Through workshops exploring nature, material and form, the children developed furniture sculptures inspired by the surrounding landscape, using wood collected from fallen trees. Following the completion of the Brazilian edition, a charitable auction in São Paulo brought together more than sixty works by children, Brazilian designers and established figures in collectible design, with proceeds supporting the continued development of Philia & Kids and its ambition to establish a permanent design school for children.