MARC BERTHIER
The design of lightness.
CORPUS N°1
CORPUS N°2
In 2022, Marc Berthier and Mikaela Kvan founded the new studio, KVAN X BERTHIER, which brings together a group of collaborators, reacting to the Paradigm change created by the arrival of Digital, imposing itself in all fields and all situations. Within the framework of Urban Planning, Architecture, Design of Services and Equipment, as well as “Lifestyle” and all Everyday Objects in their Traditions or Innovations. It’s about creating objects that really make sense.
“Design is to industry what Rhetoric is to Eloquence.
Lightness is to me a form of Elegance.”
![]()
Marc Berthier is a French Designer and Industrial Architect;
Whose career spans over 55 years.
He played a central role in the transformation of the Design culture, and guided several generations of designers according to his teaching at ENSCI (1985-2000) A teaching based on a work by the “Mental Images” in an ongoing research attitude and dedication to mentoring.
After starting teaching Physical Education, Marc Berthier on the advice of Jean Dalbin (sculptor, next door to Brancusi’s studio in Montparnasse), who offered to enroll in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where Marc was admitted to two workshops:
Student in the workshop of the sculptor Zadkine ( in modelling)
Student in the studio of the painter Bernard Cathelin
But also: Student of the artist Yves Klein professor of Judo (Champion of France and Japan) who teaches at the “American & Studiants Club” in Paris where Marc Berthier met Alain Jouffroy, (the poet and writer), later married to Fusako Hasae, Marc Berthier’s correspondent for Japan and collaborator with him in Paris for many projects by “De Signe” the consulting agency she created.
Marc Berthier’s career as a designer includes various collaborations with companies such as Magis Italy, Knoll USA, Thonet, Rowenta Germany, Toto in Japan, Roche Bobois, Lexon, DF-2000, Ligne Roset Cinna, Hermès, Cacharel, Galeries Lafayette... and many others in France
NB:
All Models and Patents are registered under the first and last names of: Marc Antoine Berthier.
His creations are present in the collections of many museums, including the Musée d'Art Moderne (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Cooper Hewitt and the Smithsonian design museum in New York, the Plasticarium ADAM in Brussels...
In addition to his work as Industrial Designer, his work as Architect with Dimitri Avgoustinos focuses on the design of new schools (CES, CET, and LEP as the LEP "Le Corbusier" in Soissons) and some innovative real estate programs.
Grand Prize Achievements: "Innovation-Construction"
Lightness is to me a form of Elegance.”
Marc Berthier is a French Designer and Industrial Architect;
Whose career spans over 55 years.
He played a central role in the transformation of the Design culture, and guided several generations of designers according to his teaching at ENSCI (1985-2000) A teaching based on a work by the “Mental Images” in an ongoing research attitude and dedication to mentoring.
After starting teaching Physical Education, Marc Berthier on the advice of Jean Dalbin (sculptor, next door to Brancusi’s studio in Montparnasse), who offered to enroll in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where Marc was admitted to two workshops:
Student in the workshop of the sculptor Zadkine ( in modelling)
Student in the studio of the painter Bernard Cathelin
But also: Student of the artist Yves Klein professor of Judo (Champion of France and Japan) who teaches at the “American & Studiants Club” in Paris where Marc Berthier met Alain Jouffroy, (the poet and writer), later married to Fusako Hasae, Marc Berthier’s correspondent for Japan and collaborator with him in Paris for many projects by “De Signe” the consulting agency she created.
Marc Berthier’s career as a designer includes various collaborations with companies such as Magis Italy, Knoll USA, Thonet, Rowenta Germany, Toto in Japan, Roche Bobois, Lexon, DF-2000, Ligne Roset Cinna, Hermès, Cacharel, Galeries Lafayette... and many others in France
NB:
All Models and Patents are registered under the first and last names of: Marc Antoine Berthier.
His creations are present in the collections of many museums, including the Musée d'Art Moderne (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Cooper Hewitt and the Smithsonian design museum in New York, the Plasticarium ADAM in Brussels...
In addition to his work as Industrial Designer, his work as Architect with Dimitri Avgoustinos focuses on the design of new schools (CES, CET, and LEP as the LEP "Le Corbusier" in Soissons) and some innovative real estate programs.
Grand Prize Achievements: "Innovation-Construction"
Marc Berthier photographed by Mathieu Eymeoud (2021)
Marc Berthier is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. His approach to Industrial Design has won him many awards:
The Grand Prix National de la Création Industrielle awarded by the French Ministry of Culture in 1986. The René Gabriel Prize in 1970;
The Compasso d'Oro in 1991 and 1994; the American Design Award in 1999.
In 1990 and 1991, he was the French representative to the E.E.C. for the commission “la Maison Européenne”
Marc Berthier founded and directed Archi Plan Studio and Design Plan Studio from 1980 to 1990, then eliumstudio from 2000 to 2020.
Today, faced with socio-cultural problems, he has teamed up with Mikaela Kvan, a young urban planner whose advanced vision he shares with those who represent his generation: environmental, health, social, demographic, economic crisis...
The challenges are many, complex and require a positive reaction, a profound paradigm shift that must be considered differently from the post-Industry era and the Digital Revolution. More than ever, it’s urgent to produce imagination.
In 1990 and 1991, he was the French representative to the E.E.C. for the commission “la Maison Européenne”
Marc Berthier founded and directed Archi Plan Studio and Design Plan Studio from 1980 to 1990, then eliumstudio from 2000 to 2020.
Today, faced with socio-cultural problems, he has teamed up with Mikaela Kvan, a young urban planner whose advanced vision he shares with those who represent his generation: environmental, health, social, demographic, economic crisis...
The challenges are many, complex and require a positive reaction, a profound paradigm shift that must be considered differently from the post-Industry era and the Digital Revolution. More than ever, it’s urgent to produce imagination.
Mikaela Kvan photographed by Anne-Emmanuelle Thion (2022)
Mikaela Kvan is a Danish-American designer and urban planner. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning from Parsons - The New School for Design in New York and a Master of Industrial Design from the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris.
During her studies, she trained in the United States with landscape architect Diana Balmori and in France with Marc Berthier. Mikaela is the founder of the collaborative research project Primary Voice , with the dual ambition of giving voice to workers in mass production.
Mikaela is the founder of the collaborative research project Primary Voice, with a double ambition: to give voice to workers working for mass production, especially in Asia and Europe, and to highlight the urban consequences linked to production infrastructures. The results of this research have been published and presented in the United States, Denmark, France and Cambodia.
Sensitive to the impacts of the small scale on the large, her Master's project in industrial design focuses on the creation of non-carbon materials obtained by hybridizing natural materials and augmented by haptic fibers.
Convinced of the need for an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach, Mikaela joined forces with Marc Berthier in 2022. Together, they created the studio
KVAN / BERTHIER. Experience guides the desire for change when innocence questions the acquired. Their ambition: to combine mental imagery with a kaleidoscopic vision, for a functional poetics capable of responding to the multiple challenges of today and tomorrow.
Our credo:
Produce imagination.
Our ambition:
The search for excellence
Our goal:
Create a Functional poetic
In an approach by Mental Images
To approach industrial creation and its production in a different way
During her studies, she trained in the United States with landscape architect Diana Balmori and in France with Marc Berthier. Mikaela is the founder of the collaborative research project Primary Voice , with the dual ambition of giving voice to workers in mass production.
Mikaela is the founder of the collaborative research project Primary Voice, with a double ambition: to give voice to workers working for mass production, especially in Asia and Europe, and to highlight the urban consequences linked to production infrastructures. The results of this research have been published and presented in the United States, Denmark, France and Cambodia.
Sensitive to the impacts of the small scale on the large, her Master's project in industrial design focuses on the creation of non-carbon materials obtained by hybridizing natural materials and augmented by haptic fibers.
Convinced of the need for an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach, Mikaela joined forces with Marc Berthier in 2022. Together, they created the studio
KVAN / BERTHIER. Experience guides the desire for change when innocence questions the acquired. Their ambition: to combine mental imagery with a kaleidoscopic vision, for a functional poetics capable of responding to the multiple challenges of today and tomorrow.
Our credo:
Produce imagination.
Our ambition:
The search for excellence
Our goal:
Create a Functional poetic
In an approach by Mental Images
To approach industrial creation and its production in a different way
Today, the KVAN X BERTHIER studio celebrates the imminent production of Marc Berthier’s Belvedere project, conceived more than 30 years ago!
BELVEDERE = Platform or terrace located on a high place, constituting a remarkable observation point, where the view can extend far.
Man has always dreamed of building his house, a shelter open on a landscape, a house in the trees... (Italo Calvino says “Baron Perché”).
In 1983, Marc Berthier reinterprets this dream with the Belvedere project. 40 years later, the project is developed in every detail, it is in the pre-production phase.
BELVEDERE is an architectural system with light metal frame, modular, pre-assembled and supplied in kit; designed for a wide topographical variety,
Climate and programmatic. BELVEDERE is an autonomous modular industrial architecture, assembled on site.
This in a systemic approach to generate the necessary adaptability to the diversity of places.
The construction site is a place of assembly, requiring no other intervention than the hardware by a single key.
The Frame, mountable and removable, is designed in tubes and sheet steel ( like a mechanic ). Light, it requires only a minimum of clamps to the ground.
To prevent disassembly, the Assembly system has a specific safety hardware.
The Climate Roof is modular. Its Airplane Wing profile captures water and solar energy in Extrados
it allows natural ventilation via the Venturi Effect in the Intrados.
The technical steel sheet turret concentrates the networks and collects energy:
Low: rainwater from the roof is stored, filtered and redistributed for toilet and consumption in a 2M³ tank
Upper part: batteries connected to photovoltaic panels
The Terraces, the Orientation Table and the Guardrails operate with the Skeleton of the related uses, in the context of access facilities.
The Thermal and phonic insulations, surround the block of habitation in its entirety (including cladding).
The Reference Model presented above, synthesizes the entire Belvedere system.
Jonathan Renous: collaborator of Marc Berthier for the architecture of this latest version of Belvedere
SELECTED ACCOLADES
Design Awards + Honors
2000 USA | New York Design Award
1998 GERMANY | Form Design Awards
1997 GERMANY | Form Design Awards
1995 GERMANY | Form Design Awards
1991 GERMANY | Design Plus
1986 FRANCE | Grand Prix National de la Création Industrielle
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
1970 FRANCE | Prix René Gabriel
Selected Publications
2015 De la légèreté : Vers une civilisation du léger, Gilles Lipovetsky, Editions Grasset et Fasquelle
2012 Century of the Child : Growing by Design 1900-2000, Juliet Kinchin + Aidan O’Connor, MOMA
2011 Roche Bobois : 50 ans de design, Philippe Trétiack, Editions du Chêne
2010 Que sont mes amis devenus, Gilles de Bure, NORMA/EnsAD
2010 Mobi Boom : l’exposition du design en France 1945-1975, Dominique Forest, Les Arts Décoratifs
2010 Tools for Living : A Sourcebook of Iconic Designs for the Home by Charlotte + Peter Fiell, Feill Publishing
2008 Prisunic et le design, Anne Bony, Alternatives
2007 Design Now!, Charlotte + Peter Fiell, Taschen
2006 Antiques of the Future, Lisa S. Roberts, Stewart, Tabori + Chang
2005 1000 Lights : 1960 to present, Charlotte + Peter Fiell, Taschen
2004 Meubles et décors des années 60, Anne Bony, Editions du Regard
2003 Objets of Design, Paola Antonelli, The Museum of Modern Art
1990 Les Assises du Siècle, François Baudot, Editions Du May
Selected Exhibitions
2021 SHANGHAI | Sino-French Design Week, A French Vision for Design: From the 1920s to Today
2021 PARIS | Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Le design pour tous : de Prisunic à Monoprix, une aventure française
2020 LILLE | Le Tripostale, Designer(s) du Design
2019 BRUXELLES | Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Bureaux Fantômes
2015 NEW YORK | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Making Music Modern – Design for Ear and Eye
2013 SAINT-ETIENNE | Biennale Internationale de Design, Traits d'union - Objets d'empathie
2012 NEW YORK | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Century of the Child : Gowing by design 1900-2000
2010 PARIS | Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Mobi Boom : l’exposition du design en France, 1945-1975
2008 PARIS | Galerie Haute Définition, Design et Héritage
2008 PARIS | Galerie du VIA (Valorisation des Industries de l'ameublement), Prisunic et le design
2005 NEW YORK | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Architecture and Design : Inaugural Installation
2004 BEIJING | l’Année de la France en Chine, Design en France
1991 MILAN | Triennal Compasso d’Oro
1991 PARIS | VIA, Personal Retrospective
1990 PARIS | Musée de la Poste
1990 PARIS | Grand Palais
1989 PARIS | C.C.I.Centre Georges Pompidou, Trois Décennies de Design
1989 TOKYO | Seibu
1987 PARIS | Grand Palais
1986 ROME | Villa Médicis
1985 PARIS | Musée National des Monuments Français, Art et Industrie
1985 PARIS | C.C.I. Centre georges Pompidou
1984 AMSTERDAM | Stedevjk Museum
1982 CHICAGO | Museum of Contemporary Art
1978 PARIS | C.C.I. Centre georges Pompidou 1970 PARIS | Musée des Arts Décoratifs
1977 PARIS | C.C.I.Centre Georges Pompidou, Inaugurale exhibition
1976 ASPEN | International Design Council
1974 LONDON | Design Centre
1973 COLOGNE | Modern Art Museum
1972 TURIN | Eurodomus
1971 PARIS | Musée des Arts Décoratifs
1970 MILAN | Eurodomus
1968 PARIS | Musée des Arts Décoratifs
1968 MILAN | Triennale