Congratulating Galerie L’Eclaireur and Belgian designer Ben Storms for winning the PAD Prize for 2016, presented annually at the Pavilion of Art and Design in Paris for the Award-Winning Stand and for the Award-Winning contemporary design piece. L’Eclaireur, is a unique type of venture in the landscape of design galleries as it presents objects along with fashion and lifestyle; since opening its doors in 1980, it has become known for juxtaposition intriguing, inspiring fashion and objects. Ben Storms, one of the designers represented by Galerie L’Eclaireur, creates objects, which are informed by his innovative approach to the material, where he tends to push traditional boundaries and present materials in an unexpected way. The winning piece, InVein Table (above) is a trestle table made of local marble top, which looks thin and almost fragile in first glace, but which can surprisingly be turned around to reveals a shiny mirror. Storms has developed this part of the the table using a technique called hydro-forming, where a sheet of stainless steel is blown using water pressure and shaped in an organic form. It also attains the table with strength and supports the marble top layer.
