This exhibition entitled Philippe Nigro at the Mobilier national: creazione in un atelier di eccellenza is on display in the gallery of the Institut français in Milan from 5 September to 13 November 2021. 

The Hemicycle and Armadillo ranges presented in the gallery of the Institut français Milano are the result of several years' collaboration with Philippe Nigro, commissioned by the Mobilier National in 2016.

For the Armadillo furniture series, Philippe Nigro takes inspiration from hidden furniture, making traditional swinging doors disappear in a flexible mesh of wooden blocks. The designer's drawings and projects reveal a clever constructive system with soft lines. 

The astonishing carapace that covers this furniture, and earns it the name Armadillo, is the result of extensive research by ARC technicians, as revealed in the exhibition. The workshop's new digital machining centre was used to obtain the level of accuracy required for the movement of the wooden briquettes. 

There are no handles on these pieces of furniture: to reveal their contents, all you have to do is roll up their fronts, which are made up of over 700 pieces of wood. These are truly articulated shells, presented in beech and walnut, whose flexibility is the result of several years of research. 

The Hemicycle range takes it name from the elegant semicircular shape of the seats, giving a sense of enveloping comfort. 

Alongside traditional seats, sofas, armchairs or footstools, Philippe Nigro has brought back to life a forgotten type of seating: the confidant, an iconic seat from the Second Empire that allows two people to talk without having to turn their heads. 

The designer has also imagined a vis-a-vis, an ingenious variation on the sofa that facilitates dialogue without sacrificing space. 

The flexible shapes of these seats, with their subtle interplay of colours, conceal a metal mesh structure designed by ARC. 

Alongside the finished pieces, the Mobilier National and the Institut français Milano aim to reveal the creative process and the dialogue between the designer, the workshop and the Ligne Roset design office. Sketches, plans and prototypes give an insight into the different stages of production and highlight the expertise of the ARC craftsmen.