About Foghar Studio

Foghar is a design studio based in Lyon that works with natural and devalued materials. With an approach that is both poetic and narrative, it develops ethical projects based on the short circuit, the local and the ecology. Materials, craftsmanship and experimentation are of paramount importance.

Donia Ouertani and Nolwenn Michéa are designers and co-founders of Foghar Studio. Foghar symbolises the history of their common journey in France and abroad; the word means "autumn" in Scottish Gaelic, the season in which they started working together in Scotland during their Erasmus. They wanted their first creations to be directly linked to the autumn season through the colours and materials used.

Leaves collected in the city this autumn are used as raw material in their creations.

Dead leaves are considered as waste in the urban space. Here they are revalued and become a sustainable resource that does not destroy nature. This new material from "waste" allows a great variety of shapes and colours, combined with Jesmonite and ochre. The leaves become a creative material and are frozen in time. The material thus marks a precise temporality, a particular season: autumn 2020. A poetics around time is embodied by functional and decorative objects

The reason of becoming a designer is the desire to have an impact on the décor that surrounds us on a daily basis. Design is a real lever for environmental issues and our lifestyles. Indeed, design is not only a question of forms, functions, colours or elegance, it is both a reflection and an action on our relationship with the world and allows us to draw new narratives of everyday life: whether it is through the materials used in our objects, the manufacturing process or the use that is proposed. 

We make interior objects from dead leaves collected in the city, initially destined for incineration or landfill. We see this material as a resource for creating an infinite number of objects. There is no need to cut down a tree or to drill the ground to recover it, you just have to wait for the autumn season to be able to collect it. We are experimenting with different mixtures and also with other plant resources. The relationship with the territory and the experimentation with materials are the source of our projects.

Ethical and environmental issues are at the heart of our approach and we design our projects in line with these issues. We think it is essential to consider these issues as inseparable from any production today. 

We use local materials, devalued resources, which for others are considered as waste, but for us are a source of creation. Our very approach goes in this direction.

Furthermore, we try as much as possible to bring coherence to our work by using recyclable packaging made in France and/or recovered from companies in order to avoid excess waste. Cardboard boxes are collected from French retailers before they are thrown away, to give them a second life! To protect our pieces inside the parcels, we use biodegradable tissue paper or recyclable padding collected from local businesses before they are thrown away.