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Magazine

published on 24.03.2025

Interview

Lucile Soufflet: the public's choice

It’s a rare event. The first big exhibition of the work of a designer of street furniture is happening. Lucile Soufflet, who has been a well-known figure in the world of design since the early 2000s with her famous Circular Bench and other creations for public authorities and urban communities, is exhibiting at the CID-Grand-Hornu Museum until August 24. She designed the exhibition as a public space. “Where life happens,” she says.

Lucile Soufflet - lucile.be

CID Grand Hornu

An interview by Mikael Zikos for Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode

Why did you decide to design street furniture?

"I’ve been interested in street furniture since my last year of industrial design school at La Cambre in 1998. That was the year I graduated. I was starting to take an interest in cities to understand how they functioned. I was also interested in design other than as a practice from which a consumer object is derived. My interest in public spaces became stronger, and I created a few prototypes. After some media attention, the city of Brussels commissioned me to design a public bench. This first commission was in 2000, and the furniture was installed starting in 2003."