5.5 designstudio's colorful beach items celebrate la grande motte's iconic architecture

influenced by the architecture of the iconic city-resort ‘la grande motte’, 5.5 designstudio gives birth to a collection of objects that revisits seaside icons in camargue, france. developed in the late 1960s, the resort was entrusted to architect and philosopher jean balladur who spent twenty years exclusively on this project. in the end, his creation offered symbolic, spiritual, humanist and universal dimensions borrowed from his travels across the world. in other words, balladur advocated for an architecture-sculpture made of triangles, truncated circles and trapezes, thus providing a kinetic effect to his work. long criticized for its unusual architecture, symbol of the coastline concretization, the city of ‘la grande motte’ ultimately obtained the label ‘20th century heritage site’ awarded by the ministry of culture in january 2010. 

overview of the beach collection from above

since 2013, ‘la grande motte’ has been supporting creators willing to revisit and reinterpret the seaside resort with an objective: transcend legacy to make it a living heritage and breeding ground for all artistic creations. this year, it invited 5.5 designstudio to bring in a fresh perspective and express their own vision of the city. ‘as designers, we intended to create a series of objects in line with jean balladur’s project and that would contribute to reinvent seaside holidays. we decided to work on iconic seaside accessories, the very symbols of holidays for all. beach mattresses, parasols, towels, buckets, deckchairs are revisiting this popular lifestyle,’ explains the design team. 

the beach pyramids – these shelters mixing shades and lights project the buildings’ silhouettes on the sand

the beach accessories offer vacationers a new experience and create multiple ephemeral installations reacting with the architectural landscape of la grande motte. the ‘beach pyramids’ are parasols that resonate with the pyramidal buildings of the city – like a canopy perforated with modénatures’ shapes. meanwhile, the ‘sand pyramids’ are buckets that allow children to reproduce the city’s triangles and play the architects’ apprentices on the beach. the acapulco backrests, on the other hand, offers a smart alternative to the traditional deckchairs and stick firmly on the ground. as for the ‘towels le provence’, they offer a generous surface on the ground to relax, alone or accompanied. poseidon mattresses, derived from the bishop’s bonnet and made in polyurethane moss, offer comfort to the feet in the sand. finally the grand mottois tables, made with painted metal, can be anchored to the ground to protect personal belongings from the sand. the beach pyramids and acapulco backrests are made with dickson textiles. 

the parasols resonate with the pyramidal buildings of the city-resort

an exhibition titled ‘ design a place’ will unveil a preview of the collection from the 29th of june to the 2nd of july, during the summer edition of les puces du design at la grande motte. the show will take the form of an ephemeral beach hut allowing visitors to discover a new art de vivre directly feet in the sand.

postmodern and vibrant colors make up the collection

the acapulco backrest improves comfort and offers an experience close to the elements

acapulco backrests is easy to anchor to the ground

poseidon mattresses derived from the bishop’s bonnet – as seen with the building silhouette

sand pyramids bucket allows children to reproduce the city’s pyramids

these towels reproduce the graphic shapes of le provence building

the towels offers a generous surface on the ground to relax, alone or accompanied

these small side tables made with painted metal can be anchored to protect personal belongings

5.5designstudio team at la grande motte city-resort

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom