BOILISÉ, FRANCE
Artwork raised to the heights by Koskisen thin plywood
The couple behind the brand BOILISÉ, Yohan Alazet and Lauren Lima had engineering careers in large French aeronautical groups, the latest located in California, US. The pandemic was for them, as it was for many others, a turning point. The events pushed them to rethink their lives and reassess the value of their work, as well as the expat life in California.
The concept of wooden topographical maps popular in the United States, also charmed Alazet and Lima. Instead of ordering them, they set out to make the maps in their own, improved way. The couple eventually moved to the South of France to pursue their dream. Since 2021, Alazet and Lima are proud to be the pioneers in France of these extremely detailed cartographic works and the Boilisé catalogue holds a large variety of maps that reveal a birds-eye view of the terrain. The laser-cut topographic contours have been manually laid piece by piece and raised to the heights by Koskisen thin plywood.
Yohan Alazet says they didn’t want to start another heavy industry. Everything they did and all the materials they chose were carefully handpicked and they always considered the impact of their choices. Their object was to make everything as lean as possible.
“We are both engineers and manufacturing processes are what we excel in. For example, optimising the workstation, ideas, and choices on how to build and simplify everything. We did a lot of testing and also ordered many samples from manufacturers”
Koskisen thin plywood – an obvious choice
After meticulous foundation work, Yohan Alazet found Koskisen thin birch plywood. “We looked for options, did our homework, and wanted to make sure that our choices would meet our criteria. Eventually, the Finnish thin plywood from Koskisen was an obvious choice”, Alazet recalls. “Koskisen is the only company providing large enough sheets of quality thin plywood for us to do our work. Every piece has to be as smooth as possible.”
The criteria include not only quality but also environmental aspects. Both Alazet and Lima are trained to think in an environmentally friendly way from start to finish. For them, it’s important to include in their work the idea, that for example the forests are managed sustainably. The detailed work calls for not only an eye for detail but also thin plywood that gives dynamism to maps respecting vertical scale.
“Koskisen can provide the thinnest plywood. In California, we came across thick pieces that had dark edges. For our artwork, it was really critical to find something below 1 mm. In our work, we are using sheets from 0.6 to 0.8 mm.”
Yohan Alazet praises that Koskisen thin plywood also has a certain shine to it. Perhaps this shine is something that catches the eyes of industry connoisseurs at fairs. Alazet says that at every fair people in the field recognise Koskisen materials.
“Almost all wood tends to be a bit bland. However, Koskisen wood has an oriented shine. We rotate the sheets so that it has contrast, depending on the topographic design. The shine really gives the maps depth and dimensions”, Alazet says.
all photographs are taken by Studio Arsène
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