Serretta
Plaster Ruins – Vanity and Table
The project emerged from a technical and narrative exploration begun in 2023 around the concept of hyper-ruin: a reflection on the transformation of materials, the destruction of buildings and the collective memory engraved on objects.
‘Buildings remain silent, but ruins speak,’ wrote Benjamin Constant: ruins are silent witnesses of our past, bearers of a certain mystery. Basing her research on the collection and transformation of materials salvaged from demolished buildings, Lucie explores how construction waste can become a vector of memory and transmission. Through acts of re-appropriation, she considers memory as a material.
Plaster Ruins - Vanity is a reinterpretation of the dressing table-an object that many girls play with during childhood. Originally reserved for an elite, the dressing table has evolved into both a toy and a symbol of femininity. Here, it is reworked, confronting a nostalgic aesthetic with raw materiality that evokes destruction and the passage of time.
While, Plaster Ruins -Table elevates the plaster blocks-usually used to build partitions-to a sculptural object. The table legs seem to turn into human limbs, suggesting anthropomorphic forms that evoke a childlike, nostalgic approach.
Both objects evoke a time when, as children, objects had an emotional significance beyond their functionality. These familiar forms echo past styles and contrast with the crudeness of a material commonly hidden and forgotten after demolition.
Lucie Gholam, born in 1999 to a French-Lebanese family, has always been drawn to exploring the intersection of her dual heritage. After graduating in spatial design from École Boulle in Paris in 2019, she continued her studies at Aalto University and graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2023.
Her background continuously fuels her search for identity, both as a designer and as an individual. For Lucie, design is a playground for experimentation and exploration that connects our emotional connection to objects and spaces through the concept of ruin. Interweaving different techniques and materials, she embarks on a journey of personal discovery while addressing broader and more pressing issues. His work pushes the boundaries of material properties and the role that objects and spaces play in our lives. With a strong focus on sustainability, she strives to work with innovative and circular materials and to enhance the potential of what already exists. Influenced by architecture, sculpture, pop culture, queer and feminist theory and her French and Lebanese roots, Lucie likes to challenge archetypes and bring multiple perspectives into her creative process.