Ben Swildens

Ben Swildens, born in 1938, is a designer of Dutch origin. Brought to change country from a young age by the profession of his father, architect, he followed him in particular to Morocco where, at the American school in Tangier, he learned Arabic and Spanish, while imitating his father. through the drawing. After going through Polytechnique in Switzerland, Ben Swildens joined the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from which he graduated in 1961. He began to work for his teachers, then great creative craftsmen of the time, but also for companies. private. From 1962, and until 1969, he will collaborate with the French master glassmaker and decorator Max Ingrand, on many projects such as the head offices of EDF or Peugeot, the airport of Lima, the Parliament of Beirut. or the Geneva Museum ... And the latter will push Ben Swildens to turn to industrial design. Thus, Ben Swildens will launch with his brother-in-law Bernard Cohen - future founder of the Parisian boutique Merci - the firm Point which edited and sold the furniture he designed. Both were married to two of the Goutal sisters who had created the BonBon brand and this beautiful blend gave birth in 1972 to the Bonpoint brand for which Ben Swildens designed the first stores in France and the United States. Finally, in 1985, he created Ben Swildens Design Architecture, focusing on individual dwellings. Architect and designer he remains but, since 2010, Ben Swildens now devotes himself to sculpture