When Studio Botté founder Philippe Charlebois Gomez was 15, his mother noticed his fascination with design magazines. She told him, “There is a mind behind all objects that surround us. One day, you could be one of those minds,” he recalls. He was often inspired by his mother, who would organize toy-making workshops in orphanages and schools that used only recycled materials. “Reusing existing objects has always stayed with me,” he explains. “I find it ingenious—the gesture of taking what we throw away and imagining the shape that I can give it to make a one-of-a-kind luminaire.”
Reclaiming old objects became Gomez’s calling card when he launched Studio Botté last January. He takes what some would consider trash and transforms those scraps into whimsical light fixtures. “[We’ll] pick something up off the street while biking through Montreal, bring it back to the studio, clean it, and take every piece apart,” he says. “These parts speak to us and tell us which ones should come together.”
Metal, glass, and ceramic are materials of choice, with the studio’s first series employing fan cages once used for livestock that were then cut, bent, and painted. “Our pieces are simply a composition of some of the most beautiful coincidences of the industrial world,” he explains. Recently, his fixtures have been displayed at fashion brand C’est Beau’s first retail space in Montreal (conceived by local design studio Obeikt), while Humm, donning swirling black and brass detailing, can be found in the city’s Pastel Rita café.
Friends and family have been bringing in old lamps and other objects for Gomez’s upcycling process, and now others are following suit. “We are always pleasantly surprised when our followers on social media catch on to what we are doing and offer us [old] objects instead of placing them on the curb,” adds Gomez. “We believe we’ve come at the right time.”
The caramel-hued PDP fixture is made from reclaimed Venetian PVC blinds.
