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The Design Museum Brussels presents Shaping the Possible. Pierre Lallemand, designer, from 27 November 2026 to 7 March 2027, an exhibition offering an intimate insight into Pierre Lallemand’s work as a designer. Rather than attempting to encompass his entire body of work, which also spans architecture, urban planning and other creative fields, the exhibition explores more than thirty years of research into objects, furniture, materials and manufacturing processes.
Developed in collaboration with Pierre Lallemand, Shaping the Possible, curated by Maude Willaerts (Design Museum Brussels) and independent curator Syuzanna Poulichet, brings together a selection of drawings, models, prototypes, objects, furniture and experimental pieces. This deliberately focused selection offers a closer understanding of his design process, from initial sketches and experiments through to production and the final form.
Trained in Brussels in the late 1970s, Pierre Lallemand developed an approach from the outset that defies strict boundaries between disciplines. His early lighting designs, exhibited in the 1980s at Galerie Théorème in Brussels, already demonstrate his interest in experimentation and in objects that bring together practical use, technology and artistic expression.
His international career further shaped this approach. His experiences in Italy, at the Milan-based architectural practice BBPR, and later in the United States, working with César Pelli, helped him develop a way of thinking about design across different scales. Furniture, objects, bicycles and sailing boats all became fields of experimentation in which drawing, technical expertise, attention to materials and formal exploration come together. It is an approach in which form and function develop hand in hand, as Pierre Lallemand explains: “I don’t believe that form and function should be seen as opposites. Form is already a function in itself. Whether I’m working on a bicycle, a car, a boat or a smaller object, I always seek a strong sculptural presence that incorporates technical and practical constraints from the very beginning. For me, function and form must develop together.”
Although the exhibition deliberately focuses on design, it cannot separate it from what Pierre Lallemand describes as an “architecture of the possible”. For him, objects and architecture share the same approach to questioning our environment: designing is not simply about responding to a need, but about exploring how things might be different.
Through this selection, Shaping the Possible reveals the continuity of an approach developed across design and architecture, without attempting to offer an exhaustive retrospective. It provides a unique opportunity to discover the thinking and practice of a creator for whom every project represents an opportunity for exploration.