Here’s a question for you: what do Pedro Almodóvar, Joana Vasconcelos, Jiang Qiong Er, Hans Hopfer, Jean Nouvel, Sacha Lakic, Marcel Wanders and Jean Paul Gaultier have in common?

If you answered that they’re all incredibly talented creatives, globally recognised and consistently working at the top of their game, you’d be only half right. For there’s another link – each and every one of them has partnered with and designed for the French powerhouse furniture company Roche Bobois, the latest sponsor to join Australian Design Review’s IDEA program. 

In 2026 Roche Bobois will be sponsoring the Residential Interior Curation award – a natural fit for a brand that works with some of the finest interior designers in the world.

Those names above are just the tip of the iceberg. 

With its roots going back over 60 years following a fortuitous meeting of two families – the Roches and the Chouchans – Roche Bobois from its inception has focused on working with the very cream of design talent. 

And that doesn’t just mean notable titans of product and furniture design like Wanders, Luigi Gorgoni, Missoni Home and Kenzo Takada, it also means artists not primarily known for their work in this space. Annually Roche Bobois partners with such an artist, revealing the name in April and collaborating for 12 months on a series of pieces. 
Every year the name of the next collaborator is a closely guarded secret. “We don’t really know either,” says Roche Bobois’ general manager Australia, Eva Nosek. “We only get a preview a couple of weeks ahead of everyone else. So it’s a well-kept secret!”

Previous partners

In 2023 it was Joana Vasconcelos, who designed the colourful Bombom range, followed by Jiang Qiong Er, whose Bamboo range featured everything from chairs to tables, consoles, lamps and candle holders.

Launching last September following a Milan Design Week preview, the current artist in question has been none other than Spanish auteur and filmmaking maestro, Pedro Almodóvar, resulting in a brilliantly audacious series of designs adoring furniture by the likes of Hopfer, Lakic and Vincenzo Maiolino, and featuring bold block colours and imagery familiar to any lovers of the director’s work – eyes and lips, stiletto heels, revolvers, painted nails and more. 

The range includes tables, bookcases, sofas and even a cushion bearing the iconic face of Penélope Cruz in one of her finest performances for the filmmaker, Raimunda in Volver. 

The association isn’t a new one either, as keen-eyed viewers of The Room Next Door, Almodovar’s latest work (his first in the English language after 50 years of filmmaking) will be aware. “There are actually a lot of Roche Bobois products in that movie as well,” reveals Nosek.

Global expansion

With over 250 showrooms globally, Roche Bobois has also had one in Sydney for a couple of years now. It is looking to establish one in Melbourne too, as soon as it can find exactly the right spot. “It’s hard to find the space that is in the right location, the right building, the right size,” says Nosek. “You know the one that ticks all the boxes.”

For furniture lovers in Europe, the US, the UK, China (where the brand is “growing really fast with lots of new showrooms,” says Nosek) and especially France of course, Roche Bobois has long been the last word in French Art de Vivre. It’s a brand with an impeccable heritage, embraced for its dynamic aesthetics, elegance, boldness and longevity. 

Its roll call of classics spans Lakic’s inimitable Bubble sofa, Hopfer’s Mah Jong (which celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2021), Fabrice Berrux’s Aqua dining table and Christophe Delcourt’s Legend bookcase, a design that marked Roche Bobois’ move into the eco-design space.

From aesthetics to awareness

Since 2006, that move towards eco-design has become a major point of concentration for Roche Bobois, and it’s a focus  that the company is eager to emphasise. “I think it’s one thing that we probably don’t advertise enough,” says Nosek. “We’ve received a number of awards, including United Nations awards for sustainability. There are plans to be net zero by 2030 and we’re well on track for that. The Setup sofa [designed by Sacha Lakic] is 100 percent recyclable.” 

Further goals in the area of eco-design include a 20 percent annual increase in eco-designed products. In 2024, they represented 89 percent of the total catalogue. With the constant renewal of its collections, this approach will ultimately apply to more than 2000 products – the entire Roche Bobois range. To assist with this target, the company has partnered with FCBA technological institute (Forêt Cellulose Bois-construction Ameublement) to develop its own environmental assessment methodology: the ECO8 tool.

The tool measures each product’s level of eco-design based on eight criteria, covering four stages of its life cycle – material, manufacturing, use and recyclability. 

It’s an excellent target, but let’s be honest, if you had a Penélope Cruz cushion, recyclability would have to be a meaningless concept. Who would ever let such a magnificent object go?

Top image: Lounge Uni, Cromática Collection. Pedro Almodóvar x Roche Bobois. TASCHEN. Architect Rafael de La-Hoz. Photo: Flavien Carlod and Baptiste Le Quiniou.

For more information: Roche Bobois.