Ronan Bouroullec, Erwan Bouroullec

Algues is the French word for algae. These seaweedlike plastic modular components snap together like Lego to form a screen, a room divider, a tentlike canopy, or any imaginative form to suit any space. The Algues Screen is avaliable in several colors and attaches at multiple points, allowing for endless combinations of organically branching structures: add more components for dense opacity or fewer for lacy transparency. The appeal and intrigue of the design rests largely in creating it oneself.
The Bouroullec brothers began collaborating in the late 1990s. Their work is marked by an aesthetic of clean lines, playful humor, and surprising modular forms that invite active participation rather than passive consumption. Like Algues, their Cloud Bookshelf and Textile Tile, also in MoMA's collection, free the consumer to satisfy specific needs through flexible configurations. The individual modules are easy to assemble, disassemble, pack up, and carry. These characteristics make the Bouroullec brothers’ work well suited to mobility and flexibility, two conditions that characterize contemporary life.