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The city of Cologne, the German capital of design, couldn’t be complete without a store specialized in the great icons of XX century furniture design. Boucherie is located opposite the ancient Mauritiuskirche (the church of St. Maurice), on the corner of a post-war modernist building with the two main display areas entirely made out of glass, in a peaceful, central area of Cologne, in which several creative studios have opened their offices.
Marc Boucherie and his partner Vera Kiltz are the store’s owners. Vera is an architect, Marc was a film set designer. A passion for design led them to open their store twenty years ago, although Marc left the job that used to take him away from home for long periods of time only in 2012. Since then, he has devoted himself entirely to interior design and furniture by the great iconic designers.
Besides the great design icons of the twentieth century, such as pieces by Charles Eames, Isamo Noguchi, Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner, Gaetano Pesce and Dieter Rams, Marc sells his own work as well in the store. His collection of industrial-style tables made from scratch with the help of local craftsmen has almost become a trendsetter.
Marc came up with the idea to make tables that had a weathered look approximately ten years ago, after a large order of industrial tables, bought from an English factory that was being pulled down, proved an instant hit. Since then, working with the blacksmith who owns the workshop and an artist who creates the patina through endless chemical stages, Marc custom makes these simple, indestructible tables for his clients.
It doesn’t surprise us that a set designer and an architect offer the full design service as well, from renovating to sourcing the furniture and even less that they are extremely good at it. Marc and Vera require their clients to give them free rein over the project. Marc tells us with a smile “The people who come to us know our work and have total faith in us. I hold the keys of the house that’s going to be refurbished, the owners see it only when we’ve finished arranging the last detail”.
The attraction of vintage furniture is contagious, it enters the big bourgeois villas, the artists’ ateliers… Nowadays, finding in these spaces pieces by the iconic designers of the twentieth century, creates a new type charm that perhaps wasn’t there in their heyday, when they were new and extremely modern. And so, if on one hand in Cologne thousands of visitors flock to see the new products presented at the big contemporary design fairs, from Imm to Orgatec, on the other there are many vintage enthusiasts who head in the opposite direction to Mauritiuskirche to discover what are the new pieces of modern art that the duo Boucherie-Kiltz has found for them.
Store Infos
Boucherie
Möbel Objekte Interior Design
Mauritiussteinweg 74
Cologne, Germany
Tel: 0049 (0)221 80158800
Email: info@marc-boucherie.de
www.marc-boucherie.de
Opening times:
Wed - Fri 13.00 - 18.00
Sat 11.00 – 16.00
Photos:
Courtesy Boucherie
Credits Ralph Baiker for QVEST N°3 Köln
