Typologie – La cagette en peuplier

Typologie is a collection of design books about ordinary objects. This issue focuses on the poplar crate.

Crates are mainly found in open-air markets. Scaffolded in stacks and arranged in stalls, it conveys and displays fruits and vegetables. Thus the eye wanders from leek to turnip and hardly cares about this container, the slice of which is barely distinguishable. Yet this link in the food chain deserves some attention. For 60 years, its shape has been intact: a few thin poplar slats sufficiently stapled together. Despite this apparent simplicity and its rudimentary assembly, it embodies the balance between lightness, resistance and economy of material. This contemporary crate results from an evolution of food containers ranging from rural basketry to reusable crates.

This issue is developed in collaboration with the Vitra Design Museum. It includes 64 pages, 45 photographs of objects printed in duotone, 30 color illustrations, an introduction by Alexandre D’Orsetti and a joint interview between the French artist, Philippe Weisbecker, the historian, Pierre Cornu and Jean-Luc Baley, Director of Bois Martin Packaging.