Ben Swildens
Ben Swildens, born in 1938, is a Dutch-born designer. Forced to change country from an early age because of the profession of his father, architect, he follows him in particular in Morocco where, at the American school in Tangier, he will learn Arabic and Spanish, imitating his father through drawing. After a move to the Polytechnic in Switzerland, Ben Swildens enrolled in the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris where he graduated in 1961. He started working for his professors, great creative craftsmen of the time, but also for private companies. From 1962 to 1969, he collaborated with the French master glassmaker and decorator Max Ingrand on numerous projects such as the headquarters of EDF or Peugeot, the Lima airport, the Parliament of Beirut or the Musée de Genève. Max Ingrand himself will push Ben Swildens to deal with industrial design. Thus, with his brother-in-law Bernard Cohen - future founder of the Parisian boutique Merci - Ben Swildens launches Point, a company that produces and sells the furniture he designs. The two were married to two of the Goutal sisters, who had created the BonBon brand, and from this beautiful combination the Bonpoint brand was born, in 1972, of which Ben Swildens designed the first stores in France and the United States. Finally, in 1985, he created Ben Swildens Design Architecture, focusing on individual homes. While remaining architect and designer, since 2010 Ben Swildens has dedicated himself to sculpture.