“In the beginning, I spent too much time on the production of my designs and not enough on the creation,” he tells me during a little celebration to launch his lamp on the local market. “But working with my hands, I discovered a new technique to bend metal. It was a breakthrough in my career and also the start of my collaboration with Italian design labels.”

In 2001, Lust (pictured right) designed his signature piece “Le Banc”, a metal bench manufactured by Italian brand MDF. “Le Banc” is the perfect example of contemporary design’s first commandment: Make more with less. “I believe the shape is in the material,” says Lust. “I look at the nature of the material and try to shape it into something else.” For “Le Banc”, Lust took a flat sheet of metal and bent it into a bench. “Design doesn’t have to be complicated, and I like shapes to be authentic,” he says. The simple design appealed to Brussels city planners, who bought them up to install in public places.

For his funky new lamp, the designer collaborated with .MGX, the design division of 3D printing company Materialise. It was inspired, he says, by Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. “I drew a sketch of a lamp shaped like algae,” he explains. “Then followed the intensive project of realising it using the stereo-lithography technique. The lamp had to be both ornamental and functional, so I decided to integrate LED lighting. Making this lamp, I started with an idea and a technique, rather than with the material. A different approach to what I’m used to, but the result combined both tradition and innovation, which I always try to do.”

For Fashion and Design Brussels in 2006, he was asked to create urban furniture for Brussels’ Kunstberg. His design incorporates his earlier benches but adds a table, all formed with a single piece of metal. Lust has also designed the future tram and bus shelters for the Brussels public transport company MIVB. “I’m proud to have won that competition because my designs will be visible throughout my own city,” he says. “It’s a mix of classic and contemporary, appealing to a large section of the public. I’ve also tried to make it as vandalism-proof as possible, by using pierced metal to avoid graffiti tags and stickers. The booths are see-through all the way, making them a safer place to wait.”

Lust always feels that his last project is his best one. “If I don’t feel what I’m doing at the moment is better than anything I’ve created before, it’s probably not worth doing,” he says. “I hope one day to be able to combine all my different skills into one big project: a large-scale hotel, preferably in Asia or India.”

www.xavierlust.com