Discovering JUNO – episode #1: THE FOLD-OUT BED THAT LIBERATES SQUARE METERS
JUNO: technical prowess & human adventure
MAFAEL takes you behind the scenes of the design of the JUNO retractable bed.
JUNO is the result of a concentration of ingenious ideas, functional and technical studies, feedback, calculations, drawings, prototypes, and tests before manufacturing the latest generation of wall beds that are simple, accessible, and all made in France!
JUNO, the Human Adventure
JUNO started with an ambitious specification.
The idea? To design a space-saving bed that rises to the ceiling, accessible from all corners of France, Navarre, and beyond, hence easily transportable, available within 3 weeks, easy to assemble, and not requiring load-bearing walls.
The key word of this ambitious project is SIMPLICITY. If JUNO can be raised and lowered so easily, it’s because behind the simplicity of this space-saving furniture lies months of research and development. A team of creators, prototypists, designers, and marketers worked on the project with passion.
The designer set to work on the first sketches of the space-saving bed. Every part of this wall bed is the result of clever tricks and ingenious ideas.
“We work step by step to find the right equation that will combine function and design.
JUNO is a wall bed designed for daily use, we anticipate the uses and design models that can meet the broadest needs, the criteria, and characteristics of small living spaces.”
In terms of design, MAFAEL wanted to inject into the JUNO wall bed clean, straight lines that transport you to the other side of the world, to the land of the rising sun. Japan has a balance between tradition and modernism, a harmony. It is this harmony that MAFAEL wanted for its first piece of furniture. JUNO favors simple shapes and a minimalist aesthetic. There are no frills, the idea is to find authenticity, elegance, and simplicity: with its supports, its elegantly integrated sofa, its straight boards…
JUNO is not just any piece of furniture. It comes into the center of a room and becomes the “master furniture” by day and night. By making it simple and sleek, its large and massive side is easily forgotten. It blends into the daily life of its user, who can freely make it their own. Once installed, JUNO becomes obvious, the obvious choice for small spaces.
The head of the design office, for his part, creates and oversees the plans for the wall bed, creates functional diagrams, and designs parts. It’s a job that is both creative and technical, requiring a broad knowledge of materials, mechanics, and proficiency in 3D software to model the parts and perform strength tests. Certainly, our design office participates in trials.
Once the drawings and virtual tests have been completed, this is where the JUNO prototypist comes in. Preparing, assembling, sanding, screwing, machining, testing, solving, improving, adjusting, and re-testing are all verbs that describe the daily work of the prototypist. There’s a lot of cunning in this profession; sometimes it’s necessary to draw inspiration from an idea in a completely different context, adapt it, and test it. The prototypist also has knowledge of materials and assemblies, and practical experience goes hand in hand with theoretical knowledge. The prototypist is precise, skilled, and ingenious.
Designing JUNO means moving forward hand in hand, whether with the design team, technical team, or marketing team, because this whole world works towards a common direction: democratizing JUNO, the ceiling-mounted wall bed that frees up square meters.
Juno: a COCORICO space-saving bed
But where is this ingenious invention made? The MAFAEL team travels the roads of France with passion and enthusiasm. The complementarity of professions and talents is the strength of this new brand.
MAFAEL primarily collaborates with a manufacturing workshop located in Vendée, specifically in Les Herbiers, one of the jewels of the French industry, and a design office in Paris.
Manufacturing the JUNO wall bed starts a virtuous cycle; it’s often astonishing to see all the crafts and industrial professions required to make this piece of furniture. Industries from all corners of France are called upon to work on certain technical parts of the furniture. Designing JUNO is like conducting a real tour of France.
Vendée, Yonne, Loir and Cher, Île de France, Hauts de France, and even beyond, crossing borders for textiles from Italy, recognized for its fashion sense, and from Germany for more technical fabrics, JUNO brings together talents, skills, and passion. Among these passions, MAFAEL would like to talk about wood. This solid wood necessary for the manufacture of its bed frame. The pine comes from eco-managed forests benefiting from PEFC certification: promoting sustainable forest management. Forest certification attests to the respect of environmental, societal, and economic functions of the forest and is based on forest certification and the certification of companies that transform wood to ensure traceability of the material from the forest to the finished product!
