"With Vertex Eidôlon, we want to create the loudspeaker of the 21st century." This is how craftswoman Mona Oren, engineer Jérôme Malbrel and designer Lionel Bourcelot define the work for which they collectively won the 2018 Liliane Bettencourt Prize pour l'Intelligence de la Main® - Dialogues. Their team spirit led them to a technological breakthrough.

They used a new method based on linear motorization rather than the traditional circular mode to design this loudspeaker, a real technological challenge. While only scientists may understand this jargon, the result is enjoyed by the general public because the sound produced has an exceptional musicality. It is totally immersive and diffuses sound from all sides in an unprecedented way. Moreover, it works without using speaker enclosures. Vertex means the apex of the celestial vault, while eidolon is the Greek word for both apparition and bat: the speaker is shaped like the flying mammal’s wings.

To achieve this amazing technological feat, Jérôme Malbrel developed the scientific part, creating special templates for the magnetic core and working on the structure of the arches and the vibrating membrane. Designer Lionel Bourcelot worked on the choice of materials and the aesthetics, which earned him the use of part of his name. Mona Oren, a wax mold maker and sculptor of composite materials, used her incredibly precise molds with minute variations in thickness to give the speaker its final shape.

  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
  • ©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller

“Together, exacting inventors and a craftswoman found technological solutions served by a thousand-year-old technique.”

Jean de LoisyPresident of the 2018 jury

Mona Oren, multifaceted artist

Ever since Mona Oren graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris in 2002, she has pursued a multifaceted artistic career that includes drawing, photography, installation and video, but sculpture is her main medium. She creates three-dimensional works as close as possible to the material. She won the 2018 Liliane Bettencourt Intelligence of the Hand - Dialogues Prize and was a fellow at the Villa Medici-Academy of France in Rome in 2019.

©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller

Jérôme Malbrel, ingenious acoustician

Jérôme Malbrel was an aerospace engineer and an airline pilot. Passionate about sound, he wanted to make it his career. He became an acoustic engineer and founded the company Voxline with Lionel Bourcelot in Paris in 2017. A year later, they won the Liliane Bettencourt Intelligence of the Hand - Dialogues Prize.

©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller

  • 2017 Creation of Voxline

Lionel Bourcelot, sound as a calling

After graduating from Yale in the United States and the École Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland, in 1995 Mr. Bourcelot launched his own architecture, design and interior architecture studio, Kerien Partners and Ether AG. Over twenty years later, in 2017, he and engineer Jérôme Malbrel founded Voxline, a company dedicated to cutting-edge acoustics.

©Sophie Zénon pour la Fondation Bettencourt Schueller

  • 2017 Creation of Voxline

The Dialogues award of the Liliane Bettencourt Prize pour l'intelligence de la main®

The award Dialogues is given to an artisan for a work that displays a perfect command of technique and craftsmanship. It must be innovative and aesthetic but also contribute to progress in the artisan’s area of expertise. 

  • Amount: 50,000€ divided equally between the two winners, i.e. €25,000 each
  • Accompagnement: up to 150,000€, for the winners to carry out experiments, research and innovation on their prototype or object.
All the award-winners