Guillaume Sasseville, laureate

With his project Verre commun, Guillaume Sasseville designed a series of glasses inspired by drinking glasses mass-produced in early 20th-century Montréal and designed using Austrian manufacturing techniques and artistry. He developed his prototypes in collaboration with an Austrian crystal glassworks specialized in drinking-glass manufacturing.

“The drinking glass is an object I’ve wanted to work on for a long time. For me, glasses evoke moments in time and places I’ve been. I often try to acquire glasses from restaurant owners, and I usually succeed. The Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant allowed me to explore and study Montréal’s glassmaking history and develop specialized knowledge of glass-forming techniques. During my stay in Graz, I had many enriching experiences and was able to exchange ideas with local designers, with whom I’ve already planned some future collaborations.”

At the end of his efforts, Guillaume Sasseville has created a collection of glasses in a limited series inspired by Austrian manufacturing techniques and artistry that reveals the past of Montréal. Made in crystal, the common glass possesses a finely calibrated material presence. Like its common predecessors, it is an 8 oz. (227 ml) tumbler in the English style. In the hand, the common glass, full or empty, has a surprising weight—neither light nor heavy, but rather exact. Its gently-sloping curve gradually thickens, cascading from its expertly refined lip (0.6 mm) down to its narrowing base. Inside the glass, a bulge marks the ultimate ebb of the crystal’s downward flow. The base of the glass bears the signature of the common. All toasts will be rewarded by a crystalline ping of liquid clarity. The green tinged vessel of the common glass glows with opalescent light: the density of the liquid combines with that of the glass, so that container and content seem the complementary aspects of ambient light. The common glass levitates over the table, a pure, drinkable colour, as buoyant as an idea.