JEAN-MARIE MASSAUD doesn't care much for fame or any of the trappings that go along with being recognised by the selfie-aware masses. Instead, this design-world star is driven by a desire to create objects - furniture, lighting, cars, hotels, a football stadium even - that improve the life experience in a sustainable way.

Mr Massaud, 51, comes across as a bundle of creative energy who possesses a youthful enthusiasm for everything he does. One imagines he's hardly changed from the gadget-loving kid who grew up in Toulouse, fascinated by nature and technology. With a background in aerospace engineering and industrial design, Mr Massaud dreamed of designing state-of-the-art aircraft - although his first project (in 1990) was actually a submarine prototype.

"That was my natural field, but I understood very fast that I wanted to do architecture," says Mr Massaud, who was in Singapore recently for a lecture and event organised by Space Furniture in conjunction with furniture brand Poliform. "It's not about fame, it's about innovation." He adds: "Lightness is my dream, my fantasy is to work around lightness and aerodynamics."