Founder Antoine Simonin

Paris, France

My design work is best summed up as:

“Let your dreams devour your life so that life does not devour your dreams.”

– Antoine de Saint Exupery

What aspect of your work are people most curious about?

The use of colours in our interiors. However, our work never starts from a palette but from a concept, nourished by the storytelling we write infused by the site itself and the story behind the owners. The colours bring nuances, which inexorably punctuate and spice up spaces. As for fragrance formulas, the site is the head note, the owner the heart note, and the materiality and colours are the core note. Head and heart leave an indelible trace in the space, and the architecture remains. The balance between these three elements creates our singularity and sophistication.

What has recently challenged the way you think about design?

Overconsumption. Nowadays, building anything forces us to be truly responsible. If we ever find good architectural elements on the existing site of our projects, we do our best to keep or re-use most of them, like floors, panelling, and stones. We also try to source our different materials and contractors locally. All those facts can also drive the project conceptually. 

In terms of design, we are regularly sourcing lots of vintage pieces, but as a non-nostalgic team, we also hold to work with contemporary designers, trying to be a platform for their creations by not staying stuck in the past.

What person, building, product or art piece has had a lasting impact on your work?

We spend a lot of time visiting artists, galleries and exhibitions. Lately, the works of Ugo Rondinone, Dhewadi Hadjab, and Edi Dubien, among others, have greatly impacted our work and state of mind. 

But if we talk about the lasting impact that I keep, there remains the cinema and the films I have seen hundreds of times and the new ones I will see millions of times. From The Shining, Alien and Beetlejuice, all these spooky movies seen and re-seen since my childhood to the masterpieces discovered more recently like Emilia Pérez, The Worst Person in the World or Dune.

The three words I would most like people to attribute to my work are:

Theatrical, timeless, fun.