Charles Zana's fantasy interiors are on display in a Parisian apartment

Since launching his standalone furniture collection four years ago, the interior architect and designer Charles Zana has chosen a trilogy of exceptional 18th and early 19th-century Parisian interiors to display it.

His first furniture exhibition, Ithaque, took over an aristocratic Left Bank townhouse in 2021. This was followed by Iter, shown in the historic Hôtel de la Marine in 2024.

Now, Zana presents In Situ in a 500-square-metre Directoire apartment that formerly housed the Swedish Circle (and where Alfred Nobel established the awards that bear his name). Located on the Rue de Rivoli, overlooking the Tuileries gardens, the apartment has impressively high ceilings and large reception rooms. 'You feel like you've stepped into another era,' Zana says.

He's taking advantage of this setting to show around 30 furniture pieces, most of them new. Instead of creating rooms for dining, entertaining, sleeping, etc., Zana has mixed up his works in what he calls a 'fantasy' interior, creating 'an emotion rather than simply an aesthetic.'

There's even a coffee bar run by pastry star Yann Couvreur where you can sip an espresso at a 'Cocteau' mushroom-shaped side table while listening to the chill techno sounds of Sébastien Tellier and Ray Mang.

Many of the new pieces in this collection are size XXL. One room is anchored by an enormous eight-metre-long sofa in a deep brown Pierre Frey 'Teddy' mohair. S-shaped, it swoops through the room 'like a piece of architecture,' says Zana, referencing the 1960s style of architects such as Pierre Paulin, 'where it's the furniture that structures a space.' The sofa's form invites people to perch on either side, like 19th-century French confidents.

Zana has experimented with a number of materials for the first time - lacquer, ceramic, pewter - collaborating with specialised artisans for each. He spent six months looking for the right lacquer partner before choosing Pierre Bonnefille, an expert in Japanese lacquer. In the Swedish Circle's former dining room stand three lacquer dining tables in a row, identical apart from their colours: dark olive, chestnut, butternut. Zana notes, 'the lacquer creates a beautiful depth and allows us to use colours we would normally steer away from.'

Wall sconces range from a twisted bronze snake to a series of ceramic lamps in white plaster, in abstract mask-like shapes with thick coils inspired by Ettore Sottsass.

Zana has brought in a young art curator, Paul Calligaro, who selected some contemporary works to show alongside a series of melancholy portraits by 19th-century painter Eugène Carrière, reflecting the period of the apartment. Polaroid photos of women by the 20th-century architect Carlo Mollino (lent by the Casa Mollino museum in Turin) are arranged in a grid in a dedicated room, playing off the feminine curves of two new mirrors in white bronze.

The show falls on the same dates as Art Basel Paris, which is intentional. 'It's a way of being part of the landscape,' Zana says. While preparing for the exhibition earlier this month, he also had his eye on Paris Fashion Week, and designer Matthieu Blazy's first runway show for Chanel. He was struck by the similarities in their approaches: 'It's a year of work with ateliers and artisans, distilled into a presentation that lasts a few minutes.' (Or in his case, less than a week.) After this exhibition, Zana plans to look for a permanent location to display his furniture, bringing his elegant four-year furniture odyssey to an end.

'In Situ' runs 21-26 October 2025, 242 Rue de Rivoli, Paris