In the woods above the well-known French spa town of Evian, a new concert hall, La Source Vive, is shaped like a horse's hoof and is as finely tuned as a Stradivarius.

Fifty years ago, Antoine Riboud, then CEO of Danone Foods, created a classical music festival here. When he hired Mstislav Rostropovich as artistic director, the great cellist requested a new concert hall, something between a Russian dacha and Yehudi Menuhin's tent in Gstaad. In response, the maverick French architect Patrick Bouchain created La Grange au Lac, a large, rustic wooden space with chandeliers, inaugurated in 1993.

Explore the new Evian concert hall

Fast forward to 2017, when another French philanthropist and music lover, Aline Foriel-Destezet, was looking to build a concert hall of her own. She saw La Grange au Lac, was charmed, and hired Bouchain. After searching for a location, they chose to place the new building next to Bouchain's earlier creation. 'My life has been exceptional, because 30 years apart, I received pretty much the same command from two different people,' says the architect, 'and both gave me the same freedom.'

Bouchain told Foriel-Destezet he wanted to work with a partner, someone who would do the heavy architectural lifting while he acted as artistic director. He had become friendly with Philippe Chiambaretta, whose firm, PCA-Stream (behind Paris' Stream Building), employs a design approach based largely on science and exploration. The two men's offices were minutes apart, and they frequently met over coffee to discuss theories and ideas.

The first step was a much-needed restoration of the 1,000-seat Grange au Lac, which would now be devoted to symphonies. Then the architects created a smaller, complementary building with 500 seats, for chamber music concerts and musical recordings, La Source Vive. The architects also tore down the existing foyer and replaced it with a new one that leads to both concert halls, a wood-and-glass structure that references a Novarina-Prouvé building in Evian. Together, the buildings form a complex named Les Mélèzes (for the surrounding larch trees), with a programme of music and performing arts throughout the year.

Music was the driving element for La Source Vive's design. 'It's interesting for an architect to have this type of command, where you're not only looking, but listening, too,' says Chiambaretta. He and Bouchain worked closely with violinist Renaud Capuçon, the current director of the Rencontres Musicales d'Evian festival, who told them he wanted a sound that was 'warm and silky', citing favourite venues such as the Vienna Musikverein. A key member of the team was the internationally renowned acoustician Albert Xu, who passed away at age 89, just as construction started.

La Source Vive's footprint was imposed by nature; since the team wanted to avoid cutting down any trees, they chose a round clearing that was practically bare. The number of seats determined its volume, as another rule in acoustics is about 11 cubic metres of volume per audience member – enough space for the sound to bounce around.

The design was an iterative process, guided by acoustic parameters such as reverberation time – ideally 1.8 seconds. Concert halls come in two main forms: a rectangular shoebox or a 'vineyard', with seating surrounding the stage. La Source Vive became a hybrid of the two, an oval shape with a conical roof. Bouchain made models out of wood or plaster, while Chiambaretta’s studio created a 3D digital model, inputting different shapes and materials to simulate sound quality and sightlines. 'The form resembled a brain, and we had scans, like MRIs, where we could know the reverberation time for each seat,' says Chiambaretta. 'It was crazy.'

At every stage of construction, acousticians from Meta captured sound at different points in the room and compared the results with the architects' predictions. 'Each time we remeasured, correcting the model to be sure the sound would be perfect,' says Chiambaretta. 'Because we knew if we screwed up, if we ended up with two seconds of reverberation, Capuçon and Aline would kill us.'

Specialised artisans used age-old techniques, such as plastering the walls with trowels. 'All the great concert halls of the 19th century are in plaster,' says Bouchain, a master of materials. The unpainted plaster is sculpted with squiggly lines that resemble an electrocardiogram, closer together at the bottom than at the top, for optimal reverberation.

Chiambaretta compares the building's shell to an onion, layered with plaster, concrete, a wood frame, and finally the envelope in oiled copper, an aesthetic choice that allows it to blend into the surrounding woods. Above the stage, acoustic aluminium panels open like a camera aperture, exposing an oculus in the ceiling. That way, says Bouchain, 'the musicians can rehearse by daylight rather than artificial lighting'.

Two-person seats like little sofas are made from orangey-beige leather (rejected by fashion houses due to small imperfections), and padded for comfort and sound quality. They can be moved around, even close to the instruments, offering an accessible experience for the hard-of-hearing.

Six months before opening, everyone who worked on La Source Vive was invited to a special concert to thank them and test the sound in the presence of an audience. This was followed by a 'technical' concert and more tweaking of the interior – like an instrument, the room's sound can be tuned from one concert to another. In mid-June, the venue had its first challenge, hosting a concert for world leaders gathering at the G7 summit.

And on 24 June, the Rencontres Musicales season finally opened at La Source Vive with a quartet that included Capuçon and superstar cellist Yo Yo Ma. The sounds of Brahms and Schumann were warm and silky, just as requested. As the musicians left the stage, Yo Yo Ma thanked the two architects, sitting in the front row.

Afterwards, Chiambaretta reflected on the experience. 'It was a good lesson to work with musicians who are used to playing together. That’s rare in architecture, where we’re usually competing. But Patrick couldn't have done this project without me, and I couldn't have done it without him.'

pca-stream.com

The south of France’s annual design competition and festival, Design Parade, celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2026, marking 20 years of its ‘Objet’ (Product design) competition, and 10 years of its ‘Architecture d’intérieur’ (Interior design) competition. The occasion was customarily revelrous with passionate speeches, a pétanque tournament, a retrospective exhibition curated by David Giroire, and a talks programme featuring India Mahdavi hosted by Matter + Shape beneath umbrella pines to a soundtrack of cicadas.

Design Parade 2026 at Villa Noailles

At the 1920s Villa Noailles in Hyeres, the ten ‘Product design’ finalists included ‘imprecise candle clocks’ that challenge our relationship to time by Matisse Vrignaud and Lundja Medjoub (winners of a residency at the Sèvres National Manufacture). Yohan Thomas’ efficient lamp that hacked its own design system bringing autonomy back to small-scale manufacturing. And Mexican designer Eduardo Altamirano’s hypnotic, minimalist open speaker won the public prize.

Tin Ayala (Ecuador), who remixed precolonial Andean ceramic huacos with characters from video games and comics suggesting pre-to-post-colonial continuities, won the jury’s ‘Product design’ grand prize. Meanwhile conceptual designer Shahar Livne (Netherlands), a former student of Formafantasma, examined colonialism through the lens of rubber, examining its human and animal cost.

Stanislas Colodiet, director of CIRVA (France’s International centre of Glass and Plastic Arts) and member of the ‘Product design’ jury this year, remarked that post-colonialism has gained more interest from designers in recent years, as well as how objects can shape new rituals. 'An object should have agency,' he says.

Colodiet will work closely with winner Ayala during an upcoming residency at CIRVA in Marseille, which is part of the prize; and was proud to reflect on the collaboration with last year’s winner Simon Dupety, whose installation of organic glass vessels and lamps formed a dystopian garden inside the Villa Noailles.

Transforming Villa Noailles through contemporary interior design

The ten ‘Interior design’ competition finalists each transformed a room in the villa. Winner of the jury’s grand prize, Valentin Bayoud’s hearth-inspired cocoon replaced fire with water, inviting shared contemplation. Water was central to Elen Rio’s Mediterranean garden with a dynamic basin and playful hosepipes; as well as Yohann Hubert and Carlotta Lagazzi’s (winners of the Nationale manufactures Mobilier national Prize) reimagining of a wrecked boat.

Julie Liger, Artistic Director of Design Parade, noticed an increase in ‘spaces that isolate you from the intensity of life, yet not to be alone – to be with friends and discuss, and to see and observe nature.’ Reflecting on her own pioneering participation in 10 years of the ‘Interior design’ competition, she’s seen the rise of environmentalism. Today it’s integral to how all finalists think, yet this year explored it with the most freedom and sophistication in the use of circular and natural materials.

As well as noting an almost ‘Baroque’ approach to craft and decoration, with designers showing intensive interest in materiality and taking craft back into their own hands. See Boris Cojean’s silky beeswax surfaces; Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon’s local timber tinted with plant-based dyes (Public prize winner); Marion Moustey and Ewerton Alves’ aubergine curtains; and Clément Pasquier’s magical cork oak skin.

Liger sees the competition as an extension of the rich French heritage of interior design, and importantly one that, rather than in Paris, is rooted in the Mediterranean context of the south. Taking place during intense heat-waves across Europe, Design Parade’s question of how to live in the Mediterranean felt very relevant, as Northern Europe looks south for wisdom and innovation from shading, to water management.

An eco-system of design

Each year of the festival, the regional eco-system of design further strengthens. This year, visitors can discover new collectible design gallery Pour Vous and return to the Banane d’Or concept space in Hyères; be inspired by graduate presentations at the Camondo Méditerranée school and an exhibition on design and textiles at the Hôtel des Art featuring Sheila Hicks, Hella Jongerius and Muller Van Severen in Toulon.

They can also experience the work of Design Parade veterans of all levels in various places. During opening week, Edgar Jayet (5th Interior design winner, 2021) opened a recently designed home to curious visitors; pétanque played out at the sea-front Hotel Le Provencal designed by Rodolphe Parente (6th Interior design jury president, 2022, and 10th Interior design jury member); and lunch was hosted at Hotel Lilou designed by Kim Haddou and Florent Dufourcq (3rd Interior design finalist, 2018).

One day, dreams Liger, Design Parade will take to the streets with regional public commissions from designers, such as a fountain or landscaping. Perhaps more critically and environmentally engaged than ever before, this year’s Design Parade shows that it’s set on further expanding its impact through its community, as well as continuing to inspire surrealist imaginations through its enduringly playful spirit.

Design Parade is on view until 4 September 2026
villanoailles.com

La Fantaisie in Paris has handed over one of its 73 rooms to the Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó, whose vibrant creatures and fluid, folk-inflected forms now occupy Room 607 for a nine-month residency. Running until 22 February 2027, the project continues the hotel’s ongoing artistic series, which previously saw a takeover by French contemporary artist Ben Arpéa.

Tour La Fantaisie’s Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó

Bozó’s work has always carried the cadence of a spontaneous drawing and the nostalgia of a childhood memory. Rooted in Hungarian folk traditions and shaped by a self-taught visual language, his paintings, sculptures and installations are populated by zoomorphic figures that orbit somewhere between dream, fable and playground.

The walls of Room 607 have become an in-situ canvas, layered with works made directly for the space, while the existing artworks have been replaced entirely with pieces by Bozó. Handmade cushions and bespoke bedspreads woven with his signature animal-like motifs bring the collaboration into the soft furnishings; large-scale soft sculptures introduce a more physical sense of play; and hand-painted lampshades cast the room in a warmer, stranger glow.

A booklet for guests offers an introduction to the artist alongside the works available to purchase, while a selection of co-branded objects is also available and is exclusively sold at La Fantaisie, featuring caps, stickers, playing cards, and trays.

The Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó spans 42 sq m, sleeps up to three guests and overlooks the hotel’s garden. It comprises a large walk-in closet, a plush bathroom with a bathtub and shower, and a sofa bed which can be turned into an additional sleeping quarter. Designed by Martin Brudnizki, La Fantaisie is already a botanical exercise in colour, pattern and exuberance, with boutique rooms, a glass-roofed restaurant, garden terrace, street-facing café, rooftop bar and spa in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.

‘Coinciding with my exhibition Antidote at Semiose, my collaboration with La Fantaisie brings together familiar elements from my studio, but also new materials, including fabric and everyday objects, allowing guests to experience my work in an even more tactile way. Paris as a location has always been close to my heart, with my first show taking place here,’ says Bozó of the opening.

La Fantaisie is located at 24 Rue Cadet, 75009 Paris, France. Rates for the Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó start from 1,000 EUR inc. breakfast (approximately 862 GBP)

In early July 2026, after circa 30,000 units built, the last petrol-powered Alpine A110 is set to sashay off its Dieppe production line. Debuted in 2017 at the Geneva Motor Show, the rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, lightweight and low-slung two-seater was an instant hit with critics, including this one. As I commented back then: ‘A delight in all departments. Design, performance, handling and overall feel-good factor are sky-high in this wonderfully pared-back but still high-quality sportscar.’

The car was also significant for resurrecting the long dormant Alpine brand – which traces its roots back to the early 1950s and a French garage owner in Dieppe called Jean Rédélé, who tinkered with Renaults to make them racier. With some of his greatest rally successes taking place in the French Alps, when Rédélé created his own brand in 1955, he named it ‘Alpine’ in recognition.

The A110 nameplate has serious history too. First produced as a similar two-seater sports car from 1963-1977, the original version has a wonderfully curvaceous body embedded with four round and distinctively arranged headlights created by the Italian car design master Giovanni Michelotti.

Owned by Renault since 1973 and merged with Renault Sport in 1976 with some motorsport success in Le Mans and elsewhere, the Alpine brand was mothballed in 1995 but slowly brought back to life via various concept cars in the early 2010s.

The modern A110 references the original’s form language and front face too, but in a suitably 21st-century way via Anthony Villain, Alpine’s current design director. Not a great deal has changed since the 249hp A110 launched nine years ago for just over £50,000, aside from an infotainment system upgrade and the addition of Apple CarPlay compatibility.

Some faster (and more expensive) editions were created – including the £75,840 300hp A110 GTS model driven to Le Mans for this article – but the basic formula remains the same. Keep the weight down – the basic 2018 A110 was just 1103kg, and the GTS is still only between 1119-1140kg depending on options (in a world where many cars regularly exceed two tonnes). Make it low, compact and agile – the A110 is 1252mm high and 4181mm long – and let a modest but fun 1.8-litre petrol unit do the rest.

As a test of that formula, taking the annual pilgrimage from the UK to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race seemed like a fine idea. It is a journey that has been undertaken for as long as the race has existed, starting back in 1923, due to the involvement of British racing teams such as Bentley and more.

London to Le Mans in an Alpine A110

Kicking off the 700-odd mile round trip from south London, it’s optimal to keep the A110 on regular roads without speed bumps – its sporty suspension will let you know about some asphalt imperfections – but where they cannot be avoided, it’s far from a deal-breaker, and not ‘crashy’ like some German rivals. The A110’s seats, although bucket-style racers, also have sufficient padding to keep its occupants in fine fettle for such a long drive.

But the proper fun starts when the roads clear, especially once through the Channel Tunnel and into France. The 300hp 1.8-litre petrol engine makes a cracking sound when clicking through the automatic gearbox via tall aluminium paddle-shifters, and 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds is easy. Press the orangey-red Sport button attached to the south-east edge of the steering-wheel hub and everything tightens up and becomes louder, which lots of the (mainly young and male) fans lining the route on the way to Le Mans liked a lot.

As soon as the A110 GTS popped out of the Le Shuttle car train in Calais, the unofficial Le Mans paparazzi were quick to photograph the little French motor alongside far more expensive and bigger-engined McLarens and Ferraris. This crowd response was repeated time and again along the route down to Le Mans, from kids at the side of the motorway or on top of bridges spanning it – videoing, photographing and urging you to just rev the perky engine further.

It should be noted that along the same route there were also French police pointing a different type of camera at the exotic automotive convoy, hoping to catch those straying over various variable speed limits. Which kept the mind focused on driving, at least.

Within those emotional bookends, the A110 GTS handles with an easy and controllable charm through twisty roads, and feels sublime accelerating up to top-end French motorway speeds and its 6300rpm max power.

It’s not a perfect car, though. Luggage space is limited to a little bit of storage room behind the seats, for a slim laptop case, and a tiny rear boot that will only house a soft weekender bag after a gentle downward shove. However, due to the A110’s rear mid-engined layout, there is also a shallower and wider luggage space at the front that might take a small aircraft carry-on bag or two.

Partly due to its keep-things-simple focus, the outgoing A110 only offers a small hole between the front seats behind your elbow to store a drink – and it’s not really cupholder-shaped – and the old-school USB slots alongside a phone jack underneath the floating centre console make charging modern mobile phones tricky. You’ll need a USB-C converter or a power bank for longer journeys.

Still, the A110 is a fine example of a small petrol sports car that does just what it should: turn heads, rev sweetly, propel you forward with confidence and aplomb and handle brilliantly – while putting a big smile on your face (and that of most people who see it). With only 40 or so left in UK dealers at the time of writing, plus a few more around the world, now could be a great time to invest.

It’s not the last A110, though. The next one, due in 2027, will be an all-electric two-seater coupé followed by a 2+2-seat version. With Villain involved in its design and Alpine’s engineers promising a still-low (if slightly higher) kerb weight, we’re hopefully confident the racing spirit of this car will not be lost.

Alpine has motorsport provenance in spades, both historically and now. Its A424 is competing in its final season of the World Endurance Championship – within which the 24 hours of Le Mans race is the most famous round – and its drivers performed decently in the mid-June race, finishing sixth and tenth in the Hypercar category.

Alpine is still involved in Formula 1 too, where it is currently underperforming but future-focusing its racing efforts, due to F1’s greater standing as the pinnacle of motorsport and the related larger (social) media attention. In the last few weeks Alpine announced that, from the 2027 season, its cars will race under a new name – ‘Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team’.

This headline sponsorship would suggest the world-famous Italian luxury fashion house finds Alpine as credible as those Le Mans fans lining the French auto routes. And the vehicle should look spectacular in Gucci’s iconic colours.

In an automotive world where so many historic brands have lost their way, Alpine seems like a great example of a marque with a compelling story past, present and future – and its management is spending time and resources to tell it convincingly.

Literally the last public interaction I had, while filling up the A110 at a random London petrol station before its collection by Alpine, was with a very regular elderly gentleman pulling in to pump up his car’s tyres and saying, unprompted, ‘What a beautiful car.’ He’s right. It is, in every sense.

Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars

One of Airbus’ five BelugaST aircraft has been moved from the company’s industrial flight line to the Aeroscopia Museum in Toulouse, ending a working life that began in 1995. The aircraft, an A300-600ST registered as F-GSTD, will become a permanent exhibit at the museum, joining Concorde, the Super Guppy and the A380.

Airbus’s BelugaST joins Toulouse’s aviation hall of fame

Developed to replace the Super Guppy, the BelugaST became one of the most recognisable aircraft in commercial aviation. Its bulbous upper fuselage, short cockpit section and rounded nose gave it the unmistakable profile of a beluga whale – a resemblance Airbus leaned into with the aircraft’s name. For aviation enthusiasts, it has long occupied a special place in the spotting hierarchy: not the fastest, rarest or most glamorous aircraft, but one of the most rewarding to see.

The aircraft was built for a specific job: carrying wings, fuselage sections and other large components between Airbus sites across Europe. The fleet helped support the company’s move towards higher production levels, with each aircraft able to carry a payload of 40 tonnes – roughly the weight of an adult humpback whale.

Aircraft F-GSTD turned 27 years old on 18 December 2025. Its arrival at Aeroscopia follows Airbus’ announcement earlier this year that the BelugaST fleet would be retired. From mid-2027, component transport will be handled solely by the larger BelugaXL fleet, which already serves 11 Airbus sites around Europe.

The aircraft’s career extended beyond Airbus logistics. In 1997, a BelugaST set a world record for the largest payload carried by air, transporting a chemical tank for a merchant ship. Two years later, another aircraft in the fleet carried Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People from Paris to Tokyo. The BelugaST was also used to transport the Columbus module for the International Space Station, large telecommunications satellites and, in 2003, three Airbus Helicopters rotorcraft on a 25-hour charter flight to Melbourne.

aeroscopia.fr

13 Rue François Sibilli has seemingly become the epicentre of Saint-Tropez’s summer social circuit. Two stone pillars, each bearing a discreet Dior medallion, open onto a herringbone brick path that heralds a sprawling manifestation of the maison’s universe, luring in both ritzy passersby and those with weeks-in-advance bookings. Here, the majestic boutique – with its pale blue shutters and ivy-clad façade presiding over the whole scene – showcases the latest creations by Jonathan Anderson alongside Riviera-inspired pieces.

Meanwhile, a chic café, open all year round and offering a delectable afternoon tea experience, faces a lush scene punctuated by a colourful stone totem by Swiss sculptor Ugo Rondinone and a carp-shaped gilt bronze sculpture by French visual artist François-Xavier Lalanne.

A new chapter in Dior’s Saint-Tropez story

New for this season is Monsieur Dior, a restaurant helmed by three-Michelin-starred Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur fame as a tribute to the late couturier. Its entrance is discreetly concealed, tucked into a garden beside the boutique where lavender, sunpatiens and cape plumbago grow freely, and the scent of jasmine drifts through the air. The setting is open to the sky, shaded by cream parasols with frilled golden edges and anchored by rattan details echoing Dior’s cannage motif: a geometric pattern of interlacing squares and diagonals.

Colagreco is no stranger to cooking in dialogue with the maison. The first iteration of Dior by Mauro Colagreco opened in Bangkok as a café in 2024, within a Dior boutique infused with Thai craftsmanship and flavours such as pandan and coconut. Saint-Tropez is its Mediterranean counterpart. To prepare for this collaboration, Colagreco spent a week in Paris, fully immersing himself in the Dior museum and the archive with a research team that included anthropologists, artists, writers and ethnobotanists alongside his cooks.

‘It made us leave our creative process,’ he tells me, from one of the café’s deep wicker armchairs. ‘In general, we take an ingredient or a culinary technique. Here it was a dress, a way of thinking of Monsieur Dior.’ Among the most unexpected discoveries: a cookbook. ‘Christian Dior cooked, and cooked with conviction. His recipes revealed more about the man’s sensibility – a love of simplicity, an attentiveness to quality – than any archive photograph could.’

Beyond their shared passion for gardens, the deeper connection is celestial. Christian Dior consulted astrologers before each collection, carried talismans and read the tarot. Colagreco, meanwhile, has farmed biodynamically for years – his calendars at Mirazur are determined not by season alone but by lunar cycles. When he began reading about Dior’s beliefs, something clicked into place. ‘The cosmic influence on the plants is one of the bases of the biodynamic techniques we use at Mirazur,’ he says. ‘It is much more known in winemaking than in agriculture. We follow a lunar calendar to grow our produce.’

The menus follow the rhythm of the day. Breakfast ranges from the pared-back Lever de Soleil to the more generous Rosée du Matin and Éveil Gourmand, centred on artisan breads, seasonal fruit and eggs cooked to order. Lunch is served as the three-course Déjeuner de Soleil, while dinner takes the form of the five-course Clair de Lune. Most ingredients arrive from Colagreco’s biodynamic orchards and vegetable gardens in Menton within 48 hours of harvest.

When I ask Colagreco what he would serve Monsieur Dior first, were he to be seated here with us, his eyes light up. ‘The Champ de Trèfle,’ he says without hesitation: a tartare of red Sicilian gamberoni with lime and wood sorrel, the scattered leaves standing in for the four-leaf clover Monsieur Dior never left home without.

At breakfast, the Casse-croûte truffé combines flaky brioche with a softly set egg, jasmine-infused cream and shaved summer truffle. The Mediterranean John Dory, wrapped in a zucchini flower and served in a saffron sauce (dubbed Drapé de Soleil), is among the menu’s standouts. During my visit, a special of Poisson Mille-Fleurs – the menu changes every three weeks – arrived covered in petals and herbs, assembled with the precision of couture embroidery.

The attention to detail extends to the smallest gestures: amuse-bouches served in rose petals, desserts finished with insect-shaped golden chocolates. The references are deliberate. Throughout his career, Christian Dior returned repeatedly to the garden as a source of inspiration, weaving flowers, leaves and insects into his collections. At Monsieur Dior, Colagreco translates those same motifs onto the plate.

The cocktail list continues the narrative. Jardin d’Étoiles, a pear and fig leaf cordial, references Christian Dior’s belief in fate and the lucky star he carried throughout his life, while Brume Marine is built around passion fruit and tomato distillate, drawing on Saint-Tropez and the couturier’s enduring relationship with the Riviera.

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Colagreco what he most enjoys growing in Menton. The answer is not fruit or vegetables, but trees. ‘When you plant a tree, you plant it not for yourself, but for everyone that comes after you.’

Monsieur Dior by Mauro Colagreco is located at 13 Rue François Sibilli, 83990 Saint-Tropez, France

Since founding We Are Ona in 2019, Luca Pronzato (winner of a Wallpaper* Design Award in 2025) has amassed a reputation around impermanence. The Paris-based entrepreneur has spent the past seven years staging nomadic dining experiences across the world, bringing together chefs, artists, designers and cultural figures for events that exist for a matter of days – sometimes only hours – before disappearing again.

Among the most memorable was a collaboration with artist Carsten Höller’s Stockholm restaurant Brutalisten during Art Basel Paris 2024, where a menu of radically stripped-back dishes transformed a former railway station, with the monochromatic interiors matching the brutalist influences of the food. His next venture? It goes beyond one-nighters.

Tour the modernist house reimagining hospitality in Arles

Casa Ideale marks Pronzato’s first move into longer-form hospitality. Conceived as a hybrid between a private house, cultural residency, exhibition space and culinary destination, the project extends the collaborative universe of We Are Ona beyond the temporary event format on which it was built.

‘There is something very powerful about gathering people for a moment that only exists once,’ says Pronzato. ‘However, after years of travelling and creating projects around the world, I felt the desire to build something with a longer horizon.’

That ambition found a home in Villa Bank, one of two organic villas designed by architect Émile Sala in the early 1970s and recognised by the French Ministry of Culture as Architecture Contemporaine Remarquable. Spanning 350 sq m, the sculptural residence unfolds through a sequence of curved volumes and south-facing spaces that establish a symbiotic dialogue between architecture, landscape and daily life.

‘What I enjoyed most was taking the time to understand Sala’s original vision and thinking about how it could resonate today,’ he explains. ‘Rather than transforming it completely, the process was about listening to the architecture.’

The interiors were developed by Pronzato and his partner, fashion insider Clara Cornet, who approached the villa as an inhabited environment rather than a conventional interior design project. Pieces from their personal collection sit alongside works sourced with gallerist Luna Laffanour and her Paris-based design platform Downtown+.

The resulting mix spans post-war French design, radical Italian experimentation and contemporary practice, bringing together pieces by Pierre Chapo, Jean Prouvé, Philippe Starck, Gaetano Pesce and Henri Bataille.

This philosophy is further reflected in Casa Ideale’s multidisciplinary cultural programme. Opening during the first week of the annual summer photography festival Les Rencontres d’Arles in July 2026, an exhibition developed with Fondazione Sozzani will bring 67 works from the Carla Sozzani Collection into Villa Bank’s domestic setting.

Curated by Maddalena Scarzella, the presentation draws on more than five decades of photography assembled by the polymathic journalist, publisher and founder of 10 Corso Como, spanning fashion imagery, portraiture, reportage and still life. Installed throughout the house, the works create what Pronzato describes as a series of ‘rooms of vision’ and will remain on view for six months by appointment.

During the opening period, from 1-10 July, Villa Bank’s five suites will be available to book individually, while Portuguese chef Gil Nogueira, known for his bold, fire-driven cuisine and who earned a Michelin Green Star at Le Garde Champêtre, will lead a gastronomic experience open to both guests and the public. Outside this period, from mid-May to October, Casa Ideale is available for exclusive private hire, accommodating up to ten guests across five suites. Half-board is included, while a full-board option features meals prepared on site by a private chef.

‘Hospitality has always been about more than food or accommodation,’ Pronzato adds. ‘It is about creating cultural environments where people can connect, discover and feel inspired.’

As for what’s next, additional Casa Ideale locations are already in development, with future sites expected to respond to their own architectural, cultural and geographical contexts. The ambition is to build a collection of houses shaped by culture, design and hospitality rather than a network of conventional hospitality destinations.

As Pronzato puts it: ‘Art is not something separate from hospitality; it becomes part of how people experience a place.’

Casa Ideale opens from mid-May to October. Rooms are available from €600 per night via We Are Ona, while exclusive hire of Villa Bank starts from €3,000 per night with a three-night minimum stay. The Fondazione Sozzani exhibition opens during the first week of Les Rencontres d’Arles and remains accessible by appointment.

The creative season in the south of France commences for 2026. From Aix-en-Provence to Marseille, Saint-Tropez to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, experience the luminosity, delicacy, heritage conversations, sensuality and organic nature of contemporary regional design. Discover French icons of the 20th century, Pierre Paulin and Jean Prouvé. Lose yourself in the dense atmospheres of photographer François Halard and the idealism of Victor Vasarely; then find fresh and emerging inspiration in the annual Design Parade that celebrates a special anniversary this year.

10 design highlights in the south of France this summer

‘Childhood Memories’ at Une Maison à Saint-Tropez

Interior designer Isabelle Castanier invites 20 designers into her childhood home in Saint-Tropez to salute the generations of children who have grown up in the 18th-century Provençal house. A series of playful tableaux tells stories of sandcastles, sweet dreams and sticky fingers through textiles by Sarah Espeute, trumeau mirrors by Sébastien Gafari, cast aluminium treasures by Axel Chay, and many more delights from the likes of India Mahdavi and Linde Freya Tangelder. Each Thursday evening, the exhibition spills out onto the Place des Lices, showcasing collectible design between games of pétanque and glasses of lemonade.

6 June-31 July 2026
Une Maison à Saint-Tropez, 17 Avenue Foch, 83990 Saint-Tropez

Olivia Cognet, ‘Inhabiting the Landscape House’ at Dragon Hill

This summer, Vallauris-based sculptor-designer Olivia Cognet inhabits the organic Dragon Hill house designed by French architect Jacques Couëlle in the 1960s with a domestic landscape of works that respond to its cavities, recesses and irregular volumes. Just like Couëlle, Cognet seeks to dissolve the boundary between the body and space: there’s a vast sofa made in collaboration with Lyon upholsterer Degut, and a garden seating space of monolithic furniture that blends function and decoration. Dragon Hill and its sculpture park, found in the hills above Cannes, comprise a private residence; it can occasionally be visited by appointment, subject to availability (visit requests may be sent to hello@dragonhill.fr).

13 May-November 2026
Dragon Hill Residence, Castellaras le Neuf, 06730 Mouans-Sartoux

‘Project for a revolution’ at the Vasarely Foundation

In honour of the 50th anniversary of Op art pioneer Victor Vasarely’s ‘Architecture Center’ in Aix-en-Provence, inaugurated in 1976, Fondation Vasarely charts the building’s genesis and ambitions in an exhibition in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou. Archival materials chart its conceptual origins in the Bauhaus; Vasarely’s urban integrations in Caracas in 1954; and his ‘Polychrome City of Happiness’ thesis, as well as contemporaneous projects of Yona Friedman’s ‘Spatial City’ and André Bloc’s Habitable Sculptures.

12 June-1 November 2026
Fondation Vasarely, Jas de Bouffan, 13090 Aix-en-Provence

François Halard at Gallifet

More than 100 photographs by French photographer François Halard capture his quest for beauty through the materiality of interiors, the depths of memories and fragments of ancient architecture. Titled ‘Ne rien jeter, 33 ans après’, the exhibition traces an archive of studio visits to Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg and Carlo Mollino, pilgrimages to Casa Malaparte and Giverny, and the physicality of image-making from hotel darkrooms to painted layers.

This year, Gallifet’s summer season brings the culinary residency of Lisa Desforges and Bruno Hammerle, who worked together at l’Ami Jean in Paris and now reunite to craft spontaneous hyper-local menus for the courtyard restaurant beneath century-old chestnut trees.

6 March-27 September 2026
Gallifet, 52 rue Cardinale, 13100 Aix-en-Provence

‘Movement Architecture Community’ at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse

This summer, the non-profit gallery inside Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille spotlights the work of Australian photographer Adrian Meško, who was born in the former Czechoslovakia. Specifically, his documentation of (La)Horde, the contemporary dance collective with whom he embedded during the pandemic, documenting their rituals, choreographies and architectural inhabitation. Through the lens of Meško and the corporeal expression of (La)Horde, the exhibition explores the intersection of movement, queer politics and Modernist built environments that can both constrain and emancipate.

10 July-22 August 2026
Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Third floor, Unité d’Habitation, 280 Boulevard Michelet, 13008 Marseille

Victor Siret and Arnaud Eubelen at La Traverse

First up this summer at La Traverse – a destination for creative happenings in Marseille’s Malmousque neighbourhood – is a solo show by artist Victor Siret, who adopted the French port city as his home in 2022. His embroidered canvases depict Marseille permeated by American motifs, as a desert-like fever dream of flattened buildings, signs and slogans visually informed by films and video games. Later in the summer, Brussels-based designer Arnaud Eubelen, who works ‘in the no man's land between sculpture and design’, reappropriates industrial materials to rewire their value, as part of a boutique-style exhibition for reading, exploring objects and listening to music.

Victor Siret: 14 May-4 July 2026 / Arnaud Eubelen: 11 July-26 September 2026
La Traverse, 16 Traverse Sainte-Hélène, 13007 Marseille

Design Parade

In 2026, the annual festival ‘Design Parade’ celebrates a double anniversary: 20 years of its product design competition and ten years of its interior design counterpart. Under the artistic direction of Julie Liger, this special edition takes over the entire 1920s Villa Noailles for the first time – where exhibitions of the ten finalists of both categories will be judged by two esteemed juries chaired by Sofia Lagerkvidt and Anna Lindgren of Front Design studio (product design) and Laura Gonzalez (interior design). The atmosphere further expands with scenographies by Joachim Jirou Najou; showcases by previous winners Thomas Takada, Simon Dupety and Malo Gagliardini; and ‘20+10: Design Parade Generation(s)’, a retrospective of Design Parade curated by David Giroire.

25 June-30 August 2026
Villa Noailles, 47 Mont de Noailles, 83400 Hyères, France

Pierre Paulin at the Musée Fabre

In Montpellier, the Musée Fabre presents a major retrospective of designer Pierre Paulin (1927-2009). In the context of post-war 20th-century French design, the exhibition reviews key milestones and iconic creations such as the ‘Mushroom’ chair (1960), ‘Ribbon’ chair (1966) and ‘Tongue’ chair (1967), which, once avant-garde, are now considered ‘classics’ of modernity. Working during the ‘Glorious Thirty’, Paulin blended Nordic and American influences, with fluid forms and an awareness of pop culture and aspirational lifestyles. Visitors can explore the ‘Élysée Smoking Room’, presented for the first time outside Paris since its restoration, and an immersive experience by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin and Sounds Like Paulin.

27 June-1 November 2026
Musée Fabre, 39 Bd Bonne Nouvelle, 34000 Montpellier

Paulin, Paulin, Paulin at Hauser & Wirth Monaco

Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, the Paris-based design studio expanding the legacy of Pierre Paulin, has curated a setting of furniture and art titled ‘Mise-en-scène’ that is in situ for the summer at Hauser & Wirth Monaco. Musical activations curated in collaboration with Sounds Like Paulin, the record label founded by Benjamin and Alice Paulin, will surround the ‘Déclive n°3’ recliner in orange; the geometric ‘Video Barnum’ seating with integrated speakers; and the modular ‘Chirac’ sofa alongside works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder and Rashid Johnson. Available to visit by appointment, the scene recontextualises Pierre Paulin’s heritage as a ‘living force’ for exchange in the vision of Paulin, Paulin, Paulin.

9 April-31 August 2026
Hauser & Wirth Monaco, One Monte-Carlo, Place du Casino, 98000 Monaco

Jean Prouvé at Fondation CAB

Paris-based 20th-century design specialist François Laffanour curates a selection of works by French architect, builder and designer Jean Prouvé, centring around the innovative ‘Coque’ and ‘Métropole’ prefabricated houses originally designed in Meudon. Their designs can be explored through photographic archives from the 1930s and dynamic architectural elements, presented alongside furniture including the ‘Cité’ bed, ‘Compas’ table, ‘Standard’ chair, ‘Antony’ armchair and ‘Marcoule’ bench. Step outside into the gardens to see one of Prouvé’s 6×6m demountable homes, and don’t miss the parallel exhibition of American artists Nassos Daphnis and Rita McBride.

14 March-31 October 2026
Fondation CAB Saint-Paul-de-Vence, chemin des Trious, 5766 Saint-Paul-de-Vence

Also read: Stay in Jean Prouvé’s 6x6 demountable house at Fondation CAB in south-east France

Aficionados of concrete construction will surely recognise the brutalist architecture of Étoiles d’Ivry. This monumental apartment building in the Parisian suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine was designed in 1975 by architects Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie, a sprawling complex of stepped terraces and jaunty angles, with a relentless palette of concrete offset by a vivid planting scheme.

Explore this brutalist duplex for sale

In fact, it’s as a piece of green urbanism that the scheme is usually remembered, rather than as an intimidating example of brutalism at its least human. The complex was under construction from 1971 to 1981, during which time Renaudie died and the late Gailhoustet (who died in 2023) completed the scheme.

Gailhoustet was a rare woman architect in post-war France, but her work has more than stood the test of time. Living in Ivry-sur-Seine until her death, she had worked in the town since 1969, when she was appointed Chief Architect for the renovation of the city centre.

As well as winning the 2022 Architecture Prize from the Royal Academy of Arts in London, specifically for her contribution to social housing in Franc, she was also awarded the French Ministry of Culture’s Lifetime Achievement Award later that year.

This modest 55.6 sq m sits on the top floor of the Marat building, one of 40 interlocking housing units that make up the complex along with office spaces, stores, a school and more. As well as two small sleeping spaces on the upper level (originally designed as a single bedroom), the duplex includes a study area and office on a half-landing, with the main living spaces on the entrance floor, reached via a sculptural staircase.

Here you’ll find a living room, lounge and dining area, as well as a compact kitchen and access to the 20 sq m terrace, complete with mature trees and views across the rest of the apartments. The apartment also comes with its own garage area. Ivry-sur-Seine has direct access to central Paris in 20 minutes thanks to the Line 7 metro and the RER C Line.

Gailhoustet and Renaudie’s vision was for mass housing integrated into the heart of the city centre, not isolated towers with no ground floor facilities. The buildings that make up the Étoiles d’Ivry complex all take a stepped, ziggurat-style approach, with a modular triangular grid system create a sense of consistency across the whole project.

From the balconies and terraces, down to ground floor planters, passageways and public areas, the whole complex remains an intriguing and inviting urban landscape.

This free approach to planning also plays out in the apartments themselves, which revel in unconventional plans and unexpected nooks and crannies.

The duplex is available from Architecture de Collection, priced at €315,000, for more information visit ArchitecturedeCollection.fr, @ArchitecturedeCollection

Last summer, Burberry took over The Newt in Somerset for a celebration of the ‘great British summer’. Cue sun loungers, golf buggies and a hot air balloon in the British fashion house’s signature check – even the 2,000-acre Somerset estate’s manicured croquet lawn had been cut into the motif.

For summer 2026, Burberry is heading further afield, leaving behind the fickle British climate (The Newt takeover ran with the playful tagline, ‘whatever the weather’), and heading towards the sun-soaked shoreline of the south of France. There, creative director Daniel Lee has put his stamp on the historic Hôtel Belle Rives in Antibes, just along the coastline from Cannes on the Côte d'Azur.

Burberry takes over Hôtel Belle Rives for summer

Founded in 1929, the art deco landmark began life as a guest house before being expanded into the current hotel, with early guests including F Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote part of his final novel Tender Is the Night at the then-Villa St Louis. Retaining much of its original 1920s decor, Hôtel Belle Rives – which features the Michelin-starred La Passagère and Fitzgerald Bar – is perhaps most notable for its terrace and jetty, where guests can sunbathe or swim in the Mediterranean waters.

It is here, in the ‘beach club’, that Burberry’s influence is most felt, its sun loungers and parasols reimagined in navy blue Burberry check, evocative of Hôtel Belle Rives’ signature hue. The motif also features across the hotel’s interiors – including with the original 1920s lift – while custom ‘Burberry Cap d’Antibes’ logos replace the jetty’s signage, as well as appearing across the back of the terrace’s deck chairs.

Elsewhere, expect Burberry-branded ice lollies, as well as a roster of activities organised by the house across the summer, including jetskiing, which was purportedly invented in Juan-les-Pins in the 1930s (Hôtel Belle Rives is situated in the historic resort, one of the various holiday spots on the Cap d’Antibes).

It is one of the various initiatives from the British house, which is perhaps most associated with the drizzly autumn and winter months, to put its stamp on the summer season. These also include a collaboration with swimwear label Hunza G (first founded in 1984, it was relaunched by Georgiana Huddart in 2015 and has developed a cult following), as well as a Ryan McGinley-shot High Summer campaign starring Simone Ashley and Tom Blyth at a British lido, a traditional outdoor swimming pool.

‘A lido holds a particular kind of nostalgia for the British,’ Lee said at the time. ‘The moment the sun comes out, we make the most of the weather. We wanted to bring to life a warm summer’s day spent in and around the water with friends.’

Burberry’s Hôtel Belle Rives takeover runs until 30 September 2026.

Hôtel Belles Rives, 33 Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, 06160 Antibes, France.

burberry.com

‘Qui est “in”? Qui est “out”?’ sang Serge Gainsbourg in his 1966 song of the same name. His lyrics immortalised the Bus Palladium as the epicentre of Paris nightlife, name-checking the ‘little guys from Liverpool’ and the explosive energy of Rue Fontaine. Opened in 1965 by 22-year-old bebop dancer James Arch, the club democratised live music by running shuttle buses to the suburbs – hence the name ‘Le Bus.’ It became, as Jane Birkin described it, a ‘mental laboratory’: a place where long-haired beatniks and suburban teenagers could rub shoulders with models and rock stars, where you could expect the unexpected, like bumping into Salvador Dalí leading a panther by a leash, say.

In spring 2026, Pigalle’s paradigmatic icon rises from the ashes, not just as a club, but as a boutique hotel. Thanks to an extensive makeover by Chapitre Six Hotels, the building has gained five new storeys, a sleek bar and restaurant and 35 vintage-inspired rooms, making it arguably the 9th arrondissement’s coolest stay.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hôtel Bus Palladium, Paris

What’s on your doorstep?

Once-gritty Pigalle has been the beating heart of Parisian nightlife since the 1800s. Though it was long a neighbourhood of ill-repute – a former red-light district where the main drag is still lined with neon sex shops and the iconic Moulin Rouge – today’s Pigalle is more chic than seedy. It is a neighbourhood in the midst of a bold transformation, and has been rapidly evolving into one of the most stylish corners of the city. To get a feel for it, head to Le Mansart, a 1950s-style café that’s permanently packed with locals and perfect for people-watching over a coffee or a beer. Fittingly for such a music-oriented stay, the Phono Museum is also on your doorstep and traces 140 years of sound recording history.

If you’re craving culture, the Musée de la Vie Romantique is a must, tucked away at the foot of Montmartre and housed in a charming green-shuttered villa. With a secret garden, a tearoom, and an impressive collection of romantic works, it captures the artistic spirit of 19th-century Paris. As for wining and dining, Pink Mamma is famous for its truffle pasta and rooftop views, Le Bon Georges offers a quintessential bistro experience, and Monkey Pigalle is a go-to for high-energy cocktails. For something more upmarket, seek out Onyx, a contemporary neo-brasserie delivering elevated French fare infused with global influences.

Who’s behind the design?

Having welcomed everyone from Jagger to The Beatles, Téléphone and Dalí, Paris-based Studio KO was tasked with reviving not just a building but a slice of musical history. Having previously tackled London’s Chiltern Firehouse and the iconic Yves Saint Lauren museum in Marrakech, the studio’s founders, Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, are accustomed to working on sites that possess a unique sense of place. With Le Bus, they sought to balance heritage with high-end hospitality, honouring the club's long and legendary history by preserving its sensual and hedonistic atmosphere.

Though the club previously topped out at just two storeys, the duo added five floors during their four-year renovation, offering the space a new city-gazing rooftop with views to Sacré-Cœur and the Palais Garnier. Inside, the duo employed cork walls, bare ceilings and Afghan-style carpets in a nod to 1960s recording studios. The project is also overseen by artistic director, model and producer Caroline de Maigret, who chose the hotel’s signature amber-noted scent, dressed the staff in chic denim and corduroy uniforms and curated playlists which play in each room.

What are the standout design elements?

Studio KO’s rock-n-roll homage manifests long before you’ve entered your room. The club’s original red neon sign lights up the building’s new façade, which bears the imprint of the old lower-slung building, rendered in a sandy concrete mixed on-site to harmonise with the surrounding Haussmann-era stone. Inside, spaces reverberate with a dissonance that recalls the club’s storied clientele, as Velvet Goldmine-esque glamour rubs up against brutalist touches. Metal grating ceilings you’d typically find on technical runways and thick concrete walls are punctuated by Lynchian red velvet curtains and kaleidoscopic carpets.

The restaurant is arranged around a striking terrarium filled with wild ferns, and tables are lit by geometric pendant lights. Spotlights cast a theatrical glow along the corridors, illuminating witty touches such as door handles fashioned from microphone stems and vintage-style ‘On-Air’ sliders that signal either a request for service or a red ne pas déranger. Rooms lean into a 1970s style, with tulip coffee tables, salmon-pink carpets, mustard cord drapes and Bauhaus ‘SF 28’ hemisphere table lamps.

The room to book

No two rooms are alike. Entrusted to L’Œil de KO (Studio KO’s art gallery) and antiques dealer Antoine Billore, each is curated with unique artworks and vintage curiosities. Soundproofed walls, glass-enclosed bathrooms, and raw concrete ceilings remain constant, while most also feature cork-clad walls and headboards – a nod to Paris’ convalescent prodigy, Marcel Proust (the writer lined his bedroom walls with cork, combatting noise and allergy-aggravating dust), but also to 1960s recording studios. Bathrooms pop with electric blue tiling and Hollywood-style mirrors, while minibars are stocked with cocktails to mix yourself, craft beers, and an artisan selection of spirits. Which room to book depends on your priorities: if a place to lay your head is all you need, the small Supérieure is fine, though the integrated banquette and central table in my Deluxe Suite made it perfectly functional as a workspace. Those looking for a bathtub should opt for the Prestige Room, while the Suite Terrasse is the choice for those seeking outdoor access.

The headline act, however, is the Dalí Suite. At 70 sq m, it is the hotel’s largest, overlooking the street and the iconic red neon sign from its private balcony. The decor is full-throttle retro-futurism, anchored by a tangerine circular rug and a cognac leather De Sede banquette sofa that curves along its perimeter. It is a fluid, Kubrick-esque space featuring a glass-encased black marble bathroom that floats like a spaceship in the corner of the room. A Murphy bed – which can be folded away to transform the suite into a green room for touring musicians – is flanked by mirrored walls and a leopard-print headboard, and the space is peppered with midcentury design icons, from the black leather ‘Apollo’ lounge chair by Illum Wikkelsø to the brass-topped Henge ‘Galaxy’ coffee table.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The restaurant is helmed by young Marseillais chef Valentin Raffali, a Top Chef France alum who brings an ethical, zero-waste philosophy to the table, ditching imported salmon for Basque Country trout and smoking his own bacon on-site. His eclectic, seasonal cuisine feels right at home here with inventive pairings like smoked white asparagus with Mara des Bois strawberries, pooled in a savoury chicken sauce that masterfully counteracts the fruit's sweetness. For mains, flavour-packed Gallic classics like vol-au-vent sit beside langoustine slathered in a spicy XO sauce. My dessert was a nostalgic chocolate mousse served in a vintage silver coupe and crowned with a single, lipstick-red cherry – almost too pretty to eat.

For breakfast, guests can choose a continental spread or upgrade to the Palladium option. The latter is worth it for the hash browns alone – served like thick-cut fries with a dipping sauce of creamy Gwell Breton cheese – though the pastries are also a revelation: oversized, flaky, and butter-soft, baked to perfection by Stéphanie Le Quellec.

The sustainable ambition extends to the bar, where all tonics, syrups, and cordials are made in-house. There are six signature cocktails alongside all the classics and a particularly well-considered mocktail list. The Chaussan, named after a legendary host of the original Le Bus, who ensured the club’s night-owl suburbanites got home safely, is a particular highlight: subtle, elegant, bubblegum pink and made with olive oil syrup, lemon juice, tomato liquor and basil-infused vodka. Grab a seat and on Thursday through to Saturday, live DJs spin in the restaurant, where the soundtrack is dictated by a formidable vinyl collection – half belonging to Bus Palladium’s original founder James Arch, the other to Jean-Charles Dupuy, the reigning 'King' of Parisian nightlife. Grab a seat at the bar to soak it all in, accompanied perhaps by a silver tower of pre-gig pommes frites.

Where to switch off

One doesn’t come to Le Bus to switch off, but rather to switch on. Though the rooms themselves are peaceful, the lower ground floor cranks up the volume, placing the storied concert hall at the very heart of the experience. Lionel Bensemoun, known for iconic venues like Le Baron and La Mano, acts as the head of programming, overseeing a varied roster of live acts from cabaret to film screenings, music and dance. His ambition is to foster the same sense of inclusivity as Arch did when he first opened the club, a task he deems extra important given the area’s gentrification. The layout remains faithful to the original club, but KO has added a hint of theatrics with a Persian-style carpeting covering the walls, silver lamé curtains, a smoking room decked in stainless steel and a mammoth disco ball hanging over it all.

The verdict

The eyeliner-smudged glamour of bygone days gets a second chance at Bus Palladium, a place that seems at once out of time and firmly of the present thanks to clever, sensual interiors by Studio KO. The food is inventive, the rooms are sexy and the staff are bracingly cool and brimming with joie de vivre. Given how busy it was during its opening week, I’d say the locals agree.

Hôtel Bus Palladium is located at 6 Rue Pierre Fontaine, 75009 Paris, France

For city dwellers, silence and solitude are a luxury. That burning desire to escape civilisation is a shared experience, surfacing the moment you step into a sensory-overloading mode of transport. It’s hard not to be lured by the idea of a change of scenery on a daily basis. In recent years, hospitality has leaned into this instinct; we've seen hotels expand their portfolios with sprawling villas and private residences. It’s a winning formula: combining the calm of a private home with the unrivalled allure of five-star service.

We’ve rounded up our favourite retreats, not only for their astonishing design and architecture, but for their generous sense of space, to inspire your next escape. It won’t take much convincing, though.

8 of the best design-led villas to rent this season

Amanoi Ocean Pool Residence (Vietnam)

In a secluded coastal area within Vietnam’s Núi Chúa National Park, a Unesco Biosphere Reserve an hour’s flight north-east of Ho Chi Minh City, Amanoi has been (like its name indicates) a ‘place of peace’ for over a decade. Last year (2025), the Jean-Michel Gathy-designed property began a tony new chapter with the unveiling of its 9,957 sq ft gracious Amanoi Ocean Pool Residence, featuring not only a private beach but also its own spa house. Accommodating up to eight guests, the architectural feat can be configured with two or three contemporary bedrooms, subtly camouflaged amid the lush, rugged surroundings. With a fully stocked minibar, daily champagne afternoon tea and other complimentary experiences such as a private barbecue, a Vietnamese cultural dinner, and a nightly movie screening by the pool with popcorn and ice cream, being a homebody may never feel this good again.

Amanoi is located at Commune, Vĩnh Hy, Vĩnh Hải, Khánh Hòa, Vietnam

Read our full review of Amanoi’s Ocean Pool Residence

.Here

Perched on a long sandbank within the Baa Atoll, a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve, .Here takes the Maldivian resort in a more private, design-led direction, unfolding as Somewhere and Nowhere, two distinct stays with different intentions. Somewhere comprises seven expansive villas, while the soon-to-open Nowhere is reserved for full private hire with just two residences and its own dedicated facilities. Both sit within the Seaside Collection portfolio and are accessed via its sister property Finolhu, by a short boat transfer along the connecting sandbank. Rather than separating beach and overwater villas, the residences at Somewhere span the width of the sandbank, combining both in a single footprint. Guests can also choose to linger at Safar, the resort’s only restaurant and bar.

.Here is located at Kanufushi, Baa Atoll, 21002, Maldives

Read our full review of .Here

Magugu Suite at Mount Nelson (South Africa)

A couple of months ago, South African fashion designer Thebe Magugu, who founded his eponymous label in 2016, inaugurated a landmark collaboration with Belmond: the unveiling of the Thebe Magugu Suite and next-door Magugu House, a concept store and cultural space for creative exchange. The secluded two-storey suite unfolds as a visually charged Afro-modernist sanctuary, with views across Lion’s Head, the hotel gardens and Palm Avenue. A palette of invigorating greens, deep indigos, warm neutrals and earthy ochres anchors the space. Guests staying here can enjoy the wider amenities and facilities of Cape Town’s legendary ‘Pink Lady,’ from its two pools, tennis courts and a spa housed inside a trio of restored Victorian heritage homes.

Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, is located at 76 Orange St, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

Read our full review of Magugu Suite

Santani (Sri Lanka)

Around an hour’s drive from Sri Lanka’s sacred city of Kandy sits Santani, the country’s leading wellness retreat designed by two-time winner of the Geoffrey Bawa Award for Excellence in Architecture, Thisara Thanapathy. Spanning 48 acres of hilly terrain, Santani’s paradisical grounds are cut through by the Hulu River, where daily swims are encouraged. This hilltop sanctuary recently added two villas to its esteemed lineup: a two-bedroom suite and a three-bedroom residence featuring self-contained kitchens, indoor and outdoor lounge spaces, and individual private infinity pools overlooking far-reaching valleys and pristine forests. Both structures utilise natural ventilation through careful design that eliminates the need for air conditioning. The result? Pure silence.

Santani is located at Arantenna Estate, Werapitiya, 20908, Sri Lanka

Read our full review of the new villas at Santani

Vale Palheiro (Portugal)

The Algarve’s beautifully wild, western corner has been smartening up its act with several new hotels and restaurants. Case in point is Vale Palheiro, an ‘Earth Resort’ designed with character and a real sense of place. The 13-villa property offers suites and casitas, each one different but all with glass-covered log fireplaces and outside spaces. Crowning the ensemble is the duplex Casa Taipa Villa 2, with a shower downstairs within exposed taipa, and a vast micro-cement bath upstairs, where you can wallow watching the shifting colours of the landscape. Guests get a real chance to switch off at Vale Palheiro: There is yoga and massage on request, and a large swimming pool with sun beds around it to while away the time. Its on-site restaurant, offering homespun local delights, is worth lingering in too.

Vale Palheiro Earth Resort is located at Rua Vale Palheiro, 8670-016 Aljezur, Portugal

Read our full review of Vale Palheiro Resort

Villas at Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel (Italy)

Over two decades ago, Massimo Ferragamo, the youngest son of Italian shoe designer Salvatore, and his wife Chiara chose the UNESCO-listed Val d’Orcia Natural Park in Tuscany for their passion project: transforming a 900-year-old country estate into a sensuous resort. Ancient castle ruins, a medieval church, and a borgo painted their perfect picture of a Tuscan paradise. Managed by Rosewood since 2015, the property today comprises 42 suites and 11 freestanding villas, which were restored from abandoned 17th- and 18th-century farmhouses and are dotted across the state. The largest one, Villa Biondi, is surrounded by cypress-lined fairways and includes Italy’s only private golf course. Guests can explore the expansive 5,000-acre property using the in-house Land Rover Defender, which connects various amenities, such as the Brunello di Montalcino winery, two restaurants, a cooking school, a tennis court, vast gardens, a spa, and a set of twin pools.

Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel is located at SP103, 53024 Castiglion del Bosco, Italy

Villas at Mas des Infermières (France)

In 1992, filmmaker Ridley Scott acquired Mas des Infermières, a 35-hectare wine estate in the sun-dappled commune of Oppède. Perched on the edge of a national park, at the foot of the Luberon massif, the estate introduced three rentable design-led villas in 2024. Originally farmhouses, the properties were meticulously restored by Scott alongside lead designers Pia Mclean and Chester Jones, who paid tribute to the region’s creative legacy. Across the residences – the three-bedroom Mas Marcou and Mas Gris, and five-bedroom Chênes Verts – Provençal warmth is conjured through reclaimed terracotta tiles, antique fireplaces salvaged from crumbling castles, and classic swing shutters. Each villa also benefits from its own private pool, outdoor seating and dining areas.

Mas des Infermières is located at 1575 Rte du Four Neuf, 84580 Oppède, France

Read our full review of the villas at Mas des Infermières

Vipp Pavilion (USA)

Danish lifestyle brand Vipp began offering bookable guesthouses around the world over a decade ago, from Denmark and Latvia to Mexico (winner of a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025) and Tasmania. Often located in spectacular remote settings, these retreats are furnished by Vipp and brim with the Scandinavian brand’s signature minimalism. The latest to join the roster is Vipp Pavilion, the group's first US property, located in the Upper Delaware River, a pristine 73-mile ribbon that separates New York state from Pennsylvania. The Johnston Marklee-designed two-bedroom guesthouse may total just 1,200 sq ft, but its clever layout, minimal decor and natural light pouring in through a series of skylights make it feel bright and airy. Naturally, Vipp’s monolithic ‘V3’ kitchen anchors the open-plan living space. There’s no television and no mobile phone reception (though there is WiFi), allowing visitors to completely shut themselves off from the world if they so choose.

Vipp Pavilion is located in Pond Eddy, New York

Read our full review of Vipp Pavilion

Christian Gimonet, who worked quietly in Bourges, a city in France's Loire Valley, for more than half a century, represents his own gentle expression of regional modernism. Throughout his long career, the architect seamlessly integrated his works into the centuries-old built environment of his hometown – his main, and almost only, creative playground.

Tour the work of French architect Christian Gimonet

Located 200km south of Paris, Bourges holds a special place in French history. Inhabited since the Gallic Wars between 58-50 BC, the city flourished during the Middle Ages. With its gothic masterpiece, the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges, at its heart, and half-timbered houses lining its narrow streets, the city still retains much of its historic character, so modern architecture might not be what visitors expect to see in such a context. Nevertheless, a handful of modern and contemporary works can be found, albeit with forms designed to blend perfectly with their period environment.

It is exactly such buildings – ones that mark a departure while also carving a harmonious relationship with their site – that were Gimonet's speciality. Born in 1935, Gimonet developed an interest in architecture during his teenage years, drawn to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto and Le Corbusier. He remembers meeting François Gauchery, then a heritage architect in Bourges, who granted him access to restricted areas of the cathedral. ‘I think I wandered everywhere, inside and out. I saw storms rising on the horizon, and I took refuge there,' Gimonet is quoted as saying by his artist friend Joëlle Chauvin in her memoirs in 2023.

In 1954, Gimonet enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and joined the workshop of Louis Arretche, while following courses led by Jean Prouvé. ‘He developed a lasting passion for Japanese literature and architecture, studying the plans of the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto,' adds Chauvin. Gimonet continued studying in Paris under Paul Bossard and later worked for Roland Simounet in Algeria, before eventually meeting US architect Paul Rudolph in New Haven as part of a university exchange. He then settled down in Bourges in 1966, establishing his own atelier three years later and practising architecture until the late 2010s.

During his career, Gimonet played an important role in changing perspectives on modernism and architecture in general, shining a spotlight on climatic, cultural, urbanistic and environmental debates through his work. ‘Gimonet was one of the first architects in France to focus on the rehabilitation of industrial wastelands and to take a broader interest in ideas of urban heritage,' writes Elke Mittmann, director of the Maison de l'Architecture Centre-Val de Loire in Orléans, in a text to accompany an exhibition on Gimonet she curated in 2023. ‘Taking into account the history of a place, its morphology, and its geology, he opens up an even broader field of work, which Gimonet, following several authors, calls the genius loci. This approach is guided by a growing awareness, over the years, of the issue of sustainable development.'

In 1968, he built Maison Bouriant, a multi-use building in Bourges' historic heart. Its slate-covered pitched roof echoes the vernacular and tops an ingenious plan of commercial and residential areas across seven levels. The main commercial space communicates with the square through large glazing and contains a dramatic three-level showroom, which nods to the spatial influences of Wright and Rudolph. Gimonet's own atelier was located one floor above, and the top three floors served as home for him and his wife Jacqueline. The couple were very interested in the work of the modernist ceramic craftspeople in the nearby village of La Borne. Among them, Jean Lerat was a frequent collaborator, with his ceramic works appearing in several of Gimonet's projects, including his own apartment, where the kitchen counter's richly hued ceramic tiles complement the austerity of the concrete fireplace.

Decorating the space with a giant Isamu Noguchi ‘Akari' lamp and Mies van der Rohe ‘Barcelona' chairs, Gimonet embraced an organic sensibility, remembering some of his favourite sources of inspiration, including Wright and Aalto. Following Gimonet's death in 2023, Jacqueline gifted the apartment and its contents to the city of Bourges with the intention it be restored and opened as a cultural centre. Gimonet's designs merge seamlessly with their setting, creating a bridge between old and new, natural and human-made, and this can be witnessed in many of his projects in Bourges. However, an apartment building that he designed on the corner of Rue Bourdaloue and Rue Mac Donald, built in 1967, shows his experimentation with more radical modernist forms, though it's still in discreet cohabitation with the surrounding modest urban scale. Inside, the entrance hall is adorned with a series of ceramic totems created by Lerat.

For Le Dunois, an apartment building completed in 1977, Gimonet used a more contextual approach. A pitched roof and slate coverings mimic nearby buildings, while the entrance is dominated by a typographic mosaic, created by Gimonet, and a sculpture by Bernard Delagrange. More sensitively designed works across town include apartment buildings on Rue Bourbonnoux (1979) and a house on Place Planchart (2011). Later in his career, Gimonet also took an interest in social housing and low-cost schemes, resulting in a design for 34 houses near a golf club (2001) and the conversion of a former alderman's house on Place

Saint-Bonnet (2002), as well as row houses on Rue Heurtault de Lamerville (2006). ‘Working with the city services, he campaigned against uncontrolled urban sprawl, the waste of resources, indifference to the visual environment, and the mediocrity of certain projects,' writes Chauvin in her book. ‘In the 1960s, Gimonet travelled to the USA. He was fascinated by the houses of Frank Lloyd Wright; he visited almost all of them. The Jacobs First House in Wisconsin was a precursor of his bioclimatic homes, combining wood, stone, glass and metal, solar heating, carefully considered orientations, intimate spaces, and privileged views. These thoughtfully designed living spaces reinforced Christian Gimonet's architectural vision.'

The architect also worked within natural settings around Bourges, where Wright's influence can be found in his designs for countryside and suburban family houses and villas. In 1981, Gimonet created a house for the Thyrion family in the village of Pigny. The single-level residence reflects the American master's organic principles and features a gently pitched roof with a pronounced overhang. The dwelling is one of several by Gimonet, addressing a need for environmentally conscious and landscape-responsive houses.

Gimonet retired in 2018, at the age of 83. ‘He also had a huge passion for music,' says Jacqueline. ‘He listened to Radio Classique or France Musique while working and continued to listen to these stations until the end of his life, all the while revising his memoirs. He hoped to publish them. He worked on 510 studies and completed 229 of them, always adhering to the same exacting standards where beauty, respect for the site, and the thoughtful intimacy of spaces intersect and respond to one another.'

Film credits:
Director: Anna Fechtig @anna.fechtig & Seohee Cho @west__0429
Director of Photography :Seohee Cho @west__0429
Location Scouting & Research: Adam Štěch @okolo_architecture
Editor: Gaohao Basile Chen @el_gao
Colour: Grading @raphaelcapre
Music & Sound Design: @chengsso

Special Thanks to Jacqueline Gimonet

Marseille commuters can now double their exposure to the work of Ora Ïto. Not only has the locally born designer reshaped the layout of Place Castellane, one of the city's crucial intersections, he has also overseen the design of its new metro trains.

Place Castellane, which remains an interchange for the city's two metro lines below ground, was once also a busy traffic roundabout. Now it accommodates a tramline and a long limestone bench that follows the re-laid tram tracks, curving around the grand fountain sculpted by André-Joseph Allar between 1911-1913.

As well as reshaping what he calls the ‘city's nerve centre' with engineering group Egis and urban planners STOA, Ïto has worked with rail system manufacturer Alstom to bring the metro rolling stock up to date as it moves towards a driver-free system.

‘I had complete creative freedom,' says Ïto. ‘I was absolutely a huge fan of the old Marseille metro, designed by Philippe Neerman in the 1970s, so I was quite stressed about having to redesign something I already loved.'

There are hints of the era's bold French public design. Says Ïto, ‘We imagined it as a moving lounge, with warm tones, light materials, fluid, minimal seats, and circular handrails that are both functional and playful.'

This sector of transportation design can be complex and legislation-heavy but Ïto was already familiar with it following his work on the Nice tramway, also with Alstom. ‘An automatic metro is an extremely complex machine,' he says. ‘There are technological, structural and engineering constraints, as well as very strict safety regulations.'

From above, Place Castellane resembles an unblinking eye, opening up the city while also providing a discrete, pedestrian-focused public space. The updated metro appears similarly transformed, concealing the complexities of safety, resilience and automation with what Ïto describes as ‘a soft and recognisable face with a very distinctive light signature'.

‘It's been a great source of pride to have been able to bring these projects to Marseille, the city of my heart, where I spent much of my childhood,' he concludes.

ora-ito.com, @ora_ito

In the heart of Cap Ferret – a quaint oyster village situated on France’s west coast often dubbed the French Hamptons – Hôtel Villa Colette has just opened its doors, marking the first outpost of the Utopik Collection outside of Paris. The brainchild of French entrepreneur Laurent Taïeb and designer Philippe Starck, also behind Maison Heler Metz and Brach Madrid, the two long-time friends set out to capture what they call a ‘happy nostalgia,’ their poetic interpretation of a destination which they are deeply tied to.

‘We wanted to bring something special, and we designed Hôtel Villa Colette as if our friends and I were going to be the future guests,’ says Starck, who is not a stranger to the area.

Down the street, Starck owns a home where he spends much of his time with his wife and daughter. ‘I have been living here for 45 years now, which has felt like 45 years in paradise. It is a magical place that perfectly embodies the French spirit,’ he says.

The first 5-star hotel in Cap Ferret, Hôtel Villa Colette is a welcome addition to the limited hospitality landscape on the peninsula, which has long been known as a discreet hideaway for the rich and famous. With just 28 rooms, the property is designed as an intimate hideaway, a sort of secondary home that guests will want to return to over and over again.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hôtel Villa Colette, Cap Ferret

What’s on your doorstep?

Just a few steps from Hôtel Villa Colette is the main shopping street, lined with independent boutiques offering everything from laid-back surfer fashion to niche labels, design furniture and art galleries, and restaurant shacks and cafés perfect for a casual bite.

On one side of the peninsula, the calm waters of the Arcachon Basin; on the other, the wild Atlantic Ocean, where surfers can catch waves over two metres tall. For guests eager to discover the bay from the water, the hotel can arrange private boat charters with a skipper. A stop at the Dune of Pilat is an absolute must – the tallest sand dune in Europe – bordered by the bay on one side and an expansive pine forest on the other, before docking at an oyster shack, the most famous of which is La Cabane Hortense, for a platter of fresh oysters farmed a few metres from the restaurant.

Who’s behind the design?

Starck may be the creative force behind the interiors of Hôtel Villa Colette, but the project is, at its core, a shared vision between the designer and Taïeb.

‘My vision for Villa Colette began with my fascination for the elegance and singularity of French actresses from the 1930s to the 1950s. I imagined the story of one of these great actresses: at the end of her career, she leaves her Parisian apartment on Avenue Foch, to retreat to the countryside, settling into a humble house near the beach, in an oyster-farming village,’ explains Starck.

‘She repaints the interior of her home in soft tones – faded powder pink, very pale lemon yellow – creating an intimate and soothing space. Throughout the house, she scatters her memories: fragments of her life as an actress, family mementoes, traces of a rich past that inhabit the space,’ he continues.

The opening space – part lobby, part foyer, part bar – perfectly embodies Starck’s vision, with paper flower bouquets, geometric cushions, ruched lampshades, a wood-burning stove and a Klein piano from the 1950s.

In the dining room, reminiscent of a Spanish patio, the eye is immediately drawn toward an open kitchen framed by a still life by the Parisian classical painting house Troubetzkoy. Above, a retractable glass roof opens up on warm summer nights, allowing guests to dine beneath the stars.

The room to book

The hotel features 28 rooms and suites, each carrying through the same design language, from the classic rooms to the Prestige Suites spanning over 55 sq m. Every room includes an outdoor space – a garden on the ground floor or a balcony overlooking the bay or pine trees on the first floor. For the best view and stunning sunrises, book one of the two Cap Ferret Prestige Suites, looking out over the square and the bay.

Washed in powder pink, the rooms feel light and airy. Beige furnishings, mahogany headboards and side tables, pink-and-grey veined marble, and touches of stainless steel create a cohesive aesthetic. Mirrors hung on the wall frame photographs of Cap Ferret landscapes enhanced by AI, bringing to life a dreamlike version of the destination.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The on-site restaurant led by chef Benjamin Six adopts a culinary approach designed to complement the peninsula’s existing offerings, rather than compete with other local restaurants. The cuisine leans international, with strong Asian influences, resulting in dishes that feel both creative and bold in flavours.

From breakfast to Sunday brunch, lunch, tea time, and dinner, the restaurant offers a variety of experiences, ensuring guests never feel limited in choice.

At the bar, order one of the five signature cocktails or a non-alcoholic creation. Drinks are crafted using syrups made from local pine and spirits infused with regional flowers – subtle nods to the surrounding landscape, captured in a glass.

The verdict

It was almost inevitable that Philippe Starck would lend his name to such a deeply personal project in a destination he knows and loves so well. From the moment guests step onto the property, they are transported into Starck’s universe: a dreamlike hallucination that feels perfectly at home in Cap Ferret.

Hôtel Villa Colette is located at 39 Bd de la Plage, 33970 Lège-Cap-Ferret, France

The beauty of a spa, beyond your leaving feeling reborn, lies in its ability to offer an escape from the noise of the world – and Hôtel Costes’ new spa does exactly that. Located in Paris’ 1st arrondissement, just steps from the vibrant Rue Saint-Honoré, the Parisian hotel’s subterranean spa has unveiled a new look defined by ambient lighting, gentle geometry, and a soothing colour palette.

Hôtel Costes unveils its new spa

The project was spearheaded by interior architecture and design studio Liaigre, which worked in close partnership with the hotel’s founder, Jean-Louis Costes. Upon entering the reinvigorated space, visitors will find a 1,000 sq m spa, featuring a 20m swimming pool, eight treatment rooms, and a fitness area.

Much like the spa’s holistic ethos – developed alongside the team from skincare specialist Augustinus Bader – the interior materiality is honest and noble, comprising a mix of travertine, smoked oak, lacquer, and liquidambar. While these materials were selected to reflect the hotel as a whole, they also unite soothing elegance and functionality in a refined balance.

The architectural framework centres on light and touch. From its entrance, set at the base of a bifurcated staircase, a marble reception desk greets visitors, while a Dolby Atmos sound system channels a calming, immersive audio landscape.

The heated swimming pool acts as an inviting lagoon – whether for laps or simply to drift in its oxygen-enriched waters. Wood daybeds and cocooned relaxation areas deepen the sense of retreat. The eight treatment rooms are designed to accommodate therapies tailored by Augustinus Bader’s specialists, set along hushed corridors to ensure privacy.

The spa is the latest chapter in a wider project initiated in 2015, when Jean-Louis Costes commissioned Christian Liaigre to redesign Hôtel Lotti and unify it with Hôtel Costes and a third property, Le Costes. Drawing on the spirit of Parisian private mansions, the design firm has sought to create an airy, loft-like environment for Hôtel Costes.

Says Christophe Caillaud, president of Liaigre: ‘We approached the redesign of the spa with the same discipline that defines Liaigre – careful attention to proportion, light, and material – ensuring the space feels calm, coherent, and true to our enduring design language.’

Hôtel Costes is located at 7 Rue de Castiglione, 75001 Paris, France

The ritual of a café au lait sipped from a Haussmannian-style terrace is so ingrained within Parisian daily life that it’s taken a few years for the French capital to open up to a new crop of artisanal roasters. Refreshingly, an adventurous wave of new-gen designers hasn’t been shy to offer their take on the spatial side of what constitutes this sacred tradition. From Crosby Studios’ brutalist poetry at Café Nuances in the Marais to Uchronia’s vibrant take on traditional Korean hanok houses at Café Shin near Palais-Royal. Now it’s local architect and designer Sophie Dries to shine (quite literally) with her gleaming Quartz Café.

Inside Quartz café, Paris

Dries’ first speciality coffee shop is first and foremost an ode to the 7th arrondissement, where her studio has been based for the past six years and where, before this, she had honed her skills, including a stint at Christian Liaigre’s studio on rue de Grenelle. Like Café de Flore was once a meeting point for intellectuals, artists, and writers of the 20th century, Dries hopes Quartz Café will be that for the present-day design world, inspiring conversation and collaboration.

As its name suggests, the bijou spot reflects Dries’ affinity with the mineral world, which, alongside natural wonders, frequently informs her aesthetic and material vocabulary: pyrite used for andirons, selenite for a fragrance diffuser created with D’Orsay, gypsum candleholders... This fascination extends to the cafe’s technical side, integrating a highly advanced water filtration and remineralisation system that uses dolomite containing quartz, which releases magnesium and calcium at the end of the process.

From the outside, windows dressed in pleated café-style curtains treated with a bleach tie-dye process conceal an intimate cove-like venue defined by natural light and soft tones. Inside, a Corten steel floor perfectly complements a counter referencing the contemporary boudoir-like Octa bar, which the architect and designer presented at the Mobilier National last autumn (2025). Dries’ Styx mirror also makes a comeback, this time revisited with passementerie details. While there is no seating inside, a sleek red plywood bench awaits outside.

Spot skilled baristas wearing aprons by L/Uniform preparing drinks using utensils that continue the café’s metallic themes: cupping spoons, milk pitchers, trays, and Italian-style napkin dispensers (or portatovagliolo). Service here is accompanied by silver and Baccarat crystal accessories alongside soothing tunes transmitted from a custom sound system by Matéo Garcia.

The almost alchemistic attention to detail extends to the suppliers selected for the project. Brews are concocted using beans from local speciality coffee roaster Partisan, while matcha originates from Kyoto, via Komā. Dries also tapped catering duo Toutia to conceive pastries defined by telluric textures and mineral oxidations: cocoa sablés, date fondant, yuzu mochi, and black sesame biscuit.

Quartz Café is located at 36 Rue de Bellechasse, 75007 Paris, France

Having trained in Nancy within a milieu of metalworking, Jean Prouvé preferred the title constructeur, which accounts for the name of Fondation CAB’s exhibition: not Jean Prouvé, architecte, but inventeur de maisons (‘Jean Prouvé, Inventor of Houses’ runs until 31 October 2026)

Designed in 1944, the 6x6 demountable house belongs to the first phase of France’s reconstruction, when bomb damage across Lorraine and Alsace left hundreds of thousands without shelter and the newly established Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism began commissioning housing that could be produced quickly and in volume. Prouvé’s answer was a house that could be brought in parts and raised by hand, without disturbing the ground more than necessary.

Jean Prouvé at Fondation CAB

At Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation CAB occupies a midcentury building, a Mediterranean modernist villa. Its programme brings together minimal and conceptual art with 20th-century design – and it has a Jean Prouvé 6x6 house in the garden; the exhibition, organised with Laffanour Galerie Downtown, positions the 6x6 demountable house as part of a longer sequence of making and construction.

Inside, a chronological wall sets out Prouvé’s work with the clarity of a workshop record: forged iron doors for the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs; entrance grilles produced for Robert Mallet-Stevens; the founding of the Ateliers Jean Prouvé in Nancy in 1931; the Maison du Peuple in Clichy (1935), where folded steel sheet becomes structural; wartime barracks and the axial frames developed for SCAL in Issoire (1940); the aluminium structures of the Maison Tropicale (1949), with a double roof and brise-soleil regulating air before it enters the interior; and, later, the modular petrol stations developed for Total (1969-70).

Prouvé’s 6x6 demountable solution for emergency shelter reduced the house to a frame and a set of panels, dimensioned for easy transport and assembly; it could be put up in a day by three people, or four if you wanted to move quickly. Prouvé furnished his houses as carefully as he made them, not as an afterthought but to suggest how a life might be enjoyed inside them; his father, Victor Prouvé, belonged to the École de Nancy, and functional things, in his view, still had to please the eye.

Hubert Bonnet, founder of Fondation CAB (whose programme extends into Les Maisons CAB as a set of houses and rooms available for stays), describes the attraction: 'What first struck me about him was this rare ability to reconcile constructive rigour with formal clarity. In Prouvé’s work, the structure never hides; it becomes the very language of the object or the architecture. That honesty, almost radical, spoke to me immediately.'

A second Prouvé house from 1958 is being prepared for installation at Clos Saint-François in Saint-Paul de Vence, a property that includes a 19th-century farmhouse formerly owned by the family behind La Colombe d’Or and is now part of Les Maisons CAB’s network of places to stay. The house is the first prototype in a series developed with Claude Prouvé between 1958 and 1962, with the Maison Gauthier among its later examples.

Bonnet describes that continuity in terms close to Prouvé’s own: 'Over time, that attraction became a conviction. His approach –at once industrial, functional, and deeply human – resonates strongly with the way I conceive places. It is not simply about design, but about a way of thinking through use, durability and precision.'

'Within the houses we present today through Fondation CAB, this influence is present in a natural way. Not as a fixed reference, but as a spirit,' he concludes. That spirit has less to do with homage than with taking art and design out from behind glass, widening its company.

More than 70 years after the 6x6 house was first assembled, the force of Prouvé’s work still speaks to a desire for self-reliance, especially at a moment when so much of daily life is engineered and outsourced for ease and low resistance. Bonnet’s wager feels unexpectedly exact: that people still want contact with things that ask something of them, and forms of hospitality that return art and design to the grain of ordinary life.

What Les Maisons CAB offers, in that sense, is not fantasy but re-entry; a chance to sleep, sit and eat among works meant for lived experience. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, that promise runs from the Prouvé house in the garden to Charles Zana’s guest rooms and the restaurant, into Charlotte Perriand’s furniture.

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of March 2026.

A house between mountains

Set between Brazil’s Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira mountains, Valley House is architect Beatriz Meyer’s family home. Built on a rural plateau, the single-storey, horizontal structure is designed to blend into its landscape rather than dominate it. It’s divided into three volumes using glass, stone and carbonised timber, balancing transparency and solidity, while open-plan interiors emphasise light, airflow and connection to nature with pergolas and apertures framing views. The house embodies Meyer’s vision of calm, sustainable living, rooted in place.

Read about it here.

A Gujarat behemoth

Amaltash, a 12,000 sq ft home in Navsari, India, combines technical precision with cultural meaning. Designed by Veeram Shah, it embodies Le Corbusier’s idea of the home as both a ‘machine for living’ and a space rich in symbolic meaning. Climate-responsive design drives its form, with solar strategies shaping layout, patios cooling interiors, and large windows – the house operates as a micro-ecosystem, with rainwater harvesting and greenery replacing lawns. At the same time, it draws on Gujarati traditions. Crafted with local materials and artisan collaborations, Amaltash merges sustainability and heritage.

Read about it here.

A Canadian forest retreat

Nestled in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, the Passive House Forest Retreat is a highly sustainable home designed to rigorous environmental standards. Its treehouse-like structure sits lightly on a forested slope, featuring a cantilevered volume that frames expansive views while creating a sheltered space below. Dark cladding and natural materials allow it to blend with its surroundings, while precise construction ensures top-tier energy performance. Interiors, meanwhile, complement the architecture with refined detailing and sculptural lighting.

Read about it here.

An unusual floorplan

Trim House in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a striking triangular residence shaped by unexpected planning restrictions. Originally designed larger, the project was reduced by 40 per cent after new regulations limited building size. Rather than compromise, architect Robert Konieczny reimagined the design into a compact, angular form centred around a courtyard. A spiral staircase leads to upper-level bedrooms and a terrace, while expanded outdoor space improves daylight and connection to the surroundings. The enforced ‘trimming' ultimately enhanced the project, proving constraints can inspire innovative architectural solutions.

Read about it here.

A modernist landmark

Designed in 1946 by Rudolph Schindler, the Kallis-Sharlin Residence is a modernist hillside home in Los Angeles. Built into a slope overlooking the San Fernando Valley, its layered volumes, terraces and glass walls blur indoor and outdoor boundaries, and distinctive features include a butterfly roof, clerestory lighting and rich materials like mahogany and Douglas fir. Recently restored and listed for sale at $6.35 million, this cultural monument stands as a lasting example of a modernist architecture that harmonises innovation, landscape and human experience.

Read about it here.

A bright red villa

Villa Jevany in the Czech Republic boldly contrasts its forest setting with a vivid red façade. Designed by Architektura, the house intentionally stands out rather than blending in, creating a dialogue between man-made form and nature. Built into a sloping site, it appears single-storey from the road but reveals additional levels below. Inside, a central staircase leads to a spacious living area with forest views, while irregular windows reference abstract art. Divided into active and quiet zones, the home balances striking visual identity with functional, family-oriented design.

Read about it here.

A timber house

Orchard House in Cheshire exemplifies thoughtful rural architecture. Designed by Studio Bark under strict UK planning rules, the home demonstrates exceptional design quality while remaining modest and energy-efficient. Its S-shaped plan spans two levels, with living spaces elevated for views across a restored orchard. Timber construction, passive design strategies and local materials reduce environmental impact, including parquet flooring made from a tree on-site. Over time, the house has blended into its landscape, aided by weathered cladding and revived planting, now representing a balance between contemporary, sustainable living and deep connection to place.

Read about it here.

A traditional Kyoto residence

House in Narutaki is a sensitive renovation of a traditional Sukiya-style home in Kyoto by kooo architects. Respecting strict preservation norms, the design maintains the building’s historic character while adapting it for modern living. Original tatami spaces were reconfigured into three flowing zones, including a garden room and connecting passage, while natural materials, sliding doors and handcrafted details preserve cultural authenticity. The result is a calm, minimalist home that honours Japanese tradition while providing a refined, contemporary living experience.

Read about it here.

A Jacques Couëlle-designed home

This organic modernist home near Cannes, originally designed by Jacques Couëlle in the 1960s, has been carefully refreshed by Miriam Frowein Interiors. Distinctive for its sculptural, fluid forms, the house exemplifies Couëlle’s ‘architecture-sculpture’. The renovation respects his vision, using organic shapes, earthy tones and handcrafted elements throughout, as well as mid-century-inspired furnishings to complement rather than compete with the architecture. The design approach allows the building’s expressive form to remain central while enhancing comfort and livability for contemporary use.

Read about it here.

A hidden island escape

Euthea, a house on the Greek island of Meganisi, is designed to disappear into its landscape. Created by Ateno Architecture Studio, it is partially buried and covered by earth, making it nearly invisible from above. As the first structure on its peninsula, the project prioritises minimal environmental impact – built with local stone and earthy tones, it blends seamlessly with its surroundings. Interiors are arranged to frame sea views, enhancing the sense of isolation and immersion in nature. Even functional elements, like a brass drainage pipe, are treated poetically, reinforcing the home’s quiet, thoughtful integration.

Read about it here.

Welcome to the fifth instalment of Wallpaper's video series, The Stuff That Surrounds You. Watch as we're invited into the intriguing and idiosyncratic homes of creatives and makers (including, so far, Veronica Ditting, Yasmin Sewell, Glenn Sestig and Michael Anastassiades), catching a glimpse of their interior lives via the objects with which they surround themselves, all of which tell a story.

Erwan Bouroullec, known for his innovative, minimalist approach to furniture, interiors and industrial design, is based in Paris. But when he needs to create, he retreats to his remote estate in the Burgundy countryside. ‘I’ve been living in Paris for 35 years, but I kind of needed another place in the countryside,’ he says. ‘I needed space to work, to experiment, to try things out.’

What he and his wife (and their dog, Patapouf) discovered was an abandoned farm building, steeped in history. Rather than erase what was there, they chose to ‘layer’ their life onto it, working with LVA Architects to preserve and respect its original elements. Much of the house’s existing features and materials were retained, with a few contemporary interventions added on. ‘The best interior you could ever have is [one where you’ve done] as little as possible,’ says Bouroullec. ‘Keep every tiny sign of the past. Add what you need to add, but don’t remove anything else.’

Part sanctuary, part laboratory, the space he has created – known as La Grange – is a hive of design experimentation. Tractors, tools, woodwork, even the grass – everything becomes a ‘toy’ to explore, manipulate and learn from, says the designer. ‘When I’m here, I’m building quickly, roughly, but always looking for truth in the roughness,’ he reflects. ‘It’s grounded, necessary and playful.’

For Bouroullec, who has worked with major brands such as Vitra, Magis and Alessi – and in creative collaboration with his brother Ronan until 2023 – design is more than inspiration, it’s ‘incredibly mandatory for everyday life’. He believes spaces should offer as much stimulation as possible; sterility, in his view, is ‘harmful to your body’.

At La Grange, he surrounds himself with objects that become small ‘treasures’, inviting interaction, curiosity and wonder. These include pieces sourced from around the globe – a minimal, colourful, geometric paper box discovered in Korea, flea-market finds, and design icons like the oversized, crumpled-paper ‘Maap’ lamp he designed for Flos, as well as objects made in his own workshop, such as a wooden stool, alongside his own paintings.

‘I love contrast,’ says Bouroullec. ‘Minimal with something dirty, geometry with natural imperfection. It creates tension, it creates life.’ This sensibility runs through his work, which spans furniture to coding experiments. Take, for example, the ‘Mynt’ chair, which he developed with Vitra (and which he discussed with Wallpaper* when the design was released last year), which resides at La Grange. It blurs the line between a domestic and a task chair. ‘I tried to design it like a bike,’ Bouroullec explains. ‘If your body is in a bad position, your brain won’t feel at ease. Objects become beautiful when the user shapes them through interaction.’

Elsewhere in the designer's studio are new projects such as the Samsung Music Studio 5, developed in collaboration with the tech company – a wireless speaker conceived as a soft, circular form, intended to feel like furniture rather than a piece of machinery (announced at CES 2026, it’s not yet for sale in the UK).

A visit to La Grange makes evident that, whether crafting a high-tech speaker or reimagining a centuries-old fisherman’s tool, Bouroullec holds fast to a single belief: that design is a fluid, living and ever-evolving practice.

A film by Divided by One for Wallpaper*
Director: Nick Ballón
Director of photography: Jorge Luis Dieguéz
Sound recordist: Alban Lejeune
Editor: Todd MacDonald
Music and sound design: Joe Zeitlin
Colourist: Paul Willis
Producer: Clara Perrotte
Wallpaper* head of video: Sebastian Jordahn

A right turn from Rue de Sèvres onto Avenue de Saxe reveals classic Haussmann Paris: pale stone façades, wrought-iron balconies and the Eiffel Tower hovering in the distance. At the far end of the street, however, number 55 shifts the mood. A 1900 façade, sculpted with caryatids and Republican emblems, glows in a theatrical wash of red. It’s Hôtel Sax Paris – a flash of high-octane energy that’s hard to resist. The guest experience begins in The Galerie, lined with 200 mirrors and Baccarat chandeliers, before guests check into what is the debut of Hilton’s LXR Hotels & Resorts brand in France.

Wallpaper* checks in at Sax Paris, LXR Hotels & Resorts

What’s on your doorstep?

Staying in the 7th arrondissement, culture is around every corner. Fancy a cinematic stroll? The lawns of the Champ de Mars await. In search of a masterpiece? The Musée Rodin – home to The Kiss (1882) and The Thinker (1904) – and the Bourdelle Museum are both close by. Shopping? Head for Le Bon Marché, where high fashion sits alongside gourmet delicacies. And for a perfectly acceptable cliché, order a café au lait at one of the city’s most storied coffeehouses, Café de Flore.

Who is behind the design?

Owned and developed by Compagnie de Phalsbourg, Sax Paris was conceived in-house under the vision of Karine Journo. Inside the restored 1899 Neo-Gothic building, once the Ségur telephone exchange, Journo layered electric hues and whimsical gestures over a base of noble materials: Panda White marble, oak timber, Baccarat crystal and velvet.

‘Our intention was to restore a sense of majesty and revive the splendour of French architecture while fully modernising the experience,’ Journo tells Wallpaper*. Beyond the audacious interiors, a French-style garden by Studio Ravn adds a romantic counterpoint to the hotel’s château-like drama.

The room to book

Varying in shape and size, the hotel’s 118 rooms are a reflective wonderland, sporting custom-made oak furniture, cast-bronze handles, rough-hewn marble tabletops, and graphical carpeting. Mirrors were strategically fitted to some windows to capture views of the Eiffel Tower, while others overlook the inner courtyard, known as the Sax Garden. Rotating minibar monoliths, finished with a hand-chiselled texture, are stocked with favourites from Le Bon Marché’s La Grande Épicerie de Paris. Three signature suites – The Studio, The Winter Garden Suite and The Signature Suite – include bar stations equipped for mixing your own cocktails, along with complimentary chauffeur services.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

An outpost of the hard-to-book Kinugawa brand sits at the top of the hotel, where dinner is served against the backdrop of a shimmering Eiffel Tower. The plush setting – upholstered in tones of golden brown, salmon and muted orange – has quickly become one of the city’s buzziest tables. Executive chef David Maroleau dishes up Franco-Japanese creations, from gratinated clams with white miso, yuzukosho cream and panko to beef fillet with shiso Béarnaise.

Downstairs, flashy and glitzy, Sax Restaurant and Bar features a ceiling mural by street artist Sto, referencing the building’s historic République Française insignia. Order the cordon bleu with a glass of bubbles and share it beneath the twinkle of an otherworldly chandelier by Italian artist Christian Pellizzari, hand-blown in Murano.

Where to switch off

The subterranean Sax Le Club Fitness & Spa pairs Technogym equipment with a sauna, hammam and treatment rooms for massages and facials. Beyond the spa, the concierge can arrange Rive Gauche experiences – such as a private pontoon cruise on the Seine – alongside designer bicycles and personalised pet-friendly services. During warmer days, you can soak in Le Jardin’s heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.

The verdict

There’s no denying Sax Paris has personality. Its aesthetic may diverge from the traditional codes of Parisian five-star hospitality, but the service is every bit as polished and attentive.

Sax Paris, LXR Hotels & Resorts is located at 55 Av. de Saxe, 75007 Paris, France

Works such as this Jacques Couëlle-designed home in the South of France helped coin the name of its genre, 'architecture-sculpture' – and it's easy to see why. The flowing, organic-inspired house features intense curves and an abundance of sun-drenched terraces, gleaming under the Mediterranean sun. The project, located in a village high above Cannes, was originally completed in the early 1960s, making it a rare build by this unconventional modernist architecture representative. The residence has now just been given a sensitive 21st-century refresh, courtesy of Miriam Frowein Interiors.

Step inside this reimagined Jacques Couëlle-designed home

The home is one in a complex of just six remaining residences designed by Couëlle (1902-1996). Frowein met the current owner at an event at the nearby Fondation Maeght in Mougins. They soon embarked on an interiors scheme together, working with the house's powerful and idiosyncratic architecture to bring it to the 21st century through a delicate, context-driven approach.

'A house conceived by Jacques Couëlle demands a particularly sensitive approach. His architecture is so expressive and sculptural that it naturally becomes the protagonist of any design narrative. Rather than attempting to reinterpret or compete with it, my intention was to quietly reinforce its organic language and allow its uniqueness to shine,' says Frowein.

She continues: 'The residence in [the village of] Castellaras, built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, embodies the spirit of the Mid-Century period. In response, I selected a kidney-shaped sofa by Pierre Augustin Rose — a form strongly associated with that era. Its soft curves subtly echo the fluid geometry of the architecture. Upholstered in a refined bouclé, blending gently into its surroundings so that the architectural forms remain visually dominant.'

'For the dining area, natural oak was chosen by me for both the table and chairs. The softly contoured edges and warm materiality complement the sculptural envelope of the house without introducing unnecessary contrast. Every furnishing was selected with the intention of continuity – organic lines, tactile surfaces, and restrained elegance. Ultimately, the concept is one of dialogue rather than intervention: a quiet interior landscape that follows the rhythm of Couëlle’s vision, ensuring that architecture and furniture exist as one harmonious expression.'

Working with a building of such a strong character might have been a challenge for some but for Frowein it felt a natural fit, the designer explains. 'The openness and trust of the villa’s owner, who became a friend, combined with the strong architectural direction of Jacques Couëlle, made this project feel natural rather than challenging. A house of such sculptural clarity already provides its own guidance. It becomes difficult only when an interior designer’s ego attempts to compete with the architecture instead of listening to it.'

'I approached the project with deep respect for Couëlle’s genius. His organic forms, carved volumes, and flowing transitions shaped every design decision. The abundant influx of natural light reveals the tactile elements of the house throughout the day. The stunning tiling in each room is so expressive that it almost insists on remaining uncovered. There was no need to lay extensive rugs out. The only exception is a small, organically shaped rug beneath the coffee table, featuring nuanced tones of brown and soft yellow. It introduces warmth and subtle depth without interrupting the architectural language.'

Frowein leaned into the earthy atmosphere of the house, adding artisan-made table lamps, handcrafted elements and natural materials. As a result, nothing feels at odds with the home's unusual volumes or out of place.

'Interestingly, the interior concept evolved very intuitively. Extensive research felt unnecessary, as the 1960s — my preferred period of the last century — is a design language I know intimately. Its forms, materials, and proportions are deeply familiar to me, so the process was less about investigation and more about thoughtful implementation,' she explains.

The designer-and-client team's desire to maintain the home's existing identity and its architect's pure intention was critical in their choices throughout. Natural fibres were used for all fabrics, such as bouclé, linen, and soft woven textiles. This blended well with the brown, crème and gold tones chosen for the soft furnishings. Ceramics feature heavily too, underlining the home's connection with the land. It all feels cohesive and purposeful.

And does Frowein have a favourite spot in her project? 'The mural on the main door in the dining room is, without question, my favourite element of the house. Its abstract motif and layered bronze finishes create a powerful yet nuanced focal point within the space,' she says.

'What makes it so compelling is the way the patinated bronze captures and reflects the changing light throughout the day — sometimes glowing warmly, at other times appearing almost shadowed and sculptural. The materiality feels deeply connected to the earthy palette of browns and crème tones used throughout the interior. Rather than functioning merely as a decorative feature, the mural reads as an extension of the architecture itself — almost like a piece of integrated sculpture. It embodies the house’s spirit: expressive, artisanal, and rooted in material authenticity.'

miriamfrowein.com

Take the contrast therapy plunge in Paris this spring, where Sant Roch, home to the largest sauna in France, has just opened its doors as the capital’s hottest (and coldest, if you follow through with the plunge pool aspect) new wellness destination. Located in the chic 1st arrondissement, just opposite the Tuileries Gardens, it is designed as an immersive, sensory haven.

Step inside Sant Roch, France's largest sauna

Sant Roch was founded by Jules and Chloé Bouscatel, a Paris-based couple in design and life, who are also behind Monday Sports Club, a fitness group that operates more than 20 boutique studios in the French capital (under the brands Punch Boxing, Dynamo and Riise).

The space, by Toronto-based Futurstudio, draws on ancient rituals and the Roman baths of Lutetia for inspiration. Spanning a generous 400 sq m across two levels (the sauna alone occupies 60 sq m), it’s characterised by contemporary luxury and grounded in materiality, with timber featuring prominently.

Artful lighting compositions, immersive playlists and aromatherapy set an atmospheric stage, and help define the transitions through the space. In addition to the areas for deep heat, for instance, are five cold plunge pools, set at a somewhat breathtaking 3°C to 8°C.

These transitions between hot and cold are at the heart of contrast therapy, a practice gaining in popularity (Wallpaper* tried out London’s first contrast therapy centre last year). The abrupt shifts in temperature are intended to trigger the widening and narrowing of blood vessels, helping to flush out metabolic waste and ease pain. It’s often used to boost circulation, reduce inflammation, and help speed up muscle recovery. Sant Roch’s makers describe the facility as ‘a place dedicated to experience, where heat and cold become tools for regeneration, grounding and deep physical release’.

Clients can opt for a self-guided or guided experience, the latter led by practitioners trained in the Sant Roch method, which combines breathwork, sound immersion, meditation and embodied movement. Collectively, the mix of treatments and techniques is intended to enable a physical and mental reset, and deep relaxation.

Neither a spa nor a conventional wellness space, Sant Roch is certainly a unique environment in which to seek ‘regeneration, grounding and deep physical release’, as the company puts it.

santroch.com

Perched at 1,850 metres above sea level, Courchevel 1850 is the most exclusive ski resort in the French Alps. In December 2025, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts unveiled its first-ever ski property here, further cementing the brand’s presence in the world’s most coveted destinations. Designed by French interior architect Tristan Auer, the hotel takes the form of a refined alpine chalet – at once deeply cosy and impeccably luxurious. It embodies a vision of mountain chic where guests feel instantly at home, whether returning from the slopes or settling in for a winter escape.

Wallpaper* checks in at Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin

What’s on your doorstep?

Set directly on the slopes, at the very top of the resort and just beyond Courchevel’s centre, Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin is a dream base for ski enthusiasts. The hotel sits within Les Trois Vallées, the largest ski domain in the world, celebrated for its vast range of pistes suitable for all levels, as well as its exceptional off-piste terrain. With true ski-in, ski-out access, guests can maximise every moment on the mountain.

For afternoons spent off the slopes, Courchevel’s compact centre is lined with luxury boutiques, including Loro Piana, Prada and Louis Vuitton. A dedicated car service brings guests into the village in just five minutes. The resort also boasts a remarkable fine-dining scene, with seven Michelin-starred restaurants. A standout is Yannick Alléno’s three-star Le 1947 à Cheval Blanc, an intimate five-table restaurant showcasing elevated Savoie-inspired cuisine.

Who’s behind the design?

Tristan Auer conceived the interiors of Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin as a resolutely contemporary space, drawing inspiration from Courchevel’s early years in the 1940s and 1950s, before it became a playground for the international jet set.

‘We wanted to create an atmosphere that feels as warm and alpine as possible,’ says Auer. ‘Outside, the light is cold, the snow is cold, the rock is cold. Inside should feel like a cocoon – comforting – because the mountain is, by nature, a hostile place.’

‘We went back to the roots in order to reinvent what Courchevel is today,’ explains Auer. From the outside, the hotel resembles a classic alpine chalet, discreet and timeless. The façade, crafted from quartzite sourced from Vals in Switzerland, blends seamlessly with wood and copper elements.

This dialogue between tradition and modernity is a recurring theme throughout the property. One standout example is the two fireplaces in the restaurant and bar that are a reinterpretation of historic alpine chimneys. Their sculptural, suspended copper forms echo the work of local plumbers and heating engineers in the 1950s, marrying mid-century elegance with rustic mountain warmth, explains Auer.

The room to book

The hotel houses 51 rooms and suites, ranging from intimate rooms to a spectacular 552 square metre apartment accommodating up to eight guests. With views overlooking the snow-capped mountains and chalets, the rooms are enveloped in warmth – from the dimmed, indirect lighting to the soft materials used throughout. The earthy colour palette is complemented by sculpted ceilings with organic curves, subtly referencing the ski slopes just beyond the windows.

Bathrooms are conceived as extensions of the living space, featuring marble double vanities, walk-in marble showers that transform into saunas at the touch of a button, and deep soaking tubs.

According to Auer, the room to book is the two-bedroom Signature Suite, which features a bar constructed from pink Himalayan salt, designed to ‘recreate the magic of a wood fire – without combustion’. That said, Auer himself prefers the smaller rooms. ‘There’s a human dimension I love when you can stretch out your arms and feel everything around you,’ he says.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Dining takes place at Salto, the hotel’s Italian restaurant offering elevated Alpine cuisine. The menu reimagines traditional dishes using refined ingredients. Vitello tonnato, arancini with raw tuna, fresh pasta, blue lobster risotto – authentic Italian flavours are presented with a luxurious edge. The lunch menu also highlights regional classics, including a gourmet cheese fondue. The atmosphere remains relaxed and convivial, with dishes designed for sharing, making Salto as much about pleasure and togetherness as it is about gastronomy.

Where to switch off

Tucked away on the lower ground floor, the hotel’s spa area is a true sanctuary of calm. At one end, a state-of-the-art fitness area features Technogym equipment, alongside the Asaya Spa, where a menu of signature treatments is designed to restore both body and mind. The Deep Alpine Massage is a standout, targeting deep muscle tissue and easing post-ski tension after long days on the slopes.

At the other end lies a 17-metre indoor swimming pool, enveloped in bespoke ceramic finishes inspired by the snow-dusted mountain landscape outside. The wellness facilities are completed by two saunas, a steam room, a hot tub, a cold plunge pool and a multi-sensory shower.

Families are equally well catered for, with a children’s cave featuring water jets, allowing younger guests to enjoy the space freely without disturbing the tranquillity of the main spa area.

The verdict

In just a few weeks, Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin has firmly established itself among the resort’s most refined luxury addresses. Beautifully executed, this chic mountain retreat strikes a balance between elegance and comfort. The experience feels complete – from restorative nights of sleep to simple yet comforting dining, and thoughtfully designed spaces that gently erase the hours spent on the slopes, ski boots and all.

Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin is located at Rue du Jardin Alpin, 73120 Courchevel, France

Across French film director Éric Rohmer’s oeuvre, the Parisian pied-à-terre emerges as a leitmotif: a vehicle for independence, mischief, and fleeting urban life. Yet the concept long predates Rohmer. In the 18th century, wealthy Europeans began maintaining modest apartments in major capitals as bases for business and social engagements.

The appeal of a home away from home endures. When Jess Levy and brothers Eric and Michael Dayan founded Highstay in 2020, they posed a simple proposition: what if five-star hotel service could be delivered within a private residence in one of Paris’s most desirable neighbourhoods?

Available for short- and long-term bookings, properties in the Highstay portfolio are dreamt up by a team of interior designers and architects and serviced by a dedicated in-house staff of house managers. Additionally, through the ‘Curated by’ collection, the group also acts as custodian of architecturally and culturally significant addresses.

This range currently comprises seven residences, from a light-filled apartment overlooking the Champs de Mars to a 650-square-metre private mansion near the Trocadéro. The most recent addition is the former Paris office of Karl Lagerfeld, the late polymath who left an indelible mark on global visual culture and even guest-edited an issue of Wallpaper* in 2009 (W*127).

Highstay unveils Saint-Germain I in Paris

Located in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the three-storey space occupies an early 19th-century building. After its sale to a private owner in 2024, the office was transformed into an intimate, multi-level residence by French interior architect Pauline Leprince and is now open for bookings. It sits just steps from Serge Gainsbourg’s former home on Rue de Verneuil.

Throughout, minimalist and Space Age sensibilities are expressed through a restrained palette of steel and ivory. At its centre stands a dramatic curved staircase, anchored by an intricately sculpted steel bannister designed by Lagerfeld in collaboration with Australian industrial designer Marc Newson. Nearby, a Dos à Dos armchair from Leprince’s 05-FP-23 collection completes the composition.

In the living room, soaring ceilings and twin steel bookcases – also designed by Leprince – serve as sculptural focal points while referencing Lagerfeld’s well-known bibliophilia; he notoriously founded the Parisian bookshop and library 7L. Meanwhile, two fully-equipped kitchens and an intimate bar are accented with warm wood tones.

Upstairs, the master bedroom sees a bed encased within a steel capsule with integrated shelving, whilst a second, independent bedroom with its own bathroom completes the sleeping quarters. On the lower level, a wellness area with sauna and hammam awaits. Key artworks in the residence include Head in the Clouds XL by French sculptor Laurence Perratzi, Whisper Dinner Tonight by London-based Ukrainian artist Lizii Chan, and a geometric composition by French painter Jacques Daibehesse.

As part of the 'Curated by Highstay' collection, Saint-Germain I guests can opt for a bespoke ‘Karl Itinerary,’ conceived by Highstay’s dedicated concierge, tracing the couturier’s favourite Left Bank addresses, from Café de Flore to Maison du Caviar.

For bookings, visit highstay.com. The Saint-Germain I apartment is located at Rue de Verneuil, 75007 Paris, France

What is design’s relationship with architecture, if not a constant dialogue across eras? French interior designer Pierre‑Yves Rochon’s long-standing relationship with the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris wholeheartedly exemplifies this notion.

Their dialogue began ahead of the Parisian hotel’s opening in 1999 – within a landmark 1928 building – when Rochon was commissioned to conceive its palatial interiors. From the outset, his approach resisted overt modernisation, instead allowing contemporary nuance to sit within the building’s classical framework. The result was an art deco-inflected palace calibrated for modern luxury.

Yet, Rochon is not a creative who easily considers a project fully complete. Instead, his work is defined by return, revision, and long-term stewardship, a singular method evident in his work at Hôtel Ritz Paris and Hôtel de Crillon. At the George V, this approach has unfolded across decades. Its latest chapter marks the completion of a three-year renovation of all 243 rooms and suites, carried out while the hotel remained fully operational.

Tour the refreshed Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris

The ambition was precise: to shift the experience from hotel accommodation to Parisian residence. Rooms are conceived as apartments rather than suites, framed through a Haussmannian sensibility. Vestibules replace corridors; circulation is intuitive; dressing rooms borrow from couture ateliers; libraries and dining areas reinforce the domestic. Louis XVI furniture, 19th-century artworks, and contemporary pieces are layered with restraint.

‘Through this renovation, we wanted to achieve a place to inhabit, to embrace, and to cherish as a home away from home. Today, luxury is not about ostentation; it lies in the quiet quality of volumes, light, and materials,’ explains Rochon. ‘To design an interior is to tell a story; at the George V, that story is of a cultivated and timeless Paris that continues to reinvent itself.’

Rochon’s redesign was guided by four principles: domestic life structuring the plan; light treated as a material, drawn deep inside through new sightlines and French windows; technology discreetly embedded via a bespoke system developed with Henri; and craft as the constant: patinated oak Versailles parquet, Carrara marble, Baccarat crystal, textiles by Charles Burger and Dedar, Houlès trimmings, and hand-tufted rugs.

Three signature suites articulate the project most clearly. Remarkably, the renovation reduced the hotel’s key count by just one, following the creation of the Parisian Eiffel Tower Suite: a move the hotel’s general manager, Thibaut Dreg, attributes to ‘the house’s enduring impulse to reinvent itself’. Two former technical rooms with Eiffel Tower views were reimagined as a duplex suite.

At the summit, the Penthouse Suite has become the hotel’s most coveted address, with the Eiffel Tower framed across three private terraces. Its vocabulary is romantic yet controlled: a green chenille silk sofa by J Robert Scott, an ivory-lacquered circular bookcase with pearlescent floral detailing, softly patinated gold-leaf ceilings, and a boudoir-style dressing room lit by Baccarat sconces. Sculptural marble basins are offset by floral compositions by Jeff Leatham.

The Eiffel Parisian Suite adopts a more architectural, family-oriented register. A primary suite connects to two additional bedrooms, unified by a pale blue and off-white palette. Villari ceramics, Artemest vases and restored porcelain light fittings sit alongside a Calacatta Oro marble fireplace, while reception rooms open onto two enclosed, landscaped terraces furnished with black wrought-iron pieces by Hervé Baume.

By contrast, the Parisian Suite is intimate and light-driven. Classical proportions are preserved, anchored by an emerald-green lacquered bar. Works by Gérard Redoulès, antique lithographs and ceramic objects are set against a palette of sea green, ivory and light taupe, punctuated with restrained gilding.

For Rochon, the renovation fundamentally reframes the hotel as a residential address. As he puts it: ‘It’s a place to live, to make your own, to love as one would a Parisian home. It’s where classic and contemporary aesthetics converge, all while continually pushing the boundaries of modern hospitality.’

Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris is located at 31 Av. George V, 75008 Paris, France

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

For a masterclass in renovating a historic property without stripping it of its identity, look to this transformation of a 19th-century hunting estate in the Sologne region, near the Loire Valley. Architect and designer Katja Pargger was tasked in 2020 with restoring a Napoléon III-era château – a quintessential château Solognot, the traditional rural manor houses native to central France – as well as reimagining several outbuildings, including a separate guest inn. The surrounding landscape was concurrently reworked by Louis Benech, the designer behind Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries.

The central challenge of a renovation of this scale and pedigree lay in preserving the château’s classical French language. To the original lime-rendered façades, hand-made brickwork and terracotta roofs, Pargger added a pair of black wrought-iron conservatories. Positioned symmetrically, they frame the building without disrupting its silhouette, while creating gentle transitions between the house and the surrounding forest and meadows.

Inside, Pargger adopts a Bauhaus-inspired approach, treating architecture, furniture and objects as parts of a single, cohesive system. Spaces are shaped by clean geometric forms and tactile materials such as raw wood, lacquer, stone, lime and leather. Materials are intentionally left unfinished – aged wood, woven textiles, natural stone – reinforcing the understated sophistication associated with rural French manor houses.

Throughout the interiors, historical and contemporary references are layered with confidence: checkerboard floors, Briare enamel tiles, tapestries and artworks drawn from different eras and geographies. This approach not only brings the past into dialogue with the present, but also lends the house a richly lived-in quality, as though it has evolved organically over generations rather than emerged fully formed from a recent renovation.

In the guest inn, Pargger leans into the building’s generous volumes, flooding the interiors with daylight through skylights and horizontal windows. Each room balances crisp architectural lines with warm wood panelling and bespoke soft furnishings, creating spaces that feel both open and intimate. Custom-designed elements – parchment bedside lamps, mirrored nightstands, velvet headboards – are complemented by unexpected gestures, such as a latex kimono displayed on a 19th-century Japanese stand.

The atmosphere recalls Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939), set on a Sologne estate. Renoir resists presenting it as an awe-inspiring palace; instead, he films it as a porous domestic space threaded with doors, corridors, staircases and balconies – an architecture that allows people to overhear, pass through and observe one another.

This project demonstrates a sensitivity to history without lapsing into pastiche. With her carefully judged interventions, Pargger has crafted a place where, like in The Rules of the Game, life can unfold organically.

Recreate the mood

Built in 1930 on a hilltop in Le Pradet, near Toulon, Villa de Mandrot – also known as L’Artaude – is a Le Corbusier gem that blends modernism with Mediterranean vernacular tradition. Designed as a holiday residence for Hélène de Mandrot, a prominent patron of the arts and a key figure in Parisian avant-garde circles, the property sits on a plot bursting with pine, lavender, cypress and lemon trees. It is now on the market through Architecture de Collection, listed for €2.3 million.

De Mandrot asked Le Corbusier to design a simple holiday home with ‘two bedrooms, four extra beds and a garden’. The result spans 200 square metres across two levels in an L-shaped plan. The ground floor is anchored by a living room with a fireplace that opens onto the rear garden, alongside a kitchen and dining area. The sleeping quarters include a master bedroom with an en-suite and a second space that can serve as a bedroom or office. The garden level – originally the caretaker’s quarters – covers 80 square metres and now houses a workshop, an open kitchen and a shower room.

Originally, the terrace was framed by two monumental sculptures by modernist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz – Le Chant des Voyelles (1931) and Nu Couché à la Guitare (1928) – though these have since disappeared.

Le Corbusier’s philosophy – and the branch of modernism that he fathered – encompassed the integration of light and air as a key tenet. The villa is perched on a hill with a southern orientation that ensures sunlight throughout the day. The shaded north façade, meanwhile, remains cool, reflecting a thoughtful response to the Mediterranean climate.

Villa de Mandrot, which has been listed as a Historic Monument, represents the intersection of two currents of modernism. On one hand, it reflects the purist, standardised, industrial aesthetic of Le Corbusier’s ‘machine for living’, akin to Villa Savoye and comparable modernist works such as Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027. On the other hand, the Provence property demonstrates a dialogue between the International Style and Provençal culture, embracing local materials and landscape.

Le Corbusier anchored the house in its setting through the use of rubble and Var stone, while elements such as a grand staircase leading to the garden highlight the surrounding nature. The terrace, windbreak wall and cabin echo the Mediterranean patio. In 1931, the architect called the project ‘stunning, new, strong, solid, splendidly incorporated into the landscape’.

Villa de Mandrot is a compelling example of modernist ideals being adapted to local context without losing their formal clarity. A perfect blend of Le Corbusier’s standardised design principles and Mediterranean materials, climate awareness and landscape sensitivity, it is an enduring symbol of 20th-century architectural ingenuity.

The latest edition of Maison & Objet, Paris’ biannual homes and interiors fair, ran from 15 to 19 January 2026 at Paris Nord Villepinte, filling hall after hall with premium brands, innovative concepts and emerging talent across furniture, décor and lifestyle. The Wallpaper* team was on the ground to explore the breadth of the fair, from its headline exhibitions to an extensive programme of immersive experiences.

This edition's theme, ‘Past Reveals Future’, set the tone for a narrative celebrating the relationship between enduring craftsmanship and contemporary innovation. Here, the past was not treated as a static archive but as a living source of inspiration, continually shaping the future of design. These are our five highlights of Maison & Objet 2026.

Harry Nuriev named Designer of the Year

Russian-born architect, designer, artist and creative director Harry Nuriev was awarded Designer of the Year by Maison & Objet. He is known for his cross-disciplinary practice, which blurs the boundaries between architecture, interiors, furniture, art and fashion.

Nuriev is the founder and creative force behind Crosby Studios, a multidisciplinary practice delivering more than thirty projects annually across retail, fashion, hospitality and cultural institutions. His approach, described as ‘Transformism’, reimagines everyday objects and interiors as conceptual design and art. Operating as a ‘design anthropologist’, Nuriev offers a singular response to a world saturated with images, data and ideas.

Curatio

Returning after a successful debut, Curatio took the form of a collectible design village curated by German designer Thomas Haarmann. This gallery-style environment presented a journey through 60 works championing the ‘art of rarity’, with unique and limited-edition pieces designed for high-end interiors, restaurants, hotels and retail spaces. Haarmann’s distinctive aesthetic – balancing refined brutality with human sensitivity – shaped the narrative throughout.

Village Manufactures d’Excellence

A new addition to the fair, this space was dedicated to French savoir-faire and craftsmanship. Presented within a reimagined baroque scenography, it showcased the elegance of French artisanal excellence, with fourteen EPV-labelled houses ('Entreprises du Patrimoine Vivant', or 'Living Heritage Companies') in attendance.

In Materia

Conceived by style expert and trend forecaster Elizabeth Leriche, ‘In Materia’ offered a sensory exploration of raw materials – wood, fibre, glass, clay and stone – through unique and limited-edition works. Structured around four themes – ‘Germa’, ‘Terra’, ‘Fusio’ and ‘Crypta’ – the installation celebrated material transformation, the poetry of craftsmanship and the power of the human hand.

Outdoor Living and Eco-Materials Corner

Expanding the fair’s scope, these areas addressed the growing importance of responsible creation. ‘Outdoor Living’ reinvented exterior spaces as true extensions of the home, with 50 international brands presenting innovative lighting, furniture, pergolas and architectural solutions. Meanwhile, the 'Eco-Materials Corner' functioned as a laboratory for sustainable finishes and materials, demonstrating how environmental responsibility can coexist with contemporary design innovation.

If uniformity typically informs social housing, Renée Gailhoustet, the pioneering Algerian-French architect (1929-2023), proposed something richer.

Efficiency, and its close cousin uniformity, have long been the defining logic of modern residential architecture, translating to repeated layouts, familiar footprints and buildings designed to perform with predictability. Arguing that architecture that’s unique isn’t just for the affluent but is deserving of the masses, Gailhoustet took tailor-made spaces out of the realm of privilege and luxury and transported them into that of the wider community, famously proclaiming, 'I don’t believe in typologies. I believe in life.'

Enter the world of architect Renée Gailhoustet

Open until 21 March 2026, ‘A Thousand and One Ways of Living’, a new exhibition at London’s Architectural Association, revisits Le Liegat, Gailhoustet’s labyrinthine social housing complex located in the working-class Paris suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine. This important case study of her work was completed in 1982. It presented an unconventional vision of social housing, delivering over 1,500 unique apartments with tailor-made floor plans, all within budget – quite literally, providing more than a thousand ways to live.

Curator of the exhibition, Nichola Barrington-Leach, says: 'Gailhoustet’s philosophy is rooted in the principle that everyone, regardless of income, class or circumstance, is deserving of beauty, care and dignity.' Building on her research on Le Liegat, the show brings together drawings, spatial study models by design studio NVBL, and photographs by Sacha Trouiller and Valerie Sadoun, centring on the residents' experience, as much as the architectural craft that made it possible.

Ascending the stairs of the Architectural Association, a 1:1 paper model snakes between two exhibition rooms. Barrington-Leach explains: 'It's very hard to understand Ivry-sur-Seine without experiencing it in person, so we built a partial piece of one of the residences.' Through a medley of models, photography and installations, the exhibition conjures a range of altitudes, reminiscent of Le Liegat apartments themselves. Gentle paper doorways and openings suggested by the installation invite viewers into small, acute nooks and intimate solo views of the exhibits.

Meanwhile, an elevated platform references the raised levels featured in every Le Liegat apartment, allowing for ʻgreen terraces which had at least 40cm of soil, enough for gardens to flourish’ and meaning that trees could populate the 10,000 sq m complex. The result is a kaleidoscopic layer cake of apartments and lush vegetation. Aside from the human aspect, Barrington-Leach notes, ‘Her buildings and masterplans also became landscapes and ecologies as well as residences.’

Despite an architectural practice that consistently challenged conventions, Gailhoustet only received her first major award at the age of 88. With the architect working alongside Raymonde Laluque, the commissioning urban planner, Barrington-Leach says: 'It required two strong women for Le Liegat to happen.'

With an approach to housing that is profoundly humble, 'A Thousand and One Ways of Living' explores radical principles that cater to communities with a purposeful generosity. Where architectural form becomes secondary to a sensitive understanding of variety in lived experience and access to prime views, bespoke interiors and lush gardens are not an indication of income or status, but simply a requisite of care.

'Renée Gailhoustet: A Thousand and One Ways of Living' is on show at the Architectural Association in London until 21 March 2026

Jean Prouvé (1901–1984) occupies a singular position in 20th-century architecture and design. Neither architect in the orthodox sense nor industrial designer by training, he described himself instead as a constructeur, a 'builder' for whom the act of making, assembling and improving was inseparable from ethics. Best known today for his metal furniture and pioneering prefabricated buildings, Prouvé’s importance lies less in a recognisable style than in a conviction that design should respond directly to social need. Few modernist architecture masters managed to fuse politics, craftsmanship and construction with such clarity. Fewer still did so while remaining rooted in one city: Nancy, where this creative's ideas were formed, tested, and, in many ways, lived out.

Who was Jean Prouvé?

Born in Nancy in 1901, Prouvé grew up in a household shaped by progressive artistic ideals. His father, Victor Prouvé, was a leading figure of the École de Nancy, one of the epicentres of France’s Art Nouveau movement that linked beauty to social reform and craft to industry. This environment instilled in Jean a respect for labour and material intelligence rather than academic theory. Rejecting formal architectural education, he trained as a metalworker, learning through fabrication, failure and iteration.

Jean Prouvé: origins

That practical grounding shaped both Prouvé's personality and his politics. He was outspoken, stubborn and deeply principled, resistant to authority when it conflicted with his moral compass. During the Second World War, these qualities found concrete expression: he joined the French Resistance, placing his technical skills at the service of a broader struggle against occupation. Shortly after liberation, he briefly became mayor of Nancy, a symbolic civic role that reflected both his wartime commitment and the trust he commanded locally. It was a fleeting political chapter, but one that reinforced his belief that building, governance and social responsibility were inseparable.

Nancy: workshop, city and testing ground

Nancy was not merely Prouvé’s birthplace but the engine of his thinking. Set in the eastern heartlands of French heavy industry, Nancy had long forged itself as a place where manufacturing (particularly metalwork) fused with beauty, the École de Nancy being a product of this. It was also a city with strong traditions of social reform and offered fertile ground for his ambitions. In the 1930s, he established his own workshops there, producing everything from furniture and façade panels to structural components and experimental housing. Unlike many modernists, Prouvé did not separate architecture from production; design happened on the workshop floor as much as on the drawing board.

The city also shaped his understanding of scale and responsibility. Prouvé was less interested in monumental gestures than in repeatable solutions: doors, joints, roofs, frames — the elements that could be standardised, improved and deployed widely. Nancy allowed him to test ideas at a civic scale, responding to schools, housing shortages and post-war reconstruction with pragmatism rather than ideology.

Historical context

Prouvé’s career unfolded in parallel with some of the century’s most urgent crises. Before the war, he gained recognition for metal furniture that translated structural logic into domestic form: chairs and tables where strength, economy and comfort were all too visible. After 1945, his focus intensified around housing, driven by the acute shortages facing France. He developed lightweight, prefabricated systems intended to be transported, assembled and disassembled with ease, emphasising speed, dignity and efficiency.

It was in this context that his collaboration with Abbé Pierre emerged, culminating in the Maison des Jours Meilleurs (House of Better Days) in 1956 — a project that distilled Prouvé’s humanitarian ideals without spectacle. While bureaucratic resistance ultimately limited its dissemination, the project stands as a powerful expression of architecture conceived as an emergency response rather than an aesthetic exercise. That said, to contemporary eyes and taste, Prouvé’s designs are more than a little aesthetically pleasing and desirable.

Throughout these years, Prouvé’s relationship with industry was complex. He believed in mass production but resisted its tendency to dilute authorship and ethics. Being forced out of his own company in the early 1950s was a personal blow, yet it did not weaken his influence. Later roles within large industrial groups allowed him to continue refining systems and advising on construction at scale, even as his most radical ideas often outpaced institutional comfort.

Legacy and relevance

Jean Prouvé’s legacy has only sharpened with time. In an era preoccupied with climate responsibility, housing inequality and resource scarcity, his insistence on an economy of means feels strikingly current. Architects from Renzo Piano to Parisian studio Lacaton & Vassal have acknowledged his influence, particularly his belief that generosity can be structural rather than symbolic.

Yet Prouvé resists easy canonisation. His work is demanding, sometimes austere, and unapologetically utilitarian. What endures is not an image but an attitude: a refusal to separate construction from conscience. Rooted in Nancy, forged in resistance, and sustained by compassion, Prouvé’s career offers a reminder that modernism, at its best, was never only about form — but about building better days for everyone.

8 key projects

Maison des Jours Meilleurs (House of Better Days), 1956

Designed for Abbé Pierre in response to France’s post-war housing emergency, this demountable dwelling distilled Jean Prouvé’s belief that architecture should act quickly and humanely. Conceived for rapid assembly, transport and affordability, it rejected symbolism in favour of dignity. Though never mass-produced at scale, it remains a powerful expression of architecture as social responsibility rather than formal display. In 2024 Paris’ Galerie Patrick Seguin held a show devoted to the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs.

Maison Prouvé, Nancy, 1954

Built for his own family on a hillside in Nancy, this lightweight house functioned as a personal manifesto. Prefabricated aluminium panels, a steel portal frame and dry assembly created a domestic environment defined by efficiency and adaptability. Neither experimental prototype nor showcase villa, it embodied Jean Prouvé’s conviction that innovation belonged in everyday life, not architectural spectacle.

Maison du Peuple, Clichy, 1939

Co-designed with Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lods, this pioneering civic building combined a market, assembly hall and offices within a flexible structural system. Retractable floors, sliding walls and exposed metalwork reflected a radical approach to public architecture. Prouvé’s contribution lay in translating social ambition into mechanical ingenuity, allowing the building to adapt to collective use.

Standard Chair, 1934

This seemingly simple wooden chair reveals Prouvé’s understanding of force and material logic. Thick rear legs bear the load, while slimmer front legs reduce unnecessary mass. The result is economical, robust and visually honest. Far from decorative furniture, the Standard Chair exemplifies Prouvé’s belief that good design begins with structure over style.

Demountable Houses (6×6 and 8×8), late 1940s

Developed to rehouse displaced populations after the war, these compact dwellings prioritised speed, clarity and reuse. Made from prefabricated elements, they could be erected with minimal labour and dismantled without waste. These projects framed housing as an urgent logistical challenge, reinforcing Prouvé’s stance that construction systems, not forms, define architectural progress. In 2018 Galerie Patrick Seguin immortalized Prouvé’s Demountable House by installing it at Château La Coste.

Aluminium Furniture for Cité Universitaire, Paris, 1952

Produced for student housing in Paris, this series explored aluminium as a lightweight, durable material suited to communal living. The pieces were stackable, resilient and easily repaired, reflecting Jean Prouvé’s attention to an object’s lifecycle rather than appearance. Furniture here functioned as infrastructure, supporting everyday use while elegantly demonstrating the possibilities of industrial production.

CNIT Roof Structure, La Défense, 1958

Working as an engineer and consultant, Prouvé contributed to the vast concrete shell of the CNIT exhibition hall. The project marked his engagement with large-scale construction and structural daring. Though less intimate than his housing work, it showed his capacity to apply principles of efficiency and load distribution to monumental contexts without abandoning technical rigour.

Façade Systems and Industrial Panels, 1950s–60s

Across multiple projects, Prouvé developed curtain walls, panels and envelope systems that prioritised assembly logic and performance. These components, often overlooked beside his buildings and furniture, encapsulate his thinking most clearly. Architecture, for Prouvé, was a sum of parts and improving those parts was a political as well as technical act.

French artist Philippe Weisbecker has been exploring form, structure and object for several decades now, producing delicate artworks on subjects ranging from American trucks and Japanese water tanks to landmark buildings around the world.

Themes evolve over days, months and years, inspired by a constant desire to ‘do everything and show everything’, says Weisbecker. But whether they depict a bright orange skip or a series of complex structural beams, somehow, all manage to be simple yet insightful, capturing what is often missed out as we go about our daily lives.

Unsurprisingly, they have acquired quite a following – from New York, where Weisbecker moved in his 20s and became a sought-after illustrator for prestigious publications such as The New Yorker, to Japan, where he took part in an artist-in-residence program at Kyoto’s Villa Kujoyama and has collaborated with brands including Muji.

Combining drawings and architectural studies, his ‘Architectures’ series is now the subject of a new exhibition at Paris’ Yvon Lambert Gallery, a space designed in 2017 by Dominique Perrault for gallerists Yvon Lambert and his daughter Ève Lambert.

With ‘Architectures’, on show until 1 March, Weisbecker offers a unique perspective on the built environment, condensing complex structures into almost elemental forms to create beautiful drawings in his unique graphic language. Combining new works and earlier pieces, the result is ‘a celebration of what remains when we strip things of all that is superfluous,’ as the gallerists put it.

‘We have had the pleasure of collaborating with Philippe Weisbecker for over ten years,’ says Ève Lambert. ‘We are particularly sensitive to his work and to his deeply poetic perspective. Through his delicate approach, he brings a true sense of nobility to the everyday objects he depicts, and invites us to look anew at the world around us.’

If at first Weisbecker sought to faithfully reproduce the buildings that inspired him, he soon realised that what really interested him was ‘the skeleton of buildings, their structures, the vectors of force that organise them’. Hence a large drawing of Notre-Dame de Paris, showing the lesser-known back of the cathedral, and its semi-circle of graceful flying buttresses.

The drawing features on the exhibition’s poster and is the latest of a series depicting Parisian landmarks. 'Since our first collaboration with Philippe, we have produced posters for each of his exhibitions,’ explains Ève. ‘This body of work traces a journey through Paris: after the Cirque d’Hiver for the exhibition Élémentaires in 2018, Place des Vosges in 2020, and the Carreau du Temple in 2023, Notre-Dame was an obvious choice to illustrate the poster for Architectures.’

Other drawings show the Fulton Houses housing project in Manhattan, and various factories and warehouses – a particular favourite of the artist. ‘For someone like me, who enjoys drawing minimalism, it’s a subject of choice,’ says Weisbecker. ‘When I look at a warehouse, I like to ask myself what might be inside.”

Also featured in the exhibition are artworks inspired by electrical cabinets and vessels. The À ras-bord (‘to the brim’) series shows dark vessels in subtly different shapes, highlighting the beauty of the neck of a pot. ‘I’m drawn to emptiness and fullness, to black and white,’ explains Weisbecker. ‘In both, the mystery remains intact.’

yvon-lambert.com

It was two days before the reopening of French design gallery Ecart, and Pierre Yovanovitch was discussing with his team how to best display the swivel feature of a low-backed chair. The chair was not one of Yovanovitch's own sought-after designs, but, rather, created by the Hungarian-born American designer Paul László some 80 years ago.

Ecart International was founded by the legendary French designer Andrée Putman in 1978 to reissue important design pieces by neglected early 20th-century talents such as Jean-Michel Frank, Pierre Chareau and Eileen Gray. Yovanovitch acquired the company two years ago by buying the artisanal furniture maker D'Argentat, which then owned it. When Yovanovitch took over Ecart (he subsequently dropped 'International' from the name), the once beloved brand was, as he says, 'sleeping'.

Now he has big plans for it. 'We have an open road ahead of us to do beautiful things.’ Under his artistic direction, D'Argentat will craft every reissue as a faithful replica of the original. 'The same proportions, the same material,' he says. 'It's an homage to the designer to do exactly what they had in mind.'

A new era for Ecart

The company will continue to manufacture works by some – though not all – of the designers from Ecart's old catalogue. Yovanovitch is particularly excited about reviving other historic names from France, Italy and the United States, noting, 'I can enter the lives of designers I've always admired.' (He won't, however, produce any of his own furniture for Ecart, keeping it under the umbrella of his eponymous brand.)

László was an easy choice for Ecart's first new collection (which will be made to order). Around 25 years ago, while decorating a townhouse in Paris, Yovanovitch picked up some striking pieces by the designer at vintage galleries in Los Angeles. The Hungarian émigré had been a favourite of the Hollywood elite, with clients including Elizabeth Taylor and Ronald Reagan, and his brand of California modernism blended the formality of European modernism with the comfort and volume of American luxury lifestyle.

'After that, his name was always in my head,' recalls Yovanovitch. 'And when we wanted to relaunch Ecart, I said why we don't start with this American designer that I like? We contacted the family, and they were super enthusiastic.'

László's son, Peter, agrees. 'I think my father would be both proud and amused that some of his pieces are being recreated again. His only concern would be that the quality of the reissued pieces be kept to the same exacting standards of the original pieces. I’m very pleased that the Yovanovitch team has done such a fantastic job.'

Ecart still occupies its former Left Bank gallery space on Rue Jacob, recently renovated with an elegant (though risky!) white carpet and midcentury gold-yellow walls. Within, Yovanovitch has arranged ten newly reissued pieces by László.

A ‘Palisades’ coffee table in the gallery window has a transparent Lucite top, a solid wood base and a reflective stainless steel detail on the feet. 'It looks like nothing else,' raves Yovanovitch. An ‘Avondale’ sideboard, first produced in the 1950s, features a 'woven' wood veneer. A fabulous low ‘Wilshire’ console was originally made for screenwriter/producer Joan Harrison around 1942. And an ‘Arcadia’ armchair with an open wood frame, splayed legs and rattan seat and back is sure to please contemporary American clients with its generous proportions.

On the walls, archival photos show László's designs in California homes, along with a quote from him that's as relevant today as his furniture: 'One million dollars will not build the perfect house. You somehow can't put everything you want into it. It's largely a matter of taste, judgment and talent.'

Ecart, 18 Rue Jacob, 75006 Paris

The world of jewellery is rich in specialist skills, yet the professions behind it are rarely visible to those outside the industry. From stone-setting to polishing, these storied métiers are seldom presented as viable career paths to younger generations, a disconnect that ‘de mains en mains’, an initiative launched by French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels in 2021, sets out to address.

Now in its sixth edition, ‘de mains en mains’ opens up the broad mix of jewellery crafts to a wider audience. Alongside year-long educational support, the event, held in Lyon, invites students to engage directly with different artistic and technical skills through hands-on workshop sessions.

Central to the initiative is the Parcours des Savoir-faire, an immersive workshop designed to demystify the jewellery-making process. In small groups, students are guided by craftsmen from the maison’s workshops and introduced to the full sequence involved in creating a piece of jewellery. Over the course of the experience, they try their hand at six different professions – jeweller, stone expert, stone-setter, 3D designer, polisher and enameller – gaining insight into each skill, and even making their own Alhambra motif, the brand’s iconic four-leaf clover design created in 1968. Since its launch, the programme has involved 310 of the brand’s employees and welcomed more than 1,500 student participants.

What distinguishes ‘de mains en mains’ is its long-term approach to jewellery education. Throughout the school year, a team of Van Cleef & Arpels experts visit partner schools to deliver presentations embedded into the national curriculum, using jewellery as a lens to explore subjects such as history, mathematics, literature and language. Public-speaking workshops later help students articulate what they have learned, culminating in presentations delivered to families, teachers and Van Cleef & Arpels employees.

The annual Lyon event also opens these worlds to the general public. Visitors can observe craftspeople collaborating on the creation of a Coccinelles clip, a ladybird-shaped jewel that brings together multiple crafts, offering a rare, close-up view of setting, polishing and enamelling. An accompanying exhibition, ‘Les métiers autour d’une création d’exception’, places historical and contemporary jewellery pieces alongside the Naissance de l’Amour automaton, a high jewellery object featuring a Cupid rising from a feathered basket, highlighting the collective effort behind each creation.

The latest edition, held in November 2025 also drew together Van Cleef’s wider educational commitments, including the work of L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, the educational institution established in 2012 with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, which will present the reconstruction of a Gallic-era necklace discovered in the Tarn region of southern France.

An initiative quite like no other, ‘de mains en mains’ is, at its core, about bringing some much-needed hands-on exposure to jewellery crafts, passing this centuries-old knowledge from one pair of hands to the next.

Van Cleef & Arpels workshops in Lyon are held annually, vancleefarpels.com

In truth, it isn’t really about what makes me smile. It’s about the quiet emotion revealed when you enter a space that brings serenity: a sense of radiance, stillness and presence. It’s not joy or laughter, but a deep, inward smile that emerges when we, as humans, encounter great beauty.

Lina Ghotmeh on Luis Barragán’s Capuchin Convent Chapel, and more

Many places have had this effect on me. I recall visiting Luis Barragán’s Capuchin Convent Chapel in Mexico. Entering the chapel is a profoundly beautiful experience. Light gently fills the space and, because photography is not permitted, you are momentarily disconnected from technology and from the constant choreography of people taking pictures. You pass through a smaller space and then emerge into a larger volume, struck by the coloured light that filters through the stained glass windows.

What is most striking is how discreetly the building is tucked into the urban fabric. It does not announce itself. It feels less like a monument and more like a home for prayer.

A similar sense of awe lives in the Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki. An unassuming rock outcrop opens suddenly into a carved cavern topped with a dome resting on exposed bedrock. One moment, you are surrounded by the city; the next, you feel as though you have entered the heart of the earth. The copper-clad ceiling of the suspended dome and the soft glow of candlelight create a unique atmosphere.

Álvaro Siza’s Boa Nova Tea House in Portugal offers a comparable experience: perched among rocks at the edge of the sea, it unfolds through movement, revealing landscape and horizon in a slow, deliberate sequence.

What moves me most is not only the immersive quality of these spaces, but their ability to listen to their surroundings and reveal their beauty. The architecture almost disappears, becoming a device that frames landscape and choreographs experience. There is something inherently cinematic in such places, as in Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum in Naoshima, where the building is excavated from within a hill, dissolving the boundary between nature and architecture.

The human experience is always at the centre of my own work. I think of buildings through proportion, movement and the way a body travels through space, as something that gently holds people, allowing them to feel at ease, present and alive. Architecture, for me, is both an extraordinary moment and a quiet part of everyday life.

linaghotmeh.com

Lina Gotmeh is one of three Architects of the Year in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026, alongside Marina Tabassum and Je Ahn.

Discover all the award winners in the February issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 8 January 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The new year brings travel into focus. While the months ahead may herald anticipated openings, 2025 has already delivered a series of assured arrivals – hotels led by design, intent and context. From Taipei’s first luxury opening in over a decade to the long-awaited Chancery Rosewood, and a Saudi resort carved into the landscape itself, these projects stand apart. Each has a singular character, and each is worth the journey.

The best hotel openings of 2025

Capella Taipei

Long-awaited in the Taiwanese capital, Capella Taipei marked the city’s first true luxury hotel debut in over a decade. Conceived by André Fu, the hotel occupies part of a newly built glass tower by Tokyo’s Mori Building Group, unfolding as a modern urban mansion shaped by the Hong Kong-born designer’s own encounters with Taipei. The 86-room property sits in a calm, subtle palette, where bespoke fixtures and artisanal details form a sophisticated urban bolthole. Four on-site restaurants sharpen the hotel’s profile, while the dramatic Glasshouse crowns the ensemble with a three-storey bar complex. A minimalist spa, finished with beige barrel-vaulted ceilings, completes the picture with celestial, lunar-led treatments.

Capella Taipei is located at No. 139, DunHua N Rd, Songshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 105

Read our full review of Capella Taipei

The Chancery Rosewood

Once Eero Saarinen’s modernist vision of American diplomacy, the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square re-emerged this year as The Chancery Rosewood. A sensitive restoration saw British architect Sir David Chipperfield and French interior designer Joseph Dirand recast the Grade II-listed landmark as an all-suite hotel defined by Rosewood’s high-touch hospitality. Across 144 suites, softened geometries, tactile layering, and a palette of neutrals and burnished tones create a cocooning sense of calm; a language echoed through all public spaces and the Asaya Spa. Eight restaurants and bars introduce their own unhurried atmospheres, including the first European outpost of New York institution Carbone and Japanese chef Masa Takayama’s Tobi Masa. Meanwhile, the seventh-floor Eagle Bar opens onto panoramic views across London.

The Chancery Rosewood is located at 30 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 9AN, UK

Read our full review of The Chancery Rosewood

Desert Rock Resort

Set within Saudi Arabia’s dramatic Hejaz mountains, Desert Rock Resort rises directly from millennia-old granite. Fifty-four villas and ten suites feel almost geological. Conceived by Oppenheim Architecture, the resort doesn’t impose itself on the terrain; it yields to it. Stone quarried during construction was folded back into the architecture. Studio Paolo Ferrari brought the same reverence to the interiors, allowing the raw power of the setting to remain the focal point. Dining unfolds across Nyra’s elemental wood-fire kitchen, Mica’s forward-thinking cocktail programme, Basalt’s reassuring comfort dishes, and Wadi’s lively poolside scene. On the valley’s far edge sits the spa, built against a towering rock face.

Desert Rock Resort is located at 7GQVP67Q+5P 48561, Saudi Arabia

Read our full review of Desert Rock Resort

The Eve Hotel Sydney

The Eve Hotel Sydney arrived as a vibrant new marker on the cusp of the Central Business District. Designed as a warm brick-and-biophilic low-rise by local firm SJB, with landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and interior designer George Livissianis, the hotel balances architectural restraint with bursts of colour. The 102 rooms, hued to the Australian bush, each feature balconies overlooking shingled rooftops and greenery. On the food front, guests can choose between Bar Julius, a European-inflected lobby bar, and Lottie, the rooftop Mexican restaurant and mezcaleria. Also upstairs, the Sukabumi-tiled rooftop pool beckons, though the surrounding mix of native and exotic flora demands equal attention.

The Eve Hotel Sydney is located at 8 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia

Read our full review of The Eve Hotel Sydney

Few & Far Luvhondo

Husband-and-wife adventurers Jacob and Sarah Dusek introduced Few & Far Luvhondo, a safari eco-lodge offering front-row access to the raw wilderness of South Africa’s Limpopo province. Designed by Nicholas Plewman Architects in collaboration with Ohkre Collective, the lodge’s six cliff-edge suites take their sculptural cues from Africa’s most emblematic trees, notably the monumental baobabs that anchor the surrounding landscape. Nature continues indoors, where clay-toned earths, sky blues and deep greens echo the terrain. In the kitchen, chef Nhlakanipho Soxhela leads a thoughtful farm-to-table programme celebrating regional cooking. Days unfold through immersive encounters with land and culture, from daily game drives to outdoor yoga sessions or guided mindfulness practices.

Few & Far Luvhondo is located at R523, Waterpoort, 3813, South Africa

Read our full review of Few & Far Luvhondo

La Fondation

Once a parking lot, La Fondation emerged as a brutalist shell softened by warm hues and muted tones that ripple through its ten floors. Paris-based architecture firm PCA-STREAM reimagined the exterior, while New York studio Roman and Williams infused the interiors with a modern, eclectic character, accented by nods to Piet Mondrian’s De Stijl palette and geometry. Muted tones and artisanal detailing define the 58 guest rooms, and two on-site dining venues offer a mix of French classics and contemporary dishes overseen by chef Thomas Rossi. The latest opening from Groupe Galia also introduces open co-working areas, a health club with a climbing wall, a spa with a semi-Olympic pool, and a rooftop garden with views from Sacré-Cœur to the Eiffel Tower.

La Fondation is located at 40 Rue Legendre, 75017 Paris, France

Read our full review of La Fondation

Patina Osaka

With the Osaka Expo pulling global focus, Patina Osaka debuted at just the right moment. Set in a 20-storey glass tower by Jun Mitsui & Associates Inc. Architects, the property, which marked the Japan debut for the Singapore-based group, sits between the Osaka Castle and Naniwa-no-Miya-Ato Park. Tokyo-based studio Strickland shaped the interiors with crisp Japanese geometries, softened by sculptural curves and copper accents that nod to the castle. Five dining concepts anchor the hotel, fronted by P72, where Japan’s 72 micro-seasons inform dishes served beneath a dramatic timber ‘roots’ installation. The Patina Spa is the real draw, offering hyperbaric oxygen, cryotherapy and holistic treatments for a full-spectrum reset.

Patina Osaka is located at 3-91, Banba-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, 540-0007, Japan

Read our full review of Patina Osaka

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

A ten-building beach resort with plenty of swagger became The Standard’s fourth outpost in Thailand, pairing luxury with the brand’s trademark wit and creative flair. Led by the group’s global head of design, Verena Haller, alongside DIN Studio and Studio Lupine, The Standard Pattaya Na Jomtien occupies a sculptural white complex by Thai firm Onion, whose undulating curves echo their work for The Standard Bangkok and Hua Hin. Its 161 rooms, offered in seven generous configurations, feature high ceilings and sunlight-drenched spaces. Dining spans Sereia, an elegant seafood restaurant sourcing from Thailand’s eastern seaboard, and Esmé, a beach bar channelling CDMX street food. The adults-only spa, Mmhmmm, embraces the mud-bathing renaissance with a dedicated outdoor terrace for the ritual.

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien is located at 8/12 Moo 2, Soi Na Jomtien 10, Na Jomtien, Sattahip, Chonburi 20250, Thailand

Read our full review of The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

Villa Dubrovnik

Long a friend of Wallpaper,* Brazilian architect Arthur Casas and his studio led the reimagining of Villa Dubrovnik, the 1961 modernist landmark perched dramatically above the Dalmatian coast. Guided by the Croatian philosophy of fjaka –an artful devotion to unhurried living – the interiors are measured and serene, grounded in local tradition. Custom blankets and cushions, woven with patterns drawn from regional dialects, thread a quiet sense of place through all 56 rooms. Dining unfolds across moods: Restaurant Pjerin for refined dégustation or à la carte dining, Giardino for relaxed lunches, and aperitivo-worthy views at Libero Bar or the rooftop Galanto Bar. When the Adriatic sun takes its toll, the spa delivers restorative facials, massages, and exfoliating rituals.

Villa Dubrovnik is located at Ul. Vlaha Bukovca 6, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Read our full review of Villa Dubrovnik

W New York – Union Square

W Hotels’ evolution trades party-first theatrics for grown-up confidence, without losing its spark. The shift is clearest at W New York – Union Square, the global flagship, alongside newer openings in Florence and Budapest. Opened in 2000, the hotel has been reimagined by original architects Rockwell Group with a lighter, more assured hand. Its 256 rooms and suites balance scale with playfulness. On the food front, Seahorse pairs heritage and modernity with unmistakable New York ease; the high-energy Living Room (once a ballroom) serves cocktails and light bites, flowing into the laid-back Living Room Café; and upstairs, the 17th floor is home to Union Square’s only rooftop bar.

W New York – Union Square is located at 1567 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, United States

Read our full review of W New York – Union Square

In the last 12 months, the most talked-about restaurants weren’t just about what was on the plate. Design took the lead, with new openings using architecture and interiors as part of the experience rather than polite scenery. Across cities and continents, former embassies, fortresses, office blocks and coastal sites were reworked into dining rooms with a clear point of view. The following Wallpaper* edit offers a snapshot of the spaces that redefined restaurant design this year.

The best restaurant design of 2025

Call Me Ten

Tucked within the refined, residential enclave of Vasant Vihar in New Delhi, Call Me Ten emerges as a 6,000 sq ft Japanese restaurant and bar. Designed by Renesa Architecture Design Interiors, the site is defined by a materially restrained but expressive language. Natural limestone plaster and stone aggregates anchor the space, while soft curves and muted tones create an interior that feels both serene and theatrical. Subtle nods to Japanese aesthetics run throughout, from Shoji-inspired partitions that diffuse light with gentle translucency to a layout informed by tatami logic, encouraging intimacy and order. Polished concrete floors lend contemporary clarity, offset by pockets of deep-toned, hand-crafted mosaic tiles. Complementing the design, the menu reinterprets Japanese tradition through a modern izakaya lens, pairing dishes such as miso black cod and pork belly with inventive, Asian-inflected cocktails.

Call Me Ten is located at 58, Market, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, Delhi 110057, India

Read our full review of Call Me Ten

Carbone London

Once Eero Saarinen’s modernist vision of American diplomacy, the former US Embassy reopened this year as The Chancery Rosewood. Appropriately, the Grade II-listed building now hosts Carbone, one of America’s most beloved restaurants, marking the brand’s first European outpost. Originating in New York’s Greenwich Village, Carbone is as renowned for its Italian-American classics as its A-list following. In London, designer Ken Fulk channels Rat Pack-era glamour across a two-level space rich in theatrical flourish: Carbone-blue panelling, hand-painted murals, burgundy velvet banquettes and marble mosaics set the scene. MoMA-calibre artworks, live music and an indulgent, ‘a piacere’, or ‘as you like it’ culinary approach complete an experience rooted in spectacle.

Carbone London is located at 30 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 2LG, UK

Read our full review of Carbone London

Cento Raw Bar

Michelin-recognised Cento Pasta Bar has long been one of West Adams’ most elusive reservations; now, its sibling Cento Raw Bar opens next door, offering Angelenos a second, distinctly different experience from chef and co-owner Avner Levi. Designed by Brandon Miradi, also behind Somni, the space is defined by thickly plastered walls and ceilings, brushed into undulating waves that lend a quietly surreal, oceanic rhythm. The motif continues in curved ceilings, minimal metal barstools and custom tableware, while sculptural light fittings by Ukrainian studio ClayP add tactility overhead. At the centre, scallop-shaped seafood towers piled high with oysters, shrimp and lobster set the tone, alongside jewel-toned cocktails. Dessert leans playful, with mosaic cheesecake and a nostalgic chocolate cake finale.

Cento Raw Bar is located at 4919 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016, United States

Read our full review of Cento Raw Bar

Dévo Marseille

Designer Axel Chay’s totemic tubular steel forms have long embodied Marseille’s creative pulse; now, he and his wife Mélissa channel that energy into Dévo, a new restaurant and wine bar in the Préfecture neighbourhood. Named after the American new-wave band, it marks the duo’s first fully designed and art-directed space. Cocooning yet animated, the interior pairs contemporary lines with vintage patina: lime satin curtains sweep across concrete floors, offsetting a zinc bar and steel stools inspired by Italian cafés and Spanish vermuterias. Cinematic details abound: mirrored artworks by Aurélien Ciller, plaster seagulls in flight and bespoke lighting by Axel’s brother Aimeric. In the kitchen, chef Ferdinand Fravega serves relaxed Provençal dishes, paired with a 100-strong list of independent and natural wines.

Dévo Marseille is located at 22 Bd Paul Peytral, 13006 Marseille, France

Read our full review of Dévo Marseille

Elmina

In Washington DC, Elmina is the debut bricks-and-mortar venture of Ghanaian-American chef Eric Adjepong: a restaurant that celebrates modern Africa while acknowledging the complexities of its past. Its name carries weight, referencing the port that became the site of sub-Saharan Africa’s first European slave-trading post. Dreamt up by local studio Drummond Projects, the 3,720 sq ft, three-storey space reads as a fluid, immersive journey, with each space defined by material and colour references, unified by a sculptural curving stairwell and enriched with bespoke artworks, artisan textiles and warm, tactile finishes throughout. The food itself is deeply rooted in tradition, a love letter to Adjepong’s ancestors and recipes he grew up with. Experiences on offer span a five-course tasting menu, a chop bar selection and a hearty brunch, with standout dishes including the comfortingly smoky jollof duck pot.

Elmina is located at 2208 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States

Read our full review of Elmina

Restaurant Esperit Roca

Set within a 19th-century fortress on the hills outside Girona, Esperit Roca evokes the beauty of raw materials with a rugged yet refined touch. Part of a remote gastronomic complex by the Roca brothers, which also houses a 16-bedroom hotel, the restaurant overlooks the mountains, woodland and sea of northern Catalonia. Designed by Girona-based Andreu Carulla, the interiors are pared-back and elemental, shaped from stone, concrete and wood in muted greys and greens. Locally quarried piedra de Girona limestone forms sculptural counters, lamps and monolithic sinks, echoing the fortress itself. Midcentury-inspired furniture, agricultural textiles and pockets of greenery reinforce the connection to place. In the kitchen, Joan and Jordi Roca deliver concept-driven tasting menus that reinterpret local produce with rigour, poetry and surprise. Don’t miss the tasting menu that offers two main courses and six desserts.

Restaurant Esperit Roca is located at Carrer Major, Entrada 1, 17481 Sant Julià de Ramis, Girona, Spain

Read our full review of Restaurant Esperit Roca

Finlandia Bistro

Alvar Aalto’s modernist landmark, Finlandia Hall, now houses a new restaurant that allows guests to dine in surroundings that gently echo the architect’s enduring design language. In contrast to the hall’s light, open spaces, the bistro is warmly cocooned in deeper tones, soft fabrics and tactile textures. Designed by Fyra, the interior blends Finnish modernist classics with contemporary pieces from Finnish Design Shop, alongside bespoke built-ins. Deep blue curtains recall Finlandia Hall’s cobalt accents, while wood and brass details nod to Aalto’s modernism. Led by head chef Mikko Puuronen, the 64-seat restaurant serves Nordic-inspired dishes with subtle Mediterranean inflexions.

Finlandia Bistro is located at Mannerheimintie 13e, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Read our full review of Finlandia Bistro

Jncquoi Fish

‘Where food meets fashion meets hospitality’ underpins Jncquoi, the Lisbon lifestyle hub launched in 2017 by Paula Amorim and Miguel Guedes de Sousa of the Amorim Luxury Group. While the brand’s first hotel, Jncquoi House (designed by Vincent Van Duysen), will open in 2026, its newest restaurant, Jncquoi Fish, already signals the next chapter. Beneath a neo-Moorish façade, the space unfolds in Van Duysen’s restrained language of marble, limestone and ceramics, with dark clay floors by Viúva Lamego and bespoke furnishings and lighting made in Portugal. Tables cluster around the open kitchen, where chefs António Bóia and Filipe Carvalho celebrate Atlantic seafood through refined Portuguese flavours, from caviar-topped cod fritters to blue lobster rice, complemented by an astute, terroir-driven wine programme and assured, indulgent desserts.

Jncquoi Fish is located at Av. da Liberdade 189 1, 1250-096 Lisboa, Portugal

Read our full review of Jncquoi Fish

Milló

On the ground floor of the ADNBA-designed Millo Offices in Bucharest’s business area, Milló explores how contemporary design can converse with history. Responding to the building’s art deco undertones, local studio AÉ02 shaped an interior defined by light, texture and material warmth. At its centre hangs a dramatic ‘volcano of light’: an illuminated feature suspended above the main dining table, shifting in tone throughout the day. LED strips trace the ceiling edges, sharpening geometry through light and shadow, while the bar counter pairs stainless steel with cherry Levanto marble, concealing a discreet DJ booth. The Mediterranean-leaning menu – think baked artichoke, saffron risotto and miso-marinated cod – completes the experience, encouraging guests to linger from midday through to midnight.

Milló is located at Strada Ion Câmpineanu 19, Bucharest 030167, Romania.

Read our full review of Milló

Rubra

Hotel restaurants rarely transcend the orbit of the properties they inhabit, but on the northern edge of Banderas Bay, Rubra decisively breaks that pattern. Part of W Punta de Mita, the restaurant is led by Daniela Soto-Innes, who was named World’s Best Female Chef in 2019. At just 28, she was the youngest chef to earn the accolade. Designed by Ignacio Urquiza with interiors by Ana Paula de Alba, Rubra takes the form of a sand-toned concrete monolith, its restrained architecture softened by creeping greenery and expansive views towards the Sierra Madre. A pergola of wooden lattices filters light across an open, fluid dining room, blurring indoors and out. Soto-Innes’ ‘tropical cooking’ draws from seasonal produce, much of it grown on site, shaping menus that favour citrus, herbs and vivid coastal flavours, from scallops dressed in kombu aguachile to flower-crowned tuna tostadas.

Rubra is located at Carr. Federal la Cruz de Huanacaxtle - Punta de Mita Km 8.5, Desarrollo Costa, 63734 Corral del Risco, Nay., Mexico

Read our full review of Rubra

There is a definite sense of occasion to sidling up and sliding into an Alpine A390. In a year when so many anonymous-looking new electric vehicles launched with brand and model names you probably haven’t heard of, the A390 stands apart. And although Alpine itself is something of a rare name in motoring, the French marque is certainly not new, with a credible motorsport-inspired history dating back 70 years and F1 and endurance racing teams more recently.

The A390’s sense of occasion comes from a coupé crossover exterior design that looks sleek, honed and racy. It’s defined at the front by slim and focused daylight running lights framed above by a thick and body-coloured floating ‘monobrow’ bar that curves around to link up with bulging front wheelarches on each side. Behind this bar, two wide bonnet scoops dive down forwards towards two central holes to help channel air and also reduce visual mass.

Various other fractured lighting and graphic elements gravitate visually towards a precisely creased centre line, with headlights tucked away in the top section of large side air vents. With concave sculpting to the bodyside and flush front doors handles and hidden rear ones, plus a well-defined, full-width, wraparound rear red lighting signature at the end of its sloping roofline, the A390 – especially in electric blue – gets a lot of attention on test.

Which is important, because the all-electric 4.6m-long Alpine is seeking premium customers in a segment it has not competed in before and who might currently be driving or considering an Audi Q4 Sportback, Tesla Model Y or Porsche Macan. That’s quite a leap for a brand within the Renault Group stable which shares parts – notably its underpinnings and interior screen – with the Renault Scenic.

However, Alpine’s designers have worked hard to extend that exterior ‘wow’ factor and brand differentiation deep inside the A390’s interior too. Thoughtful details include air vents framed and neatly flush on each side of the driver display screen plus colour-coded racing-style controls on the steering wheel, including a red lever for overtaking boost and a blue dial for brake regen adjustment. It’s all very motorsport-inspired and unlike any other car at this price point.

Despite its strong driver focus and firmly cocooning feel upfront, the A390 also offers decent leg and headroom for a six-footer in the rear passenger seats and some flexibility in the boot floor height with 532 litres of luggage space available with all seats up.

But what’s most impressive about the A390 is that its initial sporty visual impression is fully backed by an excellent driving experience. One of the car’s unique selling points in this size and price range, is the use of three motors – one at the front and two at the rear – making it rear-biased but all-wheel drive, and with torque vectoring allowing the power to be directed to just where it’s required.

Press the Drive Mode button on the steering wheel to Sport and this system really comes into its own, delivering more power to the outside rear wheel on any turn and providing great control, stability and agility and thus driver confidence through twisty corners.

Alongside firm, but not too firm steering, the A390 makes going fast feel easy, really fun and very safe. Drilling down into the figures, the A390 GT can dispatch 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds from its 400hp triple motors – the forthcoming GTS is quicker still at 3.9 seconds – while its 89kWh battery can store enough energy to drive up to 345 miles on a single charge.

Factor in a crisp sound system from the niche French audio expert (and relative newcomer) Devialet plus simple Apple CarPlay pairing and an easily accessed physical button to turn off the safety bleeps and boings when safe to do so, and the A390 offers functionality and creature comforts to go with its undoubted fast fun.

Sitting alongside the already acclaimed lightweight petrol-powered A110 two-seater sportscar and A290 sporty supermini (based on the Renault 5) Alpine now has a mini range to choose from. And although the brand will still be a rare sight on British roads, as Alpine has no plans to over-saturate the market, expect more examples of the distinctive range to appear – likely with discerning drivers at the wheel – in 2026.

Alpine A390 GT, from c£60,000, A390 GTS, c£70,000, Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

When it comes to Alpine chalets, you often know what to expect: wood-panelled interiors, perhaps a stone hearth, maybe a palette of warm browns and beiges. That’s what makes Le Sarto, a chalet in Megève, France, and a member of the Iconic House private rental collection, so refreshing. The space has been transformed with sumptuous art deco-inspired interiors by interior architecture studio Claves with the aim of harmonising heritage, contemporary design, and hospitality within a historic mountain structure.

Sitting above Megève on the spiritual walking route of Montée du Calvaire, within the historic Dessous le Calvaire neighbourhood, the chalet was originally built between 1941 and 1943 for businessman Michel Desmazières. It is a notable example of the ‘chalet du skieur’ concept, developed by 20th-century architect Henry Jacques Le Même to accommodate the evolving winter sports lifestyle, and which played a pivotal role in defining ski resort architecture today.

Spanning 650 sq m, the chalet was designed to balance elegance with functionality, featuring a grand reception floor, a monumental central staircase, a vast fireplace, numerous bedrooms and an integrated ski room. Claves’ renovation, following Iconic House’s acquisition of the property in 2023, preserved the original layout – so well conceived that no structural changes were necessary – while modernising the amenities. Today, Le Sarto boasts a wellness area, a gym and parking housed in an extension connected to the main building via an underground corridor, as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The restoration process renewed period elements, ensuring the chalet’s original spirit remains. The exterior façades were restored to their original colour schemes and the historic balcony railings were preserved. Inside, the Alpine character of Le Même’s architecture endures through restored carved woodwork and original fittings, complemented by a curated selection of period furniture including desks, seating and consoles.

Le Même, who trained under French furniture designer Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and drew inspiration from Le Corbusier and De Stijl, merged art deco elegance with modernist structure and local Savoyard vernacular. Claves’ interventions honour this legacy while introducing its own signature touches. Decorative geometries inspired by traditional mountain motifs – stars, discs and ‘wolf teeth’ patterns – feature alongside a contrasting palette of reds, greens and dark woods. Elements of theatre, fantasy and Scandinavian folklore weave throughout, alternating refinement and eccentricity.

The studio has blended period and vintage objects with contemporary creations: standout features include a fresco by Louise Defente in the library, a wall ceramic by Héloïse Rival in the master bathroom, and enamelled ceramic work by Côme Clérino in the indoor pool. A particularly special element is the museum-like lower level dedicated to archival reproductions from Le Même, including sketches and photographs.

Le Sarto’s heritage is honoured while offering a refreshing departure from the standardised ‘modern ski’ aesthetic that Le Même’s work has inspired, while its original conception as a private home imbues the chalet with remarkable warmth.

Designer Axel Chay’s totemic, tubular steel objects are synonymous with the creative energy of Marseille. Now, Chay and his wife Mélissa have designed a new restaurant and wine bar in the French city. Named Dévo (after the namesake American new-wave band), it’s located in the Préfecture neighbourhood, offering up a lively setting for relaxed Provençal fare from chef Ferdinand Fravega (of local favourites Figure and Ippon).

It’s the first space that the duo have designed and art directed, and the cocooning yet upbeat interior carries the mood through from early aperitivo to midnight. ‘A blend of contemporary design and vintage pieces echoes the contrasts of Marseille itself: historic façades facing bold modern lines, classical stone meeting industrial textures,’ says Axel.

Wallpaper* dines at Dévo, Marseille

The mood: sultry vermuteria

The stained Okoumé wood wall panels, varnished resin dusky burgundy floor, and sweeping lime-coloured satin curtains offset the sheen of the vintage zinc bar and tubular steel bar stools and chairs. ‘Our inspiration came from old cafés and vermuterias in Italy and Spain; timeless places where you feel the patina of life,’ explains Mélissa.

The cinematic atmosphere is enhanced by curiosities: mirrors designed by Marseille-based artist Aurélien Ciller are printed with mountains, referencing the landscape that surrounds the city, and the mirrored advertising panels of old bistros and classic train station restaurants.

Plaster seagulls, originally destined for a theatre set, soar across the walls. Axel discovered these in the workshop of his plaster craftsman in the Var: ‘I’m often drawn to shapes inspired by the sea: fluid, imperfect, alive.’

All of the lighting has been crafted by Axel’s brother Aimeric, in their family metal-working atelier in Marseille, inherited from their father. They work there together on prototypes and limited-edition pieces. The inverse pyramidal lamps are so new they haven’t even been named yet; their shape nods to the red hats worn by the Devo band members.

The food: comfort Provençal

Moving away from sharing plates, chef Fravega proposes lighter bites and mains that complement each other. Dishes such as salted anchovies, pissaladière and French onion soup occupy the former, while hearty options, such as Milanese risotto and coq au vin, feature on the latter. The extensive wine list boasts around 100 choices of independent and natural winemakers on menus designed by the local Flirt Studio, also behind the restaurant branding.

With its richly atmospheric décor, soft lighting, and curated music playlist, Dévo is a congenial spot with a distinctive mood – the result of its thorough art direction and creative team. ‘The goal with Dévo is, of course, to seduce the eye but also to awaken a sense of belonging and curiosity. It is the same feeling you get when you wander through the streets of Marseille, where every corner holds a new surprise,’ says Mélissa.

Dévo is located at 22 Bd Paul Peytral, 13006 Marseille, France.

Ahead of the opening of its new museum in Flins-sur-Seine, Paris, Renault will be holding an auction of 100 key models – duplicates – from its comprehensive collection of over 800 ‘emblematic and unique models’. Held by longstanding partner Artcurial Motorcars, the auction will take place at the French manufacturer’s historic Flins-sur-Seine factory outside Paris on 7 December 2025.

Founded in 1899 by the Renault brothers, Louis, Marcel and Fernand, the company has been at the heart of French industrial and cultural life ever since. Its range of small cars, continuing right up to the present day, epitomise Gallic ingenuity and innovation. The auction acknowledges this, as well as Renault’s pioneering role in EVs and its status as a garlanded player in global motorsport.

We’ve perused the auction catalogue and come up with a wishlist of 14 vehicles that embody the spirit of the brand.

Lot 13: Renault Floride Cabriolet ‘Disney’, 1960

This elegant two-seater was designed by two of the biggest names in Italian coachbuilding, Frua and Ghia. This particular example had a stint in Disneyland Paris, hence the unique colour scheme.

Lot 21: Renault 4 électrique ‘Zity’, 1991

Not an early example of Renault’s electrification history, but an example converted into an EV in 2021 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the original Renault 4 – which remained in production from 1961 all the way through to 1991.

Lot 22: Renault 5 décorée ‘police’, 1983

Another sleight of hand – this 1980s-era Renault 5 was kitted out as a police car by the team at the Renault museum. It is, however, a very late model R5 in excellent condition and as such can easily be restored to original condition.

Lot 26: Renault 4 F4 électrique fourgonnette Darty, 1985

The utilitarian ‘fourgonnette’ panel-van variant of the R4 was a mainstay of small French businesses from the 1960s onwards. This rare survivor is another EV conversion, finished in the colours of French electrical goods chain Darty.

Lot 42: Renault Twingo II Concept, 2006

In addition to reviving the 4 and 5 nameplates for its new era of small electric cars, Renault has just unveiled a new Twingo. This non-roadworthy concept car from 2006 previewed the second generation Twingo, a city car that ultimately lacked the original’s visual verve.

Lot 48: Renault Trafic Deck'Up Concept car, 2004

A conceptual blend of off-roader, panel van and beach buggy, the Trafic Deck’Up debuted at the Brussels Motor Show as a quirky preview of the incoming angular Renault house style and the new century’s search for automotive form factors.

Lot 62: Renault Spider prototype, 1998

The Spider was a cult two-seater from Renault Sport, first suggested with a concept at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show, a time when Renault ruled the Formula 1 track. Stripped down and ultra-light – the car was ultimately sold without a windscreen – this early production prototype is sadly a non-runner.

Lot 65: Renault 5 GT Turbo Gr. N, 1990

As well as Formula 1, Renault was also a fearsome competitor in the World Rally Championship. This particular Renault 5 GT Turbo rally car won Group N in the 22nd Ivory Coast-Bandama Rally in 1990, driven by Alain Oreille and Michel Roissard.

Lot 68: Renault Mégane III Trophy maquette, 2009

A rolling model of a race-spec Renault Mégane, this chiselled Mégane RS III Trophy resembles the production car on steroids. Enterprising enthusiasts will need to do a lot of work to bring this maquette to life.

Lot 100: Renault RE 40-04 Formule 1, 1983

American Eddie Cheever replaced René Arnoux in the 1983 F1 season. This car, one of several F1 cars for sale in the auction, finished 3rd at that year’s Monza GP. Cheever’s teammate, Alain Prost, is perhaps better known, as a four-time World Drivers' Champion. It was Renault who dominated the Constructors’ Championship through the 1990s its their partnership with Williams.

Lot 154: Renault Clio II 6-wheel pick-up, 2001

This Frankenstein creation started out as a Renault Clio II, before being transformed by Renault factory workers as a training exercise. Low speed use only – perfect for parades.

Lot 169: Renault Operandi concept van, 2000

This styling model of the Operandi concept van still looks fresh today, with its chunky utilitarian styling inside and out and compact dimensions.

Lot 176: Chausson P.E.R.L.E. concept car, 1989

Developed by now-defunct supplier Chausson, the Projet d'Études et de Recherches d'une Ligne Européenne was powered by Renault and first exhibited at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show. The concept had a brief cameo in Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World.

Lot 179: Renault 21 ex-Lévy and Goliath, 1986

Another cinematic vehicle, this time from Gérard Oury’s 1987 comedy Lévy and Goliath. In the film, this extraordinary creation results from an accidental delivery of cocaine to the production line at the Renault factory.

Artcurial Motorcars will hold the Renault Icons sale at Flins-sur-Seine, Paris, on 7 December 2025, Artcurial.com, @Artcurial__

There’s a certain quiet magic about Aÿ-Champagne. The village hums with history, its cobbled streets echoing with the clink of bottles and the low, cool stillness of cellars far beneath your feet. Somewhere under those streets, in a labyrinth of chalk and time, lies the beating heart of Billecart-Salmon – a champagne house whose story stretches back seven generations, yet feels as alive and expressive today as the bubbles in a freshly poured flute.

Descending into those cellars is like slipping into another world. The temperature drops, the air stills, sounds become deadened and more distant – and the faint waft of yeast and limestone mingles with that unmistakable perfume of ageing wine; a whisper of brioche, citrus peel, and above all else – potential.

Inside Maison Billecart-Salmon

The tunnels were first carved in the 17th and 19th centuries, long before electricity or industrial machinery. Some 2.5km of them snake beneath the village, like veins carrying the lifeblood of champagne itself. Here, what seems like millions of bottles slumber in silence, stacked in perfect symmetry, their slightly cloudy lees slowly performing that remarkable transformation from still wine to the bubbly liquid celebration we're more familiar with.

Our guide through the labyrinth of tunnels is Mathieu Roland-Billecart, seventh-generation family member – and the man tasked with maintaining the traditions of the past but keeping the brand on the path to continued future greatness, too.

He speaks of these cellars with the kind of reverence usually reserved for a cathedral tour. And in truth, these cellars are a place of worship: a subterranean temple to patience and precision. Every bottle is touched by time; prized vintages laid down for over a decade, marked by the character of its season and the quiet decisions of those who nurture it.

'Because we're a family-run champagne estate, we have the luxury to take our time,' he says, gazing into a dusty bottle waiting patiently for its time to come. 'Time – especially time on the lees – is a critical factor for greatness in champagne, but unfortunately a lot of producers seem to forget that important fact.'

It’s a sentiment that captures the spirit of Billecart-Salmon, founded in 1818 by Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon. Seven generations later, the family still follows the same principles: finesse over force; freshness over flamboyance. While many houses have embraced modernity with industrial zeal, Billecart-Salmon moves to a slower rhythm, trusting in intuition as much as innovation.

Just a few steps from the family home, in a small walled 'garden vineyard', this philosophy takes root – quite literally. Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, a single hectare of Pinot Noir vines, is a marvel of meticulous viticulture. The vines here are tended to with fastidious detail; horses plough the rows, sheep graze the plot after the harvest, to help fertilise the soil, and every grape is hand-harvested with reverence. The result, bottled as Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, is one of Billecart-Salmon's rarest expressions – a soulful wine with profound complexity.

Tasting it in situ is a special moment. The wine is rich and deep, with real precision. Notes of hazelnut, a dusting of spice, and orchard fruit give way to echoes of minerality, reminding one of the earthy silences in the cellars below. There’s a distinct sense of place in every sip: a conversation between soil and winemaking craft that has been ongoing for more than two centuries.

The main guest house was refurbished in 2024 by French-American interior designer Elliott Barnes and feels both timeless and intimate. The inside walls are decorated with unique natural materials, and the wall covering is appropriately called ‘Winepaper’ for the ingenious way it combines hemp and linen with dried grape skins, sourced from grapes hand-picked from the Clos Saint-Hilaire plot during the 2022 harvest. Outside, a majestic bicentennial chestnut tree dominates the courtyard, underscoring the family's commitment to the importance of appreciating time and tradition.

The core range of wines, from the lighter, delicate, Chardonnay-rich Blanc de Blancs, through to the oak age-driven, toasty, yet beautifully balanced Le Sous Bois, (blended between Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier,) perfectly demonstrate that Billecart-Salmon’s style has always been about subtlety - a considered conversation rather than a shout. Even the rosé, often a sweeter, zesty, fruit-filled explosion in lesser-skilled hands, is a masterclass of intricacy: paler than most other brands and delicately perfumed, with freshly picked strawberries. It’s champagne for reflection as much as celebration.

'The wine world is often far too inward-looking,' says Mathieu. 'Our objective is to bring a smile to people's faces. If you can't smile after a glass of Billecart-Salmon, then we haven't done our jobs properly,' he beams.

With the afternoon sun dipping low over the village, glinting off the slate rooftops, somewhere beneath us, the bottles continue their slow transformation, watched over by a family that understands the value of waiting. Seven generations on, Billecart-Salmon remains a house not of spectacle, but of soul – a reminder that true elegance lies not in extravagance, but in the quiet pursuit of perfection.

champagne-billecart.fr

Paris may be known as the city of love or light, but French visual artist Ash Love views it through a more grounded lens. ‘Paris, to me, is the city of back-and-forths,’ they tell Wallpaper*. ‘It’s a place of hopping on trains, coming and going, and experiencing everything it has to offer along the way.’

Born in Bordeaux and now based in Madrid due to an art residency at Casa de Velázquez, Love has frequented the French capital since childhood. Since graduating from HEAD Genève in 2021, the artist has travelled widely to present and exhibit their work. Following their first solo show with Exo Exo in May 2025, Love and the gallery reunite this autumn for a solo presentation at Art Basel 2025 (booth M54, part of the fair’s emerging sector), which runs until 26 October.

Titled ‘Bébé Boum,’ the showcase unpacks the social construct of birthdays. Floating balloons printed with images from the artist’s archive and a series of paintings conceived as greeting cards evoke the erosion of meaning that accompanies age and repetition. Through commercial typography and iconography, Love creates a physical and symbolic space that celebrates the mundane. Their distinctive approach to constructing reality through language – spanning painting, installation, writing, and performance – finds distilled expression here.

When leaves turn orange and the air is crisp, Love always makes a case to be in Paris. ‘Autumn is when the days grow shorter – my favourite time to meet friends in a café and sit indoors, sheltered from the city’s constant hustle,’ they say. Here, they share their go-to haunts.

What to see and do in Paris, Ash Love’s tips

Where to eat and drink

Café les Deux Gares

‘On the menu: cauliflower, olives, salted praline, grapefruit. That equals a quadruple yes from me. I love the foggy atmosphere in winter – perfect for between trains or for a solo date. It’s also part of a great hotel.’

Café les Deux Gares is located at 1 Rue des Deux Gares, 75010 Paris, France

Laïzé

‘Order matcha, bubble tea, and coffee. Drink them in any order you like.’

Laïzé is located at 19 Rue de Montmorency, 75003 Paris, France

Paloma

‘Women-owned, tiled to perfection, and all about seafood – what more could you want?’

Paloma is located at 93 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020 Paris, France

What to do

Exo Exo

‘Currently on view is Yann Stéphane Bissô’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. I may be biased, as Yann is both a friend and an artist I truly admire, but since Exo Exo is also my gallery and art family, I must recommend it.’

Exo Exo is located at 34 Rue Albert Thomas, 75010 Paris, France

ICI – Institut des Cultures d’Islam

‘[Expect] insightful and heartfelt exhibitions, often from emerging artists. [It’s] worth sparing some time [here] when passing through Paris.’

ICI – Institut des Cultures d’Islam has two venues. ICI Léon is located at 19 Rue Léon, 75018 Paris, France, while ICI Stephenson is at 56 Rue Stephenson

Le Louxor

‘A historic public cinema with a colourful past – it had a stint as a discotheque in the late 1980s. Catch a premiere or buy tickets to see an anime in this spectacular and unique building (again, with tiles).’

Le Louxor is located at 170 Bd de Magenta, 75010 Paris, France

Where to shop

After 8 Books

‘My most treasured bookstore. Come with the intention of finding a specific book, speak to the staff, leave with one different to what you had in mind – guaranteed effect.’

After 8 Books is located at 7 Rue Jarry, 75010 Paris, France

Marché d’Aligre

‘Rue d’Aligre is the best place for grocery shopping. After grabbing your weekly haul of ripe fruits and fresh vegetables, finish your visit by heading to the square at the end of the street to find antiques and second-hand treasures. A childhood memory.’

Marché d’Aligre is located at Pl. d'Aligre, 75012 Paris, France

Also read our guides to Art Basel 2025 and the best design exhibitions to see in Paris while you're there.

On the green Giens peninsula beneath Hyères in the south of France, the Hôtel Le Provençal has recently reopened after a redesign. Blending old Provence with Riviera spirit, the third-generation family hotel dates back to the early 1950s, when Marius Michel, the first chef of Le Lido cabaret in Paris, began purchasing pockets of land with a dream. Both embedded in village life and elegantly beachy, it’s a place where fishermen and old ladies sit for coffee and newspapers, while champagne-fuelled table-dancing can unfold at night. Gardens lead down to its original bright-blue coastal swimming pool, worthy of a Slim Aarons photo shoot.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hôtel Le Provençal, Hyères

What’s on your doorstep?

The view from the hotel opens up a landscape of trees and beach coves waiting to be explored. Step out for coastal walks, hiking and the Pesquiers salt marshes, a habitat for pink flamingoes. The hotel has local contacts for boat trips; the Porquerolles islands can be reached by ferry for more nature, as well as the Carmignac Foundation villa and gardens. Within walking distance is the Musée du Niel, a modernist villa exhibiting mid-to-late 20th-century art, and a short drive away, the 1920s Villa Noailles in Hyères, a former retreat for Surrealist artists, today hosting the annual Design Parade.

Who’s behind the design?

This new chapter opens with a colourful refresh by Paris-based designer Rodolphe Parente, in collaboration with the owners, brothers Benjamin and Damien Piffet, grandsons of Marius Michel, and their partners Lene Arentsen and Julie Liger, deputy director of the Villa Noailles, who curated the artists and craftspeople involved. The scenography is welcoming and subtly surrealist: simplicity is met by vibrancy, and warmth is expressed by crafted details and patterned upholstery.

Familiar elements have been proudly preserved, such as the vast 1950s sculptural Rognes limestone fireplace in the lounge. While new surprises, such as the cocktail bar, hidden behind a velvet curtain, reveal Parente’s trademark glamour. Bold and playful artists’ editions include a tennis-themed wobbly ceramic amphora by Perrine Boudy, and a pale pink ceramic fresco of fish by Maximilien Pellet. Loyal locals and guests approve, with one remarking: ‘Everything changed, but nothing changed.’

The room to book

Colour schemes of warm yellow, pink and green alternate across the rooms. Each features framed black-and-white photos from the hotel archive; handcrafted metal fish-shaped door handles to the glossy ceramic-tiled bathrooms; and Fragonard products with a Verveine scent created specially for the hotel. For the most magical experience of waking up to the pure blue horizon, two new sea-view suites have huge picture windows at the foot of the beds. Suites have record players with curated discs of smooth Mediterranean vibes and on their private rooftop terraces, Hay Palissades furniture.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Four restaurants serve up different atmospheres. Firstly, La Brasserie, with a congenial all-day menu of classic French cuisine from Aioli to Provençal daube. La Rascasse is a favourite for local celebrations with a romantic winter garden and terrace above canopies of umbrella pines and the expanse of sea. Chef Sébastien Graize’s short, hyper-seasonal menu offers a fresh take on tradition – local delicacies such as panisse and bouillabaisse reimagined in new shapes, with delicate layers of flavours and textures.

A tree-lined pathway leads down to the chic yet laidback Bar du Soleil; seasonal dining (May to October) in dappled shade, with sea views, and colourful Ravel ceramics. Fish of the day, maigre, is presented with lemon curd dressing on a bed of local potatoes and tiny tangy tomatoes. Past the tennis courts and just above the pool, Le Barbecue opens in July and August with an open-air grill sizzling with marbled côte de bœuf and red mullet.

Local produce is sourced between Bandol and Le Lavandou – such as juicy, colourful ‘vineyard’ peaches and La Môle cheese. Wine is local and organic, and fish is supplied by local fisherman Alain (fishing from the Port du Niel for 40 years since he was 12 years old). On visiting, his catch includes a handsome red Chapon from the Rascasse family, the last of the season, atop a glistening pile.

The verdict

Welcoming, playful and alive, the Hôtel Le Provençal has found a balance between past and present, blending heritage with fresh takes. This year, it opens for the winter season for the first time – the cosy lounge with its medieval style candle-chandeliers is ideally equipped for a game of chess by the fire after a hike. New chapters are set to follow, with a terrace bar, spa and accessible rooms scheduled to open in 2026 – and so, the story of this family hotel continues in style.

Hôtel Le Provençal is located at 113 Pl. Saint-Pierre, 83400 Hyères, France.

A new book by long-term Wallpaper* staffer, writer and editor Léa Teuscher explores the diverse expressions of library design across the world. '[They are] symbols of the power of learning, they can be the key to democracy, or become battlegrounds for culture wars,' she writes in the book's introduction. 'Or, they might be safe spaces where public debate thrives and creative gatherings abound.'

In her new book, 150 Libraries You Need to Visit Before You Die, for Lannoo Publishers, Teuscher has collected the world's best, from architect-designed temples of culture to historical palaces of books, to grassroots initiatives that bring reading to the people.

Here, she picks fifteen libraries from the book, to give us a taste of the global diversity of the genre.

Craigieburn Library, Australia

Australian architects Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp of FJCstudio designed the Craigieburn Library in 2014, using locally sourced rammed earth, which they chose for 'its thermal properties and for its symbolic resonance, embedding the building in the very ground from which it rises'. The steel and timber roof structures are lightweight and conceived as a series of interlocking pavilions. On the grounds is also an art gallery and café. When it opened, the Craigieburn Library was honoured as the IFLA Public Library of the Year for the way it created ‘a sense of belonging for all, as both a learning centre and a gathering place for the city'.

Beijing Library, China

'This glass-lined library by Snøhetta boasts the world’s largest reading space, a forest of soaring ginkgo columns and a valley of books,' writes Teuscher. From an architectural perspective, the Beijing Library features the world’s largest climatised reading space and China’s largest load-bearing glass system, while inside, it is built as a landscape with volumes shaped like hills separating its spaces. Its high-tech design also comprises the largest automated book storage system in the world and the highest attainable sustainability standard in the country.

Muyinga Library, Burundi

'Muyinga’s first library tells an important story about how to think and build differently,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Belgian practice BC Architects and Studies, the Burundi library is part of an inclusive school for deaf children and was built from earth blocks masonry and baked clay tiles, employing a local labour force and supporting the local economy. A superb example of welcoming design that serves a social function, the Muyinga library also features a large sisal hammock, woven from plants found on the construction site and accessed through a bookshelf that also serves as a ladder.

Drummondville Public Library, Canada

Canada's Drummondville library is connected to the city's history and winter sport mission. Designed by Chevalier Morales with DMA Architectes, the building's aesthetic nods to the city's steel and hydropower heritage, and its silhouettes are inspired by the neighbouring outdoor ice rink, of which the reading rooms have a view. 'An innovative pairing of sport and culture, this award-winning, immensely popular library is proudly of its time and of its place,' writes Teuscher.

Yuyarina Pacha Library, Ecuador

The Yuyarina Pacha children's library was born from the efforts of a reading club organised by local associations Laboratorio Creativo Sarawarmi and Witoca, and designed in 2024 by Quito-based practice Al Borde. 'A space for knowledge, this rainforest library is a symbol of the ability of rural communities to take charge of their own development and learning,' writes Teuscher. The building reflects local techniques, with a structure made of chonta, an Amazonian palm known for its durability and strength, a steep thatched roof and a glass skylight.

Cloud Cave Library, China

Designed like 'a portal to another dimension,' this library is part of the redevelopment of Haikou's coastline and was designed in 2021 by MAD Architects. Nicknamed 'The Wormhole' for the architects' intention to create ‘a journey transcending time and space', the 10,000-book library features a smooth, curved concrete structure with cave-like rooms. ‘Architecture, art, humanity and nature meet here, opening up a journey of visitors’ imaginations to explore and appreciate the meaning that different beauties bring to their lives,’ says MAD’s Ma Yansong

Oodi, Finland

This multifunctional space by ALA Architects opened in 2018 and its offering, including a cinema, workshops with 3D printers, a video games room and a reading room embodies what a contemporary library should be. ‘Everyone is welcome at Oodi, and equality is the most important of the library’s values – together with freedom of expression,’ says its director Anna-Maria Soininvaara.

L'Animu Porto Vecchio, France

'Nestled among olive trees, this building by Dominique Coulon & Associés symbolises the importance of the local public library in France,' writes Teuscher. This library opened in 2021, the same year the French government declared libraries 'an essential public service’. The architects created a building that complements the surrounding landscape, informed by the location of the olive trees and rocks found on site, and includes a garden, shaded terrace and summer bar.

Oscar Niemeyer Library, France

'A once dormant hall has been turned into a stylish cultural hub now bustling with readers,' says Teuscher of this building, one of two volcano-shaped Oscar Niemeyer structures in Le Havre. The space was originally conceived in the late 1970s as a cultural hall among the modernist apartment blocks of Auguste Perret. Niemeyer gave permission in 2006 to transform the building into a public library, a transformation led by Françoise Sogno and Deshoulières Jeanneau to update the space with natural light and a winter garden.

Library of Birmingham, UK

'Uniting the ‘written and the spoken word’, this library and theatre is an ode to the circle, wrapped in a delicate filigree façade inspired by the city’s crafts and industries,' writes Teuscher of the Mecanoo-designed Birmingham library. The design references the city’s jewellery heritage and steel industry and it is based on eight rotundas, including a golden room on the roof which is home to the library’s Victorian Shakespeare Memorial.

City of Parramatta Library (Phive), Australia

In the Western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, this library was completed in 2023 by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, and inspired by local flora, with a roof shaped to maximise sunlight and communicate with the surrounding infrastructure. ‘The carefully sculpted final volume gives the impression of literally bending under the passage of the sun across the sky,’ explains Gautrand. The library includes a children’s centre, a theatre, and a Keeping Place dedicated to local Indigenous artefacts and reserved for the Aboriginal Dharug people.

Shanghai Library East, China

'Evoking a scholar’s rock in a Chinese garden, this beautifully detailed, art-filled cultural hub appears to float above Shanghai’s Century Park,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Danish studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL), it was completed in 2022 to ‘embrace the idea of collection to connection – a space to bring people together'. The shape is a nod to the Taihu stones that Chinese scholars used for inspiration and meditation, and the exterior is clad with panels imprinted with photographs of marble swirls. The library holds a whopping 4.8 million books, as well as play spaces, outdoor reading rooms, and panoramic views of the city.

Tama Art University Library, Japan

A masterpiece by Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Toyo Ito, this library is made of concrete arches seemingly floating above the university campus. ‘A light and rhythmic space is achieved by placing arches with tapered footings continuously in different directions; but the interior space as a whole has a sense of tranquillity and transparency,’ says Ito.

Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, USA

The interior of Yale University's Beinecke Library features a six-storey, glass-enclosed tower of books, holding around 180,000 rare volumes. A Skidmore, Owings & Merrill project from 1963, the design is based on a grid of translucent Vermont marble panels that act as windows while protecting the precious collection from direct light. 'Design fans will want to check out the Florence Knoll and Marcel Breuer furniture, as well as the Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden,' says Teuscher.

Mariam's Library, Tanzania

'Built in only 34 days on a tight budget, Mariam’s Library shows that low-cost libraries can be as impactful as big landmark projects,' writes Teuscher of this Zanzibar library, part of Kuwait-based Parallel Studio's Parallel Gives – a volunteer-supported initiative dedicated to community service. Built from perforated bricks, the structure is conceived to stay cool and offer shade, while the corrugated roof filters the light above. '[The focus is] how to contribute to the global community, how architecture can positively affect human development, and how we can inspire our colleagues to spread such kindness,' says Parallel Studio founder, Mai Al Busairi.

In 1984, the French sculptor César told Cartier president Alain Dominique Perrin that it took public museums too much time to organise exhibitions. So Perrin decided to create the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, where decisions would be made quickly and artists given total freedom. That year, it opened on an estate outside Paris, becoming France’s first corporate sponsor of contemporary art.

Ten years later, it made its way into the capital, to a steel-and-glass building on Boulevard Raspail designed by Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel. Now, the pioneering institution is entering a whole new era, relocating to vast premises in the heart of Paris, with an even more radical renovation by Nouvel.

Inside the brand new Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris

Located next to the Musée du Louvre, the Fondation Cartier’s new home has a very Parisian history. It started out as the city’s first luxury hotel, opening in time for the 1855 Universal Exposition. High-end boutiques on the ground and mezzanine floors became so popular that the hotel moved out and the building became a department store, the Grands Magasins du Louvre (the inspiration for Emile Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames). It later housed an antiques mall before finally closing in 2018.

For the building’s newest chapter, Nouvel left the façade untouched and gutted the interior, freeing up 8,500 sq m for public spaces, including 6,500 sq m for exhibitions. ‘This project doesn’t impose contemporary architecture; it explores the possibilities inside the existing framework,’ he says. ‘The history of the place becomes an active material, a fertile constraint.’

Around the structure’s original limestone arches, he introduced concrete, glass and steel. Five huge mobile platforms in recycled steel span nearly the entire length of the building. Able to hold large and heavy works, they can be positioned in multiple combinations, from the floor of level -1 to the ceiling, 11m above, offering a startling diversity of exhibition choices. Pulleys and cables are visible underneath the platforms. ‘By making the mechanism apparent, we reveal the potential for transformation, adaptation, reconfiguration and change,’ says Nouvel, who refers to the building as a ‘support for inventions’ where every detail is meant to provoke the imagination.

Large bay windows on Rue de Rivoli and Rue Saint-Honoré, reminiscent of those in the Grands Magasins du Louvre, allow passers-by to see into the building, and visitors to look out. ‘At Boulevard Raspail, I wanted to erase the borders between the museum and the city,’ says Nouvel. ‘Here, the context is different, more dense, more historic. But the desire remains the same: to create porosity, visual continuity, new perspectives and resonance between the intimacy of the space and the life of the city.’

Overhead, three glass panels reveal trees planted on the roof. When the panels are uncovered, sunlight through the leaves creates moving shadows on the interior walls. But the ceiling and windows can also be completely shuttered, for total darkness.

‘This building that Jean created for us is the culmination of a particularly Parisian chapter of dynamic architecture,’ says Fondation Cartier director Chris Dercon. He’s referring to a period that started with the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which celebrated avant-garde architecture. In 1939, Jean Prouvé was part of the design team for the pioneering Maison du Peuple in Clichy with a retractable floor and roof. Prouvé then presided over the jury that chose Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers to design the Centre Pompidou, conceived to be fully modular. More recently, Rem Koolhaas inserted four mobile platforms into an exhibition tower for contemporary art foundation Lafayette Anticipations.

Today, says Dercon, modern technology and greater ease in obtaining building permits make dynamic architecture more feasible than ever. While this expands curatorial possibilities, it also presents new challenges to artists and scenographers. ‘Confronted with such architecture, you have to be courageous and experimental,’ he notes, using the term ‘cubist’ to describe the new Fondation Cartier.

‘It is non-linear, everything happens simultaneously, so we have to imagine how to create spaces for paintings, or how to create isolation for works that need intimacy.’

For the inaugural exhibition, which opens on 25 October, design studio Formafantasma conceived the scenography to show off the artworks as well as the building, arranging the platforms to offer a glimpse of the whole space from one end to the other. In marked contrast to what Dercon calls the ‘white cube syndrome’, they employed textiles and paper to support the displays.

Entitled ‘Exposition Générale’ (taken from the name for the highly anticipated sales events held at stores such as the Grands Magasins in the 19th century), the exhibition contains nearly 600 works from the Fondation Cartier’s 4,500-work collection, acquired over four decades from shows it has previously commissioned. These artworks demonstrate to what extent experimentation and eclecticism have always been key to the Fondation Cartier story.

The participating artists represent a range of disciplines: among them are drawings by filmmaker David Lynch, a table made of miniature bricks by architect Bijoy Jain, an exuberant ‘salón de eventos’ by Bolivia’s Freddy Mamani, and a stone grafted with hair from Black barbershops by David Hammons. An immersive installation showing global migration patterns by architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro is based on the ideas of philosopher Paul Virilio, who appears several times throughout the exhibition.

Architecture is one of the show’s four major themes, which seems apt as the Fondation Cartier’s new building enters the pantheon of remarkable spaces for art and culture in Paris. Dercon mentions a few – the Centre Pompidou, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Bourse de Commerce and, of course, the Fondation Cartier’s famous neighbour. ‘Being next to the Louvre, now that’s the greatest challenge, isn’t it?’

jeannouvel.com

fondationcartier.com

This article appears in the November 2025 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + on 9 October. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Set amidst a graciously tumble-down array of traditional farm buildings, the Amassa wellness and yoga retreat is a combination of old and new, courtesy of Somerset-based architects Bindloss Dawes. The firm has enhanced the existing buildings with new mezzanines and openings, preserving the gently ramshackle forms of the barns and cottages while also updating the services and environmental performance.

The retreat, set up by a British couple with a long connection to the Gascony region of France, offers accommodation and courses in yoga and pilates, alongside art and craft workshops with a focus on seasonal cuisine and communal dining. The architectural approach is subtle and considered, with an emphasis on preserving the original character while also introducing modern standards and services.

According to architect Oliver Bindloss, ‘we approached the project with a desire to preserve and retain the beautiful character of the original hamlet of buildings.’ The most dramatic approach was the main barn, a large but gloomy three-hundred-year-old stone and timber structure with only a couple of small existing openings. ‘A bolder approach was needed to reinvigorate and open up the space to sunlight and views,’ says Bindloss.

The decision was taken to create a large west-facing opening that serves as both a structural stabiliser and a way of bringing light into the heart of the barn. ‘We worked closely with the local builder who is a master stonemason and his team who repaired all the stone walls as well as making the in situ-concrete interventions which sits so well next to the rawness of the original stone,’ says Bindloss.

Work also extended to repairing and insulating the timber roof, retaining the lattice of original beams while adding new boards and pantiles to improve its thermal performance. The main space is some ten metres in height, with a new polished concrete floor and mezzanine inserted to maximise the available space. The mezzanine appears suspended between the original rough textured stone walls.

The new opening measures four metres in height, a vast sliding glass door in a concrete frame that provides views out across the landscape and brings evening light deep into the space. The restored roof and new concrete elements dramatically increase the barn’s thermal mass, keeping it cool in the warm summer months as well as creating a calm, almost monastic atmosphere that suits the Amassa approach.

Around the site there are other restored buildings, including the tractor shed, bakery and piggery. These stand in stark contrast to other more polished parts of the site, including the two swimming pools and treatment room. Guest accommodation within the main house is kept rustic and plain, with an eclectic mix of traditional furnishings and restored surfaces.

‘Bindloss Dawes were a natural choice for us, capable of reinvigorating historic contexts, enhancing Amassa’s connection to the rural landscape,’ say the clients, ‘They listened to every aspect of our brief, and were able to adapt it further. Our new retreat is private and tranquil, yet surprising and vibrant. We look forward to hosting and sharing the new space for many years to come.’

Bindloss Doors was established in Bruton in 2018. Previous projects include the Autobarn for a Porsche collector, and a concrete extension to a house in Stoke Newington.

BindlossDawes.com

AmassaPlace.com

Standing tall on Paris’ legendary Rue de Rivoli, Le Meurice has long been synonymous with French luxury. A sort of ‘modern-day Versailles’, the 190-year-old palace, which is part of the Dorchester Collection of hotels, has decided to shake things up via a futuristic collaboration with Géraldine Boublil and Jessica Solnicki, the Franco-Argentinian interior design duo behind Things From. Their brainchild is Suite 1835, an immersive and meditative stay available for a limited time (from 8 October to 31 December 2025).

Suite 1835 at Le Meurice Paris

A gradual transition from the neo-classical opulence of the palace’s carpeted, pastel-green corridors into a futuristic cocoon becomes more and more palpable when reaching the installation-like suite. Located on the sixth floor, the space is bathed in neon light, which starkly reflects on the aluminium flooring and sets the mood alongside an electro-chic soundscape.

‘The installation is like an exhibition. We want [guests] to experience both a relaxing moment and an arty journey,’ says Boublil. ‘In a way, it’s like sleeping inside the exhibition.’

Suite 1835 unfolds across three rooms: a living room, a bedroom, and a yoga and meditation space. Each is arranged as a stage for sound, light, and image, creating a universe that heightens the senses. The meditation room features a rotating mirrored cube displaying digital work generated by AI.

Things From set out to create an atmosphere that transcends the material. ‘It’s our dream as designers and architects not to feel so limited by the material, and to be able to express the wide range of feelings we have,’ explains Solnicki. ‘Material has a big limitation – it’s often seen as something cold, rigid, unmoving – but it can be considerably elevated with images. AI is helping us break those boundaries.’

Regardless, materiality also plays a big role in this installation. The palace’s upholstered furniture has been swapped for custom-made pieces by ISSKA Studio, all handcrafted in Argentina. Though distinctly modern, each piece – made with noble materials such as wood, marble and bronze – resonates with Le Meurice’s heritage all the while enhancing the rooms with a modern design. Stools painted in shades of green act as a nod to the palace’s signature palette, while the bronze screen is inspired by the intricate woven link bracelet of a Cartier timepiece.

‘I try to take the present and the past, and project it into the future through materiality, sensations, wonders, questions, and positivity,’ says Solnicki.

Suite 1835 is available for €3,850 per night. Le Meurice Paris is located at 228 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France.

In an era obsessed with speed, a new Hermès workshop stands defiantly timeless. The venerable Parisian house’s twenty-fourth facility of its kind, focusing on leather goods, unfurls across the French countryside in a 5,800 sq m modern structure that houses 260 craftsmen and women committed to the radical act of taking time to produce goods by hand. Based in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine hamlet of L'Isle-d'Espagnac, a town of approximately 6,000 inhabitants, the contemporary building rises boldly yet unobtrusively out of the rustic plain, as if it has always belonged.

We tour the new Hermès workshop in France

This is not nostalgic romanticism masquerading as commerce; this is Hermès doing what it has honed over nearly 200 years: elevating the human hand to an art form, insisting that some things simply cannot – and should not – be rushed. As one craftsman puts it, 'the quality [produced] is [based on] the know-how. It’s having the leather in our hands. All types of leather are different. Even the dyes – the colours – respond differently.' He continues, 'We work with each piece of leather and anticipate its reaction. You need to have this manual approach. This is something that machines cannot do.'

Perhaps ironically, a modern building like this seems like a contradiction; handcrafted leather work continues in what is a thoroughly modern space. However, the synthesis of natural light, organic, and ,where possible, locally sourced material, makes the building look and feel just as it should.

As this facility is situated in an agrarian region that produces some of the world’s leading wines, custardy canalé and other culinary delights, being intentional about creating distinctive architecture that manages to feel natural is an achievement. That seamless design was the product of Bordeaux-based studio Guiraud-Manenc, which conceived a structure that functions as both sanctuary and statement.

Paying homage to the hand craftsmanship carried out in the facility, its design feels precise and careful. Straw-based insulation contributes to creating an aura of age-old craft techniques and facilitates integration with its surroundings. Charente stone anchors the design to its regional terroir, striking a balance between heritage and innovation.

The workshop is organised around a central aisle, with working and communal areas designed to benefit from natural daylight. Solar-panelled roofs catch light and distribute it into the workspace, where apprentices will spend years mastering fabrication techniques that machines could theoretically accomplish in minutes, but perhaps without the same quality and certainly without the emotional connection to the material.

Designed with the natural ecology in mind, the workshop is a positive energy building consistent with Hermès’ 'Harmonie' sustainable real estate framework. Sustainable architecture features include large glass façades that allow natural light to flood the interior, a partially planted roof fitted with 1,800 sq m of solar panels, a geothermal system for heating, and an energy-efficient technical framework.

In addition, the landscaping preserves flora and fauna native to the site. The facility is accessible by public transport, and greenways encourage sustainable commuting. According to the design firm, most materials used are low-carbon and were sourced within 250 kilometres of the site.

The architecture doesn't merely house artisans; it amplifies their gestures, matching human rhythm to natural surroundings with an almost choreographic grace. This is Hermès demonstrating that, in a world of mass production, architecture itself can be an object of luxury—a space where design doesn't just function but transcends it.

guiraud-manenc.com

hermes.com

Paris’ coffee landscape has grown crowded with artisanal roasters, but Café Nuances has managed to carve out its own rarefied space. The venture of brothers Charles and Raphaël Corrot now stretches to four addresses. The latest? A sculptural espresso bar in the Marais that joins satellites in the Golden Triangle, Place Vendôme and Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Each location is a distinct experiment in form, and the Marais outpost is perhaps the boldest yet: a coolly industrial composition by Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios. Nuriev, who recently turned his eye to east London with a futuristic seafood bistro, sees this project as a full-circle moment. The site is next to the café that his studio designed for Dover Street Market Paris shortly after he relocated to the French capital from New York. It becomes, as he notes, ‘almost spiritual to return to the spot where it all began’.

Café Nuances Marais

Nuriev had already collaborated with the Corrot brothers on a pop-up event a few years ago. Café Nuances Marais is, however, firmly rooted in Rue des Francs Bourgeois. Inside, Crosby Studio’s language is unmistakable. Stainless steel is bathed in an electric flash of orange. Inspired by Pierre Restany and Yves Klein’s Nouveau Réalisme, the space rejects ornamentation: every piece of furniture functions as sculpture, every line purposeful. Counters and seating evoke the crushed geometry of used coffee cups. ‘The light installation allows everyone to engage with the space from the outside,’ explains Nuriev.

Amid all the visual bravura, the coffee itself refuses to play second fiddle. Six bean varieties (from Brazil, Ethiopia, Peru, Tanzania, El Salvador, and Mexico) are roasted and served from early morning until late afternoon. These can be paired with homemade pastries, such as vegan banana bread or melt-in-the-mouth lemon and poppy seed cake, alongside riffs on Viennese classics. Kyoto-sourced matcha, creamy and hazelnut-toned, slips seamlessly into the ritual.

Café Nuances Marais is located at 51 Rue des Francs Bourgeois, 75004 Paris, France.