‘Squeeze’ by Paul Cocksedge at the historic Hôtel de Sully. FRONT ROW FROM LEFT: Mary Burgers, Caitlin Jones Ghajar, Jenny Guggenheim. MIDDLE FROM LEFT: Shawn Williams, Tobi Wray, Garret Werner. BACK FROM LEFT: David Genson, Zac Butt. Photographed by Caitlin Jones Ghajar.
In September, GRAY visited Paris for a VIP tour of Maison&Objet and Paris Design Week. We invited seven designers from the Pacific Northwest to join us: Caitlin Jones Ghajar, Tobi Wray and David Genson, Jenny Guggenheim, Garret Werner, Zac Butt, and Mary Burgers. The city was buzzing with creativity, offering an incredible array of designs and a whirlwind of inspiring encounters that left us wanting more. Each moment was a chance to discover new resources and gather fresh inspiration. It’s proven difficult to pare down, but here is a selection of standouts from the trip.
Maison&Objet
This edition marked the 30th anniversary of Maison&Objet, which lived up to its hype with a well-curated roster of more than 2,000 inspiring brands and creative works on exhibit.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY SHAWN WILLIAMS
We began the tour at the What’s New: Hospitality feature designed by Lionel Jadot, a Belgian interior designer, decorator, and artist, and M&O’s Designer of the Year. He presented a hospitality-themed installation featuring an innovative combination of craftsmanship, upcycling, and collective works.
PHOTOGRAPHS ©ANNE-EMMANUELLE THION, COURTESY MAISON&OBJET
PHOTOGRAPHS ©ANNE-EMMANUELLE THION, COURTESY MAISON&OBJET
The Rising Talent Awards featured Nordic designers this year. Two of our favorites were Ali Shah Gallefoss (above) from Norway, who featured sand-cast benches and vases, and Flétta, a design duo out of Iceland who brought CMYK, a collection of ceiling lights crafted from repurposed aluminum plates originally used in offset printing, and Trophy, a line of pendants and table lamps made from discarded trophies (below).
PHOTOGRAPHS ©ANNE-EMMANUELLE THION, COURTESY MAISON&OBJET
A collection of avant-garde designs debuted at the Maison&Objet FACTORY by Paris Design Week. These limited-edition tables made of lacquered wood by SENIMO have to be my favorite pieces of the show.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY SENIMO
For Garret and Zac, the standouts were the sculptural outdoor showers and dressing rooms. Docciart, created by Il Giardino di Corten, is constructed with a double layer of Corten steel. It can be customized to meet specific functional and wellness needs and is compatible with nearly any accessory available on the market.
COURTESY IL GIARDINO DI CORTEN
Paris Design Week
After Maison&Objet, we returned to the city for cocktails at the Day Bed installation in the cour d'honneur of Hôtel de la Marine. Uchronia, a Parisian multidisciplinary design collective, reinterpreted the iconic four-poster French bed. They employed a vibrant color palette that evoked the décor of the eighteenth-century flats in the hotel. The ceramic tiles are from the Dutch brand Palet, and the benches were custom color-matched by the American brand Tonester Paints.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY FELIX DOL MAILLOT, COURTESY MAISON&OBJET
The ‘Squeeze’ installation by Paul Cocksedge at the historic Hôtel de Sully impressed us all. We could have easily spent the entire day there.
PHOTOGRAPHS ©MARK COCKSEDGE
“This was truly magical,” Caitlin remarked. “The organically shaped, contemporary mirrors and 3D objects reflected the architecture of the 17th-century private mansion in a mind-bending way — it took my breath away.” The exhibition explores the process of creating reflective surfaces, which Cocksedge refers to as a form of alchemy. He compressed soft, circular forms and then reinterpreted them into two-dimensional mirrors.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY STUDIO BRINTH
It didn’t take long for Mary to spot Canadian designers AndLight (above) at the Boon Room in Paris for their presentation of lights by Lukas Peet and Caine Heintzman. She also called out the debut work of brothers Alexandre and Maxence Roche of Roche & Frères at Espace Commines. “Their galactic chair, Arès (below), inspired by the blades of ice and the metal parts of armor, sliced through the show, and I loved the shock of seeing such a high-tech-dystopian aesthetic,” Mary noted. “No creative mind thinks alike, and seeing this diverse range of global product design is why we go to design weeks like this.”
COURTESY ROCHE & FRERES
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY TOBI WRAY
Inspired by innovation, Tobi and David were drawn to the Climate Change installation at the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Paris. They had fun with Poumtchak Studio’s headset devices designed for conversations in restaurants. This concept developed post-COVID, allows for privacy among guests by amplifying and directing sound from one person to another while blocking out external noise.
Additionally, they were impressed by TENIR, an inventive concept by Studio PART. The designers created a growth mold to shape willow vegetation into seating. Over time, the willow structure becomes self-supporting, and the mold can be removed and reused repeatedly.
LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY MAISON&OBJET; RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHED BY TOBI WRAY
Andreas Rier’s glasswork stood out for Jenny. Rier works with crystal glass, blowing it into wooden molds carved with a chainsaw. Some of his pieces function as vessels, while others serve as visual collectibles. “Rier’s edited color palette and varied scale allow for a collected presentation, with a hint of softened brutalism in his Uno col’ altro, which translates to ‘One With the Other) pieces.’”
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HELMUTH RIER, COURTESY MAISON&OBJET
Thank you to Paris Design Week, Maison&Objet, and the team at S2H Communication for our VIP experience. We look forward to returning next year.
The next edition of Maison&Objet is January 16–20, 2025.
For tickets and info, visit maison-objet. We'll see you there!