Paris Design Week: The Intramuros Eye
For this new edition of Paris Design Week, the Intramuros team slipped through the capital's arteries to discover the season's latest exhibitions and new releases. Here is a look back at the ones you shouldn't have missed.
From September 10th to 19th, design once again took over the streets of Paris, much to our delight! Whether industrial or collectible, the creative sector made headlines again, both through new collections and new gatherings. It was an opportunity to rediscover certain profiles and meet new minds driven by innovative concepts. Among all the installations we discovered, here are the ones that particularly caught our attention.
Picnic by Cluzel / Pluchon: an invitation to lunch
Following Marianna Ladreyt last year, designers Cluzel / Pluchon took over the courtyard of the Hôtel d’Albret to present the Picnic installation, created in collaboration with manufacturer Guyon Mobilier Urbain. Conceived as an invitation to share and wander, Picnic was unveiled as a life-sized picnic table over seven meters long. Continuing the Gier duo's well-known collection, it combined locust wood slats with a powder-coated steel structure, drawing a generous curve to create a dialogue between urban furniture and conviviality.
GOOD SELECTION by Lucas Zito and Marika Caputo: new scenes
Organized by Lucas Zito and Marika Caputo, the second edition of GOOD SELECTION was held this year in the heart of the Fondation Fiminco in Romainville. Now disused, the former pharmaceutical factory—reminiscent of some of the most surprising Milanese venues chosen by Alcova—was taken over for the occasion by 47 international designers. Favoring dialogue between creations rather than formal classification, the exhibition offered various living spaces. A combination of styles and atmospheres provided visitors with a new, more embodied perspective on this so-called "collectible" design.
Volt Face by Studio 5.5 and Schneider Electric: high-voltage collection
Studio 5.5 teamed up with Schneider Electric to imagine the Volt Face lighting and furniture collection, designed using the Odace range and presented at the Galerie Joseph on Rue des Minimes. Faithful to their taste for repurposing everyday objects, Vincent Baranger and Anthony Lebossé chose to make the socket and switch the main element of their creation, rather than an afterthought. Developed as wall lights, pendants, lamps, tables, and even nightstands, each piece plays with the repetition and assembly of the modules. Conceived as a true creative palette, the Odace range thus becomes a material to be composed, but also to be touched and operated, making these pieces playful and offering a fresh look at these familiar yet often undervalued objects.
Tout est Chaos by PLI Office: ordering the desirable
After initiating "Pour que tu m’aimes encore" in 2024 and "Design Disco Club" the following year, Christopher Dessus returned this year with "Tout est chaos." Presented at the Gaîté Lyrique, the exhibition brought together a body of work that acts as a vector for surprise. A feeling conveyed by the material or the form, but also and above all by a freer consideration of usage. It is a counterpoint to modernist design, which is generally serial and fundamentally utilitarian, here abandoned in favor of narrative. It was an opportunity to see very personal research collide, such as the non-linear or even random work of the series, the reinterpretation of industrial archetypes reworked by hand, or new explorations blending industry and craftsmanship. Driven by a nearly free participation, the 66 selected designers delivered a specific idea of design, claimed by 10 of them through installations and even a projection imagined as a manifesto.
Victoria Wilmotte: Stainless Steel Collection
For this year's Paris Design Week, Victoria Wilmotte unveiled nearly a dozen pieces. Whether brand new or reimagined existing typologies, this collection continues to explore a world defined by geometry and a distinct industrial spirit. Crafted from stainless steel—sometimes featuring textures that evoke the technique of hammering—the various objects diffused light, along with the signature blue hue championed by the designer.
Opus by Studio CHHO: A New Trajectory
Launched a decade ago, the interior architecture firm Hoch unveiled Studio CHHO, the creative force behind Opus. This debut furniture collection, whose name suggests both a first chapter and a technical term for stone masonry, consists of five pieces. Developed over a year and a half, it highlights taut lines and 90° and 45° angles, delivering a bold aesthetic language with generous forms. Enhanced by a restrained palette of three materials—stained birch veneer, hammered glass, and vibrated stainless steel—the pieces were conceived as "objects of presence." This term, unique to the studio, reflects creations made in the south of France that embody the firm's sober yet characterful DNA.
"The Light Library" by Studio Meaningfull: Coloring Light
Continuing their research into color, which began with the Agora du Design grant they won in 2021, Studio Meaningfull—comprising Marine Rouit-Leduc, Galilée Al Rifaï, and Nicolas Rouit-Leduc—presented "The Light Library" at Galerie Ideal Place. The exhibition showcased nearly four years of experimentation with the color of light, conceived not as a material, but as a means of interaction. Each shade was developed with reference to natural phenomena, such as the aurora borealis, dawn, and twilight, to achieve a realistic and natural effect. The trio displayed several light-based objects and sculptures, including the Milan lamp, which recently joined the Mobilier National collections. The exhibition was designed to engage the senses and emotions while establishing new chromatic references for light, through an approach that is both sculptural and architectural.
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