Winners of Call No. 3 | Re-enchanting Villa Medici: refurbishment of the guest rooms
The French Academy in Rome announces the three winning teams of the call for projects launched in autumn 2023 for the redevelopment of the Villa Medici guest rooms as part of the vast Re-enchanting Villa Medici project (2022-2025).
Constance Guisset (Constance Guisset Studio), Pierre Gouazé (Signature Murale) & Simon Muller (Arcam Glass): Stratus Surprisus
Constance Guisset (Constance Guisset Studio) Pierre Gouazé (Signature Murale) Simon Muller (Arcam Glass)
The project designed by Constance Guisset, Pierre Gouazé and Simon Muller meets the challenge of refurbishing the smallest of Villa Medici’s guest rooms, optimising it with surprise. The team focused on structuring the space with colour, defining its different uses and taking guests on a journey through Villa Medici’s historical layers. The Constance Guisset Studio worked in partnership with Pierre Gouazé to create wall patinas in homage to Balthus and with the glass artisan Simon Muller to design the lighting based around the Medici coat of arms. The Constance Guisset Studio’s room will be conducive to discovery, concentration and inspiration and will feature scattered nods to Richard Peduzzi and the Rome sky, as well as allowing guests to soak up the spirit and feel of Villa Medici.
Constance Guisset Studio
Constance Guisset founded her studio specialising in design, interior architecture and scenography in 2009. Her work is marked by a search for balance between ergonomics, delicacy and imagination. Her objects are attempts to explore the embodiments of movement by lightness or surprise, while championing a need for bodies and their gestures to feel comfortable and welcome. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2018 and at the Villa Noailles in 2021.
Signature Murale
Pierre Gouazé founded Signature Murale twenty-three years ago, a company specialising in the creation of decorative coatings. After a decade in various positions at JC Decaux, he began by launching himself into the world of decoration by founding Muraspec, followed by Signature Murale. The company became part of the Ateliers de France group in 2013.
Arcam Glass
The glass artisan Simon Muller acquired his expertise at the largest glass workshops in Europe and North America, after training at the Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation aux Arts Verriers (CERFAV). In 2011, he founded Arcam Glass, a workshop specialising in contemporary glass creations.
Zoé Costes and Paola Sabourin (Sabourin Costes) & Paul Mazet and Fantin Mayer-Peraldi (Estampille 52): Isola
Zoé Costes and Paola Sabourin (Sabourin Costes) Paul Mazet and Fantin Mayer-Peraldi (Estampille 52)
The essence of the Isola project is the creation of an environment reflecting the experience of the residency and, more broadly, of Villa Medici itself : an island of calm in the bustling heart of Rome. Inspired by the multifunctional floor plan within the ateliers of great artists and designers such as le Corbusier and Brancusi, the team created a space that adapts itself to the life and work of its occupant. Solid wood, omnipresent in the apartment through different forms, shapes the furniture and layout of this resolutely minimalist and contemporary interior.
Sabourin Costes
Sabourin Costes is a Paris based design studio founded by Paola Sabourin and Zoé Costes. Lead by curiosity, their designs always start with an isolated observation of the physical world; a material with fascinating reflectiveness, a new way of forming resin, or a detail as small as a cabinet handle. Conducted through hands-on experiments and collaborations with local craftsmen, the process development always leads to surprising discoveries. The duo’s touch is always vibrant in colour and materiality, unapologetically bold and contextually resonant.
Estampille 52
Navigating between traditional and contemporary techniques, the carpenter workshop Estampille 52 strives to use materials in a relevant, poetic and responsible way. Both creators and artisans, Fantin Mayer-Peraldi and Paul Mazet stand out thanks to their search for diversity and renewal.
This collaboration on the Isola project allowed the two studios to explore the creation of solid wood custom-made carpentry together, with the shared goals of originality and sustainability.
Johanna Lapray and Hugo L’ahélec (Acte Deux Studio) & Tristan Dassonville: Still Life
Johanna Lapray and Hugo L’ahélec (Acte Deux Studio) Tristan Dassonville
Still Life is rooted in iconographical research based on still lifes. In this project, ceramics take pride of place through the production of artisanal tiles and bas-relief elements that revisit the painting genre in question. It develops in a series of frames. The space is punctuated by small visual distractions, which play a game of gazes with the visitor. The alternative interpretation of the title Still Life expresses Acte Deux Studio’s desire to create an inhabited space, giving visitors the feeling of being expected.
Acte Deux Studio
Acte Deux Studio – Johanna Lapray and Hugo L’ahélec were trained at ENSCI – Les Ateliers. They see their practice as being close to architecture, design and the visual arts, attempting to draw parallels between use and staging, functionality and decor. They see domestic and professional situations as a story made up of shapes, materials and textures that appeal to memory, sensation and emotion. They aim to reflect on the notions of living and hospitality in a more general way.
Tristan Dassonville
Tristan Dassonville is a graduate of ENSA Limoges. The son of a ceramicist, he has been working with clay since a very early age. He collaborates with several artists and designers, assisting them with their ceramic production projects. At the same time, he carries out his own artistic research, marked by integrating living elements. His imaginary world borrows from medieval literature, golden age paintings and digital images. His interest in vernacular techniques sees him go back and forth between art and crafts and pushes him to develop his own production tools.
The competition jury
The competition jury is made up of Alberto Cavalli, executive director of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship and general curator of Homo Faber Event, Domitilla Dardi, design historian and founder of EDIT Napoli, Hedwige Gronier, director of cultural sponsorship at the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, Hervé Lemoine, chairman of the Mobilier national, Christine Macel, director of the Musée des Arts décoratifs, India Mahdavi, architect, designer and scenographer, Isabelle de Ponfilly, chair of the Board of Governors of the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The jury is chaired by Sam Stourdzé, director of the French Academy in Rome -Villa Medici.
Partner of the Re-enchanting Villa Medici project:
