François Champsaur
France
A graduate of the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Marseille and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs (ENSAD), François Champsaur founded his own interior architecture agency in 1996.
From his first realizations, he approaches his interior architecture projects like the realization of his furniture with the will to build spaces and volumes nourished by meaning, in adequacy with a contemporary art of living.
Taste for harmony between interior and exterior, search for a lifestyle close to nature, “sunny” roots of Mediterranean lights … His aesthetic shows a remarkable tension between the overall rendering and the treatment of details. The poetry of a seat, the shadows cast under a pergola, the contrast of a sun yellow touch on a raw wooden wall: its spaces and its furniture are inhabited by a clean soul.
He carried out the transformation of luxury hotels such as the Manapany Hotel in St Barthélémy, the Royal Evian on the shores of Lake Geneva, the Bailli de Suffren hotel in Rayol-Canadel, the Vernet Hotel, the Metropolitan, and the ‘Hôtel du Ministère in Paris, as well as numerous residences for individuals and art collectors.
From the arrangement of small spaces – such as the Café Ineko, rue des Gravilliers – to XXL projects, such as the future hotel project of Ian Shrager in Madrid, with architect John Pawson, his creations seek to reveal a greater osmosis between built and human.
“At the time, when I was at the Beaux-Arts, designers like Sottsass or Branzi conveyed counter-culture. Today, counterculture is ecology. The chefs, who are interested in products and the land, are one step ahead of us. Our profession has not yet revolutionized. ”
Today, he likes to say that he is a lover of the “imperfect” to explain his philosophy, which is strongly inspired by simplicity and the well-crafted crafting of vernacular architecture.
Supporter of a new model of thought and construction, he wishes to give new meaning to space and support change by moving away from industrial design, staying true to what he has always loved: nature, light, local materials, clean lines.
