Studio Haos Keeps Going
What is the most significant recent change or shift in your life or career?
At some point, we grew increasingly frustrated with working with external craftsmen. It was draining, time consuming, long and expensive and we felt limited in terms of what we could achieve. And we also wanted to distance ourselves from a trend that seemed to focus on expensive materials and opulent craftsmanship, sometimes at the expense of the intellectual or aesthetical value of the design itself. And we believe there is a particular, and maybe higher, form of elegance that lies in the ability to express or evoke emotions with restraint and with purposely limited means.
For all these reasons, we decided to free ourselves from reliance on external know-hows and heavy machinery, and instead focus on finding ways to turn humble materials into considered objects and structures. Upon moving to Lisbon we opened a large scale workshop where we can handle the design, the prototyping and the manufacturing in the same space. We can go from an idea to a finished piece in a matter of weeks instead of having to wait months for a first prototype. And we now have a lot more freedom to experiment with materials, processes and finishes.
How did you two meet?
Sophie was on a flight to China where she was going to work for a year, and she happened to be seated next to my sister, who was going to study in Hong Kong. They talked the whole trip, met again in Paris, Sophie came to my sister's birthday party, et voilà.
What was the first project you worked on together?
We wanted to do something together, but not necessarily design. We actually spent a year or two tinkering with photography, which led us to conduct a couple of personal projects together in Paris, across France and in the north of India.
Where do you find inspiration?
I would say mostly from houses we visit. But finding inspiration is not the issue, we are bombarded with inspirations. The challenge is to shield oneself from that overload of trends and information while able to develop or distinguish what’s actually great from the rest. The complexity lies in learning from visually and conceptually strong works, while providing a personal, original, and contemporary point of view.
What is something you both always disagree on?
Most things that involve creative decisions, which is very convenient in our line of work!
How would you describe your design approach?
We try something new, we are very excited, we feel it’s so great that the world is going to stop turning on its axis, then we look at it the next day, it was actually pretty terrible, we are devastated, the world crumbles. Rinse, repeat 100 times and a new series of objects comes out of the workshop.
How do you balance each other out?
Sophie is more spontaneous, free spirited, and carefree. I'm more analytical, steady, and thorough. She likes to follow her intuition and see where it leads. I enjoy searching for every possible way to look at a problem. It’s sometimes difficult to find the right balance but when it works, it works very well.
If you could host a dinner with anyone, which three people would you invite and why?
I would pick a designer or architect to talk shop with. Someone contemporary, but very aware of how things were done before him. Tadao Ando would be the perfect candidate. I would then invite Mariano Fortuny, the Spanish inventor and fashion designer, because he managed to tackle many different creative fields with style and a touch of poetry, and because he did it working as a duo with his wife. And finally Antoine de St Exupery, aristocratic nonchalance at its finest, to remind us to take it lightly and that we shall all return to dust. What is your favorite type of furniture to design? Anything with 4 legs and a deadline.
Who do you hope to design a piece for one day?
We would love to design something for Comme des Garçons.
Words to live by?
Why so serious?
When reflecting on your career, what’s one thing you’d have done differently?
We were quite self conscious when we started, and we would spend way too much time on each object, which usually doesn’t make them better, quite the opposite in fact. Looking back we should have gone faster in our earlier years.
What is something you’re looking forward to this year?
We are about to start the renovation of our workshop, which actually used to be a car repair shop, and turn it into half house, half work space. It’s our first architecture project and quite a big one. So the most likely outcome is that we go bankrupt and then spend a couple years in jail for cheating our way into making it happen and then a few more to regain custody of our son who won’t recognize us by then. But on the other hand, if it all works out we’ll have a cool office.
