Does your career owe something to
family heritage or to your own personal
passion?
It’s a personal passion. Since my childhood
days, I’ve had the chance to meet architects
and I developed a passion for the kind of
life they lived and the philosophy behind
it: think of an idea, mull over it and then
make it come into existence… I found this
transition from dream state to substance,
shape, volume and reality very pleasing.
But why then did you enrol at Camondo,
an institute known for its focus on
interior architecture and design?
Actually, I first studied architecture at the
Saint Luke’s Institute in Belgium, but I
soon found the job as being too ‘slow’ and
I didn’t like the idea of drawing something
today that would only materialise in two
or three years’ time! This is how I came to
interior design, near enough to a sphere
that appealed to me at that time: cinema
set design. That’s how I ended up at
Camondo in Paris…
…from where you graduated, without
being, however, officially an architect!
That’s right, but a few years later, I got
the chance to work in Japan. Initially I
thought that I would be doing interior
design there, but I was wrong! I did only
architectural work and I designed a lot of
buildings, which eventually allowed me to
have my skills accredited by the Council
of Architecture. I officially became an
architect in 1993.
Meanwhile you had experienced some
success with the prolific period that
coincided with Mitterrand’s coming in
office!
This period of prosperity came about as
a result of France’s backwardness in the
building industry and urban planning.
It was therefore very easy for François
Mitterrand and Jack Lang (note: the then
Minister of Culture) to launch extensive
projects aiming at the construction of
museums and other large infrastructures.
It was the zeitgeist, and it came at an
opportune time for them in terms of media
visibility!
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LUXURY MAURITIUS