After visiting the Aesop fitout in Paris, fashion designer Damir Doma took a bet that March Studio could do no wrong. Well, well, didn’t the Melbourne practice prove Doma so right with this ragingly fabulous fit-out for his Paris flagship store? In order to reflect Doma’s design ethos, March Studio were asked to design a space that was both raw and sophisticated with a focus on layering and materiality…

I was going through some of my Paris photos the other day, and I realised there were still a few gems I never got to tell you about. So I decided to bundle them all together in a post which is mostly related to Paris Design Week, but also the awesomeness of Paris in general (as a couple of the things I am sharing with you here are not related to the design week). Due to a huge amount of images which I always have such a hard time culling, I will bring you a couple of other posts focussing on different topics. So here goes…

I’ve seen some vamped up pubs in my time but none quite as theatrical as this. The clever crew at Heatherwick Studios have created one epic ceilingscape at the Konstam Prince Albert. They’ve used the site conditions to generate a monumental, glittering chandelier that hovers over the entire space. Lengths of metal chains extend from the pub’s fifty seven window frames and are strung to the ceiling before cascading back down again to form lamp shades. The view from outside is just as potent, appearing as if the restaurant has been sucked into a vortex of chains…

Oh yeah – how about we launch into this week with a super sexy ceiling? Located on the twenty-first floor of a tower block in the southern part of Tel Aviv, this apartment by Paritzki Liani Architects features a super slick PVC ceiling which reflects the panoramic views of Tel Aviv harbour back into the apartment. Sheer stroke of genius!

This ceiling singlehandedly manages to manipulate our perception of the overall apartment volume. It also allows amazing transitions of moods and colours to occur within the space depending on parts of the day, the weather, the seasons…

Although this space is certainly not my usual style, I am really taken by the flirty feminine aesthetic which is nicely balanced with a muted palette and bold accents of black that somehow manage to tone down the “sickly-sweet girlieness” (oh man, I’m on fire with my made up descriptions today). This look is such a perfect fit for macaroons and fancy cakes sold at the cafe, no? Multiple rich layers in the space are a real feast for the eyes, much like the deserts they serve are for the hungry bellies…