Contemporary design pays tribute to the Hôtel de la Marine

During Paris Design Week, the capital will be living for design, and that includes even its historic monuments. Such will be the case at the Hôtel de la Marine on Place de la Concorde, which will be taken over by two big names in contemporary design: Pierre Renart and Studio Uchronia. This mansion is an 18th-century marvel and a former royal furniture repository, a specific characteristic that inspired Studio Uchronia. “This era left us some incredible furniture,” says Julien Sebban, who founded this collective. “We wanted to pay tribute to the large French-style beds of the stewards of that era, adorned with drapes and tassels.” In the main courtyard, Uchronia will set up an art installation, an oversized canopy bed in the stunning bright colors that are its signature element. It will be made of tiles, with a podium containing several steps, so that everyone can settle in on it. Curtains in outdoor fabrics will be suspended from the bed. The earthenware tiles by the Palet brand will feature a color gradient inspired by the sky and by the color red, which is omnipresent within the mansion, all the way down to the color of the stones on the façade. In another courtyard, you’ll find another style: in the Cour de l’Intendant (Steward’s Courtyard), artist and woodworker Pierre Renart was inspired by the diamond-shaped glass roof built by Hugh Dutton during the restoration of this building. He has envisioned a hammock placed atop a pedestal, from which one may contemplate the sky and its light filtered through the star-shaped glass edges. Making full use of the flexibility of hornbeam wood, Pierre Renart has once again created a piece that shows off his great technical skill. The assembly of the seven slats as a single piece of wood that unfurls like a fan echoes the crisscrossed elements of the glass canopy. Having graduated at the top of his class from Ecole Boulle in 2011, Pierre Renart has already seen his furniture included in the collection of the National Museums and the Mobilier National (National Furniture Registry). “Creating a piece for the former royal furniture repository, the Hôtel de la Marine, immediately delighted him,” says Florence Guillier Bernard of Maison Parisienne, the gallery that represents him. This artwork is entitled Escale (Getaway, or Stopover), like a contemplative port of call, the seafarer’s place of repose.