Cyril Aouizerate: Hospitality with a human face
Published on 2 June 2023
He created the Mama Shelter concept and launched the MOB movement. MOB Hotels and MOB House are places where the human factor is just as important as the décor. Cyril Aouizerate advocates for sensible tourism, where resources are managed with considerable social and environmental awareness. In Saint-Ouen, at the heart of the famous Paris Flea Market, he opened the first MOB Hotel.
This artisan of community-oriented living opened his establishments to the neighbourhood’s inhabitants and for cultural events. After Paris and Lyon, he plans to open other MOB properties in Bordeaux, Cannes, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. We met up with this philosophy professor-turned-hotel owner.
What does your job entail?
My professional role is to welcome travellers. I try to create spaces that calm our world.
Where do you get your inspiration?
As part of my mission to host people, my biggest inspiration has been my grandmother. She hosted around fifty people each Friday in her small flat in Toulouse, always with the best of humour. I was impressed to see that magic, luxury and joy are not a matter of décor, but rather of emotion. This human-centred (rather than object-oriented) setting made me want to work on the way we create restaurants, their hospitality, etc.
How would you define MOB's signature style?
I envisioned the MOB Hotel project in Saint-Ouen around the concept of a village square. I was inspired by Andalucia. I built it telling myself that, though we didn’t have an Andalusian climate, we still had the sense of urban poetry that made us include balconies, gardens, trees and flowers in and around the rooms. We have a chicken coop as well as around fifty vegetable gardens which we manage along with our neighbours in the area. It was about crafting a sort of poetic “little Kibbutz” in a world that’s no longer infused with that 1960s spirit.
How would you describe your relationship with Maison&Objet?
What a delight! Seeing how exhibitors and furniture makers, whether they’re industrial or artisanal firms, have integrated environmental concerns into their processes today is fascinating. It’s not simply a matter of producing something beautiful at a given price. We can see that something has truly shifted in terms of how spaces and objects are designed.
