Maison&Objet Paris was postponed and reoped from March 24-28, 2022, the spring edition marked by dynamic international business, confirming the attractiveness of inspiring events. It was in a positive business climate once again that the doors of the decor, design and lifestyle fair, located at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. Industry professionals from the home decor, design, crafts and lifestyle sectors were able to get together, meet at Maison&Objet to exchange ideas, make discoveries and sense market trends.
This edition of Maison&Objet Paris confirms the relevance of in-person event in a digital era, the fair remains a place to share unique experiences and memorable moments. It’s a breeding ground for proposals and innovations, which allows everyone to be moved and inspired and to tell their own stories.
All the senses were stimulated at this edition, which promised to reconnect us with a feeling of wonder, a feeling specific to design, whose mission is to go beyond functionality, and elevate us to ultimate Beauty. Maison&Objet allows all professionals to make discoveries, source products, and get inspired, so as to develop innovative merchandising that will appeal to new customers.
Rising talents and iconic design brands, young graduates and museum institutions, freshly launched design houses, artisans and designermakers with inspired and inspiring hands all flock to Paris to invent and showcase their vision of a desirable lifestyle. A lifestyle that is in harmony with nature, that leverages technology to bring people together, whilst drawing on traditional expertise that is handed down from generation to generation, bearing witness to the passing of time. Desirable Development helps strike that subtle and much longed for balance that sets us on the path of uninhibited revival.
The desire and inclination to reconnect in person were palpable, ranging from the most promising rising talents to the most highly acclaimed interior designers. It’s crucial for anyone working in the decoration and design sector to be able to discover and actually touch and feel new collections, Whilst clients were finally able to get up close and personal with products.
The Maison & Objet celebrate the trade fair’s return by deciphering a new inspiration theme: the revival of luxury. It is a theme that is geared towards highlighting the upmarket offering at the heart of the event, inviting exhibitors to stage the kind of spectacular installation for which the trade fair is so well known.
The Rising Talent Awards also return, which at this particular edition shine a light on up-and-coming Japanese designers. These young designers attend at the same time with architect Franklin Azzi. Named as Designer of the Year in 2020, he present his project in the WORK! sector, which is now one of the trade fair’s regular features.
Building on the success of the city-based events held in parallel to the trade fairs in Paris-Nord Villepinte, Maison&Objet was launching a new “In the City” itinerary taking in some of the French capital’s design showrooms, galleries and pop-up stores.
Maison&Objet
For 25 years, Maison&Objet, organised by SAFI (a subsidiary of Ateliers d’Art de France and RX France), has been engaging with and bringing together the international design, home decor and lifestyle communities. Maison&Objet’s trademark? Its unique ability to generate connections and accelerate business, both during trade fairs and via its digital platform, but also through its unique talent for highlighting trends that will excite and inspire the home decor world.
Maison&Objet’s mission is to reveal talent, spark connections and provide inspiration, both on- and off-line, thereby helping businesses grow. Through two yearly trade fairs for industry professionals and Paris Design Week, a public event in September that brings the creative energy of designers and brands together in the City of Light, Maison&Objet is the go-to platform for the entire interior design sector.
Unveiled in 2016, Maison&Objet and more, or MOM, enables buyers and brands to continue their conversations all year round, launch collections and create connections beyond physical meetings. The weekly roundup of exciting new finds constantly stimulates business across the sector.
To take things even further, the Maison&Objet Academy now provides industry professionals with an exclusive web channel that broadcasts monthly content focusing on training and on deciphering market trends. Our social media platforms, meanwhile, keep all those design discoveries going by engaging daily with an active community of almost one million members on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, WeChat and TiKTok. As the spearhead of Paris as the capital of creativity, Maison&Objet is a catalyst for positioning Paris as one of the world’s leading design centres.
Highlights
With 7 halls and Maison&Objet In the City (a new itinerary in Paris that showcased nearly 90 prestigious showrooms), the fair has successfully brought together the entire industry, mixing loyal brands showcasing new products with carefully curated new brands worth noticing. This session attracted 51,656 visitors from 136 nations, and 1,811 brands from 53 countries.
The fair was also an amplifier for brands which were not present with traditional stands. Indeed, through the What’s New? trend spaces, designed by Elizabeth Leriche, François Bernard, François Delclaux and, for the first time, Julia Rouzaud, founder of GoodMoods, brands registered on the MOM (Maison&Objet and More) digital platform or in the Maison&Objet In The City itinerary were presented to visitors in an innovative and inspiring way.
All participants were able to enjoy exclusive feature areas with exceptional installation design
Spend some time at the Beach Club designed by Tristan Auer for Mariage Frères
Lunch at the “La cuillière” restaurant, decorated with a museum-quality collection from Daniel Rozensztroch and directed by his long-time partner, Paola Navone
Taste the roasted carrots of Instagram star chef Julien Sebbag, who took down orders himself and supervised the setting of the plates within a Seventies decor orchestrated by Julien Sebban (Studio Uchronia)
Stroll around, discover and be inspired by the four What’s New sections dedicated to trends
Take a meditative break at the heart of the immersive installation by the teamLab collective
Maison&Objet In the City
The first edition of Maison&Objet In the City, a city tour reserved for professionals, opened the doors to the most beautiful destinations in the world of Parisian decor. In line with the fair, this launch was full of promise, for an annual event that aims to promote the excellence of Paris on the international decor markets. Decorators, designers, exceptional artisans, major brands and newcomers to the market were able to see the benefits of a networking strategy that makes use of all the marketing and digital tools worthy of a global professional event.
Essential for all the major French and international players in the world of home design, to whom Paris offer the best in trends, innovations, decoration and design. Essential because of the concentrated energy in this early Spring period, with Maison&Objet Paris, the leading home decor fair connecting the international interior design and lifestyle community.
A festive, unifying gathering which flies the banner of the art of living and in which the whole city reveals the innumerable talents within. Designers, architects, decorators, fashion designers, and chefs have answered the call through spaces that bring creation to life in the city.
The event extends over two weekends to help visitors discover exhibitions and installations in 200 participating sites; for many meetings within the framework of an expanded program of cocktail parties, open houses, workshops, private tours and roundtables.
New Luxury:
Unbridled desire and unbounded imagination is the direction in which the brazenly buoyant luxury sector is heading, exploring new paths that draw on haute-couture artisan craftsmanship and high technology on the one hand, and pop culture and the values of inclusivity on the other. This new phenomenon has served as inspiration for the upcoming edition of Maison&Objet, underpinned by the desire to showcase the very best of design.
All that’s precious, prodigious, outstanding! Uber luxury marks a marriage between fine crafts and new technology, with the latter relentlessly enhancing the artistic dexterity of the hand, giving rise to a form of luxury that has one foot rooted in the past and the other firmly in the future, where beauty has no limits. This uber luxury, which targets a small minority, caters to a quest for beauty and transcendence, encompassing an almost spiritual dimension.
Success stories include: Rolls-Royce’s Phantom Oribe, created in collaboration with Hermès and ordered by a Japanese billionaire; the vertiginous Dujiangyan Zhongshuge bookstore in the Chinese city of Chengdu, a veritable hall of mirrors designed by architectural firm X+Living and its brilliant founder Li Xiang; the success of designers whose limited edition furnishings border on art. In the increasingly visionary design world, designers are developing materials hand-in-hand with physicists, incorporating threads of silk, copper and LED into fabrics, whilst settees are morphing from simple seats into fully connected objects.
Franklin Azz Designer of the Year
At each edition, Maison&Objet names a Designer of the Year, celebrating the work of the most outstanding talents on the international design and decoration scene. Azzi develops a cross-disciplinary approach that draws on a potpourri of perspectives and disciplines. By relentlessly sparking a dialogue between architecture, interior design, design and modern art with the backing of his dedicated endowment fund, he hones a talent for design and creation that embraces all scales and all spaces.
From the kind of urban microarchitecture embodied by the Eiffel Kiosque and its prefabricated structure to towers in Dubai and Paris, not forgetting the refurbishment of existing structures such as the Alstom warehouses in Nantes, his work is underpinned by a quest for sustainability tailored to meet users’ needs. Turning his back on formal style, Azzi develops architecture that is both minimalist in its aesthetic and maximalist in its multi-faceted functionality and environmental quality, resolutely advocating a return to ‘common sense’. He walks firmly in the footsteps of philosopher and urban planner Paul Virilio, the exploratory thinker and creator of whom he was once a student.
Retro Futur
Retro Futur is an artistic installation that explores the creative processes of the future using tools from the past, echoing the way in which Franklin Azzi approaches his work as an architect. The immersive RETRO FUTUR installation stages the architect’s day-to-day activities via a digital, modular and pared-back table in black lacquered metal: it diffuses, across a series of screens, a selection of basic and traditional tools specific to the trade (set square, rotring pen, tracing paper, light table, etc.) as well as the various items required each day when developing a project: architectural models, materials, sketches, etc.
Static and moving images appear in succession, showcasing the manual techniques the architect employs in conjunction with his latest creations. Strapping made from strips of upcycled industrial felt separates the object from the rest of the lounge. As Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was keen to convey, felt is an outstanding natural material that can help retain heat, a source of energy that served as a veritable creative driver for the German artist’s work.
The space itself is entirely upholstered with felt, including the ceiling, creating an acoustic bubble that fosters concentration. The slatted curtain, meanwhile, invites visitors to enter and exit the installation at will. The durable and natural felt, which is manufactured in France by Le Feutre, imbues the space with an intimate, calming vibe.
The installation resolutely embraces the retro futurism* trend that is sweeping through the creative arts (design, architecture, cinema, literature, fashion, etc.), and is one of the sources of inspiration underpinning the agency’s overall approach. It is characterised by a fusion of imagery that sees progress and science-fiction pictured in the past with a view to seeing all futuristic aspects of the present become retro-futuristic over time.