Aurélia Paoli’s work balances opposites and even reconciles them: period decorative arts and a wholly contemporary geometry, nature and culture, and even the Italy of her childhood and France, where she chose to live. ‘It must be because I’m a Gemini,’ jokes the sunny brunette, who was clearly born beneath a lucky star…
Mirror André by Beauregard Studio for Hartô
After textile design studies then several years in fashion and branding, Paoli founded her Beauregard studio in 2012 and quickly caught the eye of both architects and the public with her graphic concrete tiles. This success led her to broaden her range to including several interiors materials, for everything from floors to ceilings. Wallpapers, paint and ‘’vitraux-phanies’ (geometric stained-glass windows) appeared in her shimmering universe of products, all innovative but also inspired by the past, sketched first by the designer herself but then enriched through various collaborations. Paoli’s marked preference for decoration dates from her stay in England as a fashion student: ‘After a dual course in styling and marketing at ESMOD Fashion Design & Business France, I took a summer class in textiles and surface design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, and it’s there that I discovered the amazing narrative potential of prints as they are created on the other side of the Channel.’
NEMOURS Collection by Beauregard Studio
Where the French are generally cautious, cultivating rigour and purity as testaments to an ideal of elegance, Aurelia revels in extravagance without @print on objects.’ Bold colours and geometric lines are very often used to express her strong tastes: ‘In a wide sense, my work consists of using lines to bring together any shape, object or even feeling, almost in the way of a technical drawing…
ID Mixonomi Jewels ASSCHER Beauregard Studio x Tarkett
stained glass by Beauregard Studio
This very mathematical way of seeing things can also be found in my appetite for patterns that imply an infinity of scale and hence great modularity. Paradoxically, the very rigorous rules of geometry create a space of total freedom for me!’ Through these means, Paoli encodes the world and in particular nature – a sphere where, without the presence of humans, straight lines don’t exist. ‘I love this ambivalence in French formal gardens – rigorous architecture combined with a love of plants and greenery.’ Another constant in the designer’s work is her predilection for working in kitchens and bathrooms, which, in her eyes, ‘centralise flux’ ‘In France, this is particularly true of kitchens, real hubs of sharing; as the song goes, “You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties”!’, she smiles. ‘But it’s also true for bathrooms, which in Italy are highly valued as a space for the kind of body-care rituals that are so hugely important in the south…’
Carreaux de céramique NEMOURS Beauregard Studio pour Normandy Ceramics
«PARADOXICALLY, THE VERY STRICT RULES OF GEOMETRY GENERATE A SPACE OF TOTAL FREEDOM FOR ME!»
While waiting to do our ablutions in an ornately patterned bathroom, for now we’ll enjoy the charms and pleasures of cooking with high-quality tools.
Discover the ORNEMENTS box by Aurélia Paoli
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