Atelier Avéus

It is one thing to create an object or project that references various fields of design, such as Architecture and Film. But it is another thing entirely to establish an entire multidisciplinary practice that is able to reference multiple artistic fields, cultural references and symbols to create entirely original environments.

Atelier Avéus, founded by Architect and Designer Morgane Roux-Lafargue, has effectively been able to create a new type of architectural category and its artistic possibilities are endless. Her latest project, Production Designer Story #1 – Hitchcock, is inspired by the very peculiar atmosphere of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, specifically Vertigo, Rebecca and Rear Window.

In an exclusive interview with Interiors, we spoke with Morgane Roux-Lafargue who is the founder of the design practice Atelier Avéus.

INT: Atelier Avéus is a multidisciplinary design practice that explores conceptual ideas and cultural references, specifically in the fields of Architecture and Industrial Design. Can you talk about your background in Architecture and what led you to create your own practice?

AA: I studied architecture in Brussels and then Paris for 5 years but like many other architects, I’ve always wanted to work on furniture. Working at a smaller scale allows you to have more control over the project and its completion. Less people and parameters are involved in the process and the final result appears way faster than for an architectural project. So the fast pace and the freedom of the process are two things that personally suit me better.

I concretely switched from architecture to furniture when I was living in Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 2017, because it felt like the right time and the right place for me to start doing furniture as an experiment at first. I started designing unique collectible pieces that were successful enough to give me the confidence and the will to continue from then on. Atelier Avéus, was only a website and an instagram account back then and it became my real official and unique job about a year later.

INT: Many of your projects, specifically The Wait and Non-Objective Tables, include objects and pieces of furniture composed in a rendered scene. These scenes enhance the project in such a way that it feels like a new architectural category. How did you develop this incredible concept and what was the inspiration behind it?

AA: Each of these 2 projects actually has a different approach: For the Wait collection, the initial concept came first and the pieces of furniture were designed at the end of the process. For the Non-Objective Tables, I had designed them prior, as objects, and then decided to put them in an environment that would enhance the concept they're based on.

But in both cases, the imagery came together after a long and deep visual study of the initial concepts. The Wait collection focuses on the philosophical theme of the wait as an introspective condition. It definitely has its own aesthetic and visual codes, that I studied through the work of Edward Hopper, Jim Jarmush, or even John Register...

As for the Non-Objective Tables, the architectural configurations displaying multiple visuals and gravitational perspectives, were for me, the best way to enhance how the tables were conceptualized: each of them being a unique composition of materials where large shapes of colours are floating free. The environment and the objects themselves, are both deduced somehow from the same idea of multiple-viewpoint compositions through various dimensions and spatial orientations.

INT: For your latest project, Production Design Story #1 – Hitchcock, you examined 3 Alfred Hitchcock Films (Vertigo, Rebecca and Rear Window) and created a visual that incorporated pieces of furniture to resemble those films. How did you first develop this idea? What was it about Hitchcock that made you want to examine his films?

AA: I've always been particularly interested by the very close relationship that Architecture has with Cinema. More specifically, Alfred Hitchcock's movies are architecturally very rich and expressive, so it has been a very abundant and valuable source of ideas, references and inspiration. The movies are full of stairs, windows and doors. And on a smaller scale, they also are charged with a lot of symbolic and impactful objects: a set of keys, a door knob, a specific purse. All together, Hitchock's cinematic production has been very inspiring to design my own interpretation of it, and has allowed me to work simultaneously on the architectural scale and the furniture’s object scale.

Through my multidisciplinary approach of building a project, production design is something that I feel I am getting closer to, so the connection with Cinema is getting more and more obvious and meaningful in my work.

INT: Finally, are there any future films or directors that you would want to now explore? Is there a type of film that blends with your design aesthetic? 

AA: Yes! This is definitely the type of project I would like to continue developing. (The Hitchcock's project is the first one of a future series.)

The process itself is to study, decompose, and reinterpret the cinematic world of a director, through interiors and furniture is something that I've applied to some painters (Edward Hopper for The Wait collection or Escher for the Non-Objective Tables) and will apply to other cineasts too. 

There are many directors I would love to work on but maybe the next one would be Jacques Demy, especially because it might appear initially a bit far from my own design aesthetic so I think it would be very interesting!

Atelier Avéus* was founded by french architect and designer Morgane Roux-Lafargue. Atelier Avéus*'s creations are based on strong conceptual ideas and explore the universal memory theme, while calling upon varied cultural references. Morgane's work is the result of deep research in iconic and symbolic references and combine the different areas of design and art. The result produces truly aesthetic objects, whose functionality becomes fully perceptible at a second glance.