A soothing serenity hovers over everything they do. Ariel Ashe and Reinaldo Leandro met in 2008 and created their interior architecture office which will quickly impose a style that resembles them, simple, chic and relaxed, where the choice of materials and colors, the mix of styles evoke their roots, Mexico and Venezuela. A palette that they apply as well to a New York penthouse as to a townhouse or a seaside villa. Their advantage: creating stories in spaces that no longer had any; transforming industrial or commercial premises into warm and contemporary living spaces, respecting existing volumes, erasing obsolete vestiges to create other, more authentic ones.
www.asheleandro.com
The duo Ariel Ashe and Reinaldo Leandro, in the living room of a historic house in Manhattan, which they have completely redesigned. © Malcolm Brown
© Adrien Gaut, The Estate of Alice Neel/David Zwirner.
Aline Asmar d’Amman
Architect, Paris, Beirut
The architect and founder of the Culture in Architecture agency creates bridges between cultures, weaves a link between past and present and approaches each project with an evocative narrative force, drawing on an alphabet book of the raw and the precious, of heritage and modernity, poetry and materiality. In the four corners of the world, Aline Asmar from Amman pursues transversal work of transmitting knowledge, collaboration with the artistic professions and cultural conversations. Coming up is the transformation of the Palazzo Dona Giovanelli, in Venice, for which she hopes 2025 will finally be the year.
cultureinarchitecture.com
Tristan Auer
Interior designer, Paris
For one of the suites at the Four Seasons in Paris, the architect declined, without plagiarizing them, the principles of his previous renovations (Crillon in Paris, Carlton in Cannes): transcending spaces, plunging them into modernity without erasing their past, embedding tradition in everyday life, bringing together the finest crafts, tailor-made, high quality. In summary, “reinterpret heritage in a respectful and innovative way” he said. A principle that he also applied to the Mandarin Oriental in Zurich, for which he was inspired by the gray of the streets, the blue of the church roofs, the blues and greens of the lake, the mountains and the sky. This year he also finalized Anne Sophie Pic’s restaurant in Lausanne, as well as two residential projects.
www.tristanauer.com
L’hôtel Four Seasons George V.© Amaury Laparra
Le Mandarin Oriental, Zurich.© Amaury_Laparra
Francesco Balzano
Interior architect and designer, Paris
Designing personalized and limited editions of furniture pieces, Francesco Balzano elevates simplicity into ultimate sophistication, mixing noble materials, pure lines and essential functions in the logic of collectible furniture. Since 2020, he has signed interior design agency After Bach, founded with Jessica Berguig, for interiors with subtle harmonies. Presented during his first solo show in New York this year, the collections Start et Loci illustrate the creator’s reflection on the duality of monumentality and the fragility of nature.
francescobalzano.com
The exhibition Inizio by Francesco Balzano, at the New York gallery Studiotwentyseven.
© WILLIAM JESS LAIRD
© WILLIAM JESS LAIRD
Barber Osgerby
Designers, Londres
Focusing all your attention on experimentation, material, color, industrial design, is not incompatible with creativity. This is what Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, graduates of the Royal College of Art, prove by having founded their studio in London in 1996 then Universal Design Studio in 2001 and Map Project Office in 2012. In March 2024, they presented forward -premiere in Hamburg the chair Mikado published by Vitra. Among the new items are also six candelabras Pilotis for Puiforcat in solid silver inspired by ancient Greece, new variations of table lamps and pendant lights Bellhop Glass for Flos and 18 new colors Still Life for the Scandinavian paint brand Bléo.
