After honing their skills at renowned architecture firms in the likes of Shigeru Ban or Pierre Yovanovitch New York, Olivier and Clio decided to launch Garcé & Dimofski, their namesake studio/gallery specializing in interior design. With an emphasis on natural materials, simple geometries, and uncompromising quality, G&D’s work connects creativity and functionality, delivering distinctive projects defined by a warm and candid aesthetic inspired by simplicity.
For our new home in Manhattan, Garcé & Dimofski have created a design concept that mirrors our ethos, delivering a nuanced interpretation of contemporary elegance defined by subtle details and lovely color palettes. The precise, thoughtful spaces are imbued with serenity and dotted with gorgeous styles – including the design duo’s latest furniture pieces. We asked them to talk us through this fantastic feat:
What first comes to mind when you hear the words New York?
Welcome back! We lived in New York for 3 years not long ago (until 2021). At the time, we were working for an interior designer, and it’s good to be back with our own project.
What was it about intervening in a typical NY townhouse that inspired you?
What inspired us was the location of this townhouse on the Upper East Side near Central Park. The idea that this house has been part of this neighborhood for many years with the history that goes with it unlike the new, very modern buildings that are springing up not far from these typical alleys.
We loved working in this house with the idea of keeping the origin and essence of the place while making it functional for The Invisible Collection.
Any challenges?
Always! To respect the history of the place while bringing a touch of modernity. And the deadline, it was a great challenge to work on the interior part at the same time as the production of the furniture to bring this space to life in just over a couple of months.
This project is called La Maison du Collectionneur: what was the idea behind it?
The idea was to have a space with a certain eclecticism mixing vintage pieces with designs from the The Invisible Collection’s offering and artworks, like a collector would do.
For us, The Invisible Collection is like an online design gallery where a collector would come and order pieces from the collection. The overall idea of The Townhouse and its first exhibition was to arrange the space like an apartment with selected pieces well displayed to make them stand out.
Talk us through the materials and the color palette.
For the materials there is not much to say, we used paint and stayed with the existing floors. The space was designed with a rather soft and neutral color palette with a touch of pink conjuring some of The Invisible Collection’s hues.
The intention was not to disturb the visitor in the main exhibition spaces and to let the objects speak for themselves.
The transition corridor between the exhibition spaces is in a strong red tone punctuated with artworks to bring contrast and a certain personality to this transition space.
What has given you the most satisfaction in this project?
What gave us the most satisfaction in this project is to have been able to associate so many talents (craftsmen, designers, artists…) from Europe but also from the United States in this New York project.
The Townhouse will be open to the public from September 16th, Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 6 pm. We look forward to welcoming you to our new home in New York!
Discover now the exclusive designs by Garcé & Dimofski.
