Akademos design studio joins The Invisible Collection: meet the two founders who never fail to surprise us!
We are delighted to introduce the debut collection of Aurélien Raymond and Costanza Rossi, the up-and-coming duo who founded their Parisian Studio Akademos in 2020. This first collection took us by surprise, as there is so much more than meet the eye!
The six-piece offering draws on the glamour and sophistication that defined the golden age of Arts Décoratifs, and finds the perfect balance between beauty and functionality. Made of sensual, luxurious materials each design is a tour-de-force of craftsmanship and creativity.
Among the standout pieces are the über-glamorous Barbara coffee-table in lacquered American walnut and satin stainless steel, surprisingly lined with… Loro Piana cashmere; and the fabulously plush Scott sofa, its sculptural presence softened by the warm colour and sensuality of the Loro Piana cashmere upholstery. This collection is a highly promising debut that leaves us wanting more!
We caught up with Costanza and Aurélien just days before launching their collection:
What drew you to interior architecture and design and what do you like the most about it?
The possibility of imagining and conceiving our ways of life as well as our habits thus contributing to their evolution. What drew us to it is the creative process leading to the implementation of our ideas. We appreciate a constant questioning which enables us to never take anything for granted. Nothing is definitive; and as Giacometti once said: “Rater encore, rater mieux” which translates to “Fail again. Fail better.”
Can you describe your work and style in a few words?
Our aesthetic is defined by the connection between three universes: Café Society’s heyday, its grand parties and receptions; the glamour and avant-garde of the 1970s; and finally, our own times and their perpetual research for practicality in use. Our work is always based on a solid study of the eras we are basing our aesthetic on. Nothing is left to chance, and we constantly make a point of justifying the existence of every single element constituting our pieces. Our work always starts on the same two questions: « What do we want to say or tell through this piece? », « How is this piece coherent with our aesthetic and our contemporary usages? »
The piece of furniture you most like to design?
This collection started with a common motivation to implement utilization habits from a different era and bring them back to the taste of the day. We both had a particular interest in these daily life objects which are generally considered to have become outdated. This is how the idea of a liquor cabinet came to us. Both creative and thinking processes around this piece took several months and enabled us to simultaneously constitute what would become Studio Akademos’ universe and therefore, to apply the key elements of this universe to each of our pieces.
The most useful piece of design related advice you’ve received and would like to pass on?
The most useful piece of design related advice we both received during our architectural education was to never make arbitrary « architectural » gestures, and to always make a point of complementing each of our creations with a story line. We would like to bring each person we’ll happen to collaborate with to constantly call things into question on an ongoing basis as well as to always try to find guiding principles to their thinking process.
What do you like about The Invisible Collection?
First of all, we appreciate the opportunity to become part of a community of designers all driven by the same desire to create. We also attach importance to the fact that The Invisible Collection gives us the feeling of being heard as well as being considered by its founders. We have this common desire to share and promote craftsmanship. Invisible Collection’s outreach efforts contribute to promoting the work of a designer rather than the work of a firm which would tend to standardize. The Invisible Collection allows designers as well as craftsmen to keep on existing.
Which one of your pieces, available on The Invisible Collection, do you like the most?
If the piece we enjoyed most conceiving is, indeed, the liquor cabinet, our favorite piece of furniture would be the sofa. This piece represents the best synthesis of all founding principles constituting our collection: this piece can be used for parties as well as for intimate use through its storage spaces which are reserved to its owner.
Discover and shop Akademos’ Collection of furniture available exclusively through us.
