Sensuous Minimalism
The goal of architect and designer Valérie Chomarat is simple: ‘to create a beautiful way of living’. From Paris and Geneva, to Menorca, Bandol and Warsaw, her projects for villas, fincas, chalets and yachts are defined by her own particular vision of minimalism and by her characteristically sensitive integration of architecture and environment.
‘What do we see and how do we see it?’ These are the questions with which she interrogates every aperture in the spaces she creates, reflecting the importance of ideas of perspective, threshold and connection in her work, as well as the influence of her childhood in the Ardèche, where she grew up in an indoor-outdoor home inspired by Japanese architecture. In her hands, line, form and palette become tools for ensuring her designs sit harmoniously within their settings.
Nature, geography, climate, history and purpose: for her, preliminary studies and hand sketches are crucial for understanding each of these defining aspects of a project in the early stages of a design. It was under the mentorship of the British designer, John Pawson, that she learned the fundamentals that have driven the evolution of her own signature style - the primacy of proportion, space, surface, light and shadow. After studying architecture in Lyon, Milan and Paris, she moved to London where, inspired by the book Minimum (John Pawson, Phaidon, 1996), she met the designer and joined his studio. From the outset Pawson, known for his uncompromising minimalism, involved her in a succession of formative projects: apartments in Gramercy Park, New York, the exhibition Leçons du Thoronet (2006) and the interior design of two landmark luxury yachts.
After nearly a decade of working in the Pawson studio, Valerie moved to Switzerland, where she swiftly developed her own business and honed her style, collaborating with Hermès as artistic designer on projects that included a hotel in Doha, a visionary project for ‘day boats’ and a concept for the Perini Navi x Hermès super yacht company, anchoring her activity between Geneva and Paris. Multiple commissions for private homes and interior architecture then followed, in Geneva, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Megève and Zakopane..
Whether on the sea or in the mountains, Valerie’s preference is always for authentic materials - for a palette that is as close to nature as possible. Each scheme is exhaustively designed and redesigned, to ensure simplicity and coherence throughout, whilst also refining the relationship between interior and exterior worlds. Staircases characteristically form key components in her immersive interior narratives, as carriers of the individual story of a design and poetic expressions of the idea of movement.
It is no coincidence that the design pieces she is instinctively drawn to - benches, stools and candlesticks - share a quietly contemplative quality and a sense of the value of silence. Showcased in recent projects - a family home in Bandol, an exceptional finca in Menorca and a commission for the Belgian design company, When Objects Work - each of these objects speaks powerfully of both the refined discipline and the storied, sensory richness of Valerie’s unique architectural language.
text Alison Morris