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“We are not allowed to call this an office,” smiles Raphael Navot, looking around the Paris headquarters of his eponymous design studio: an apartment in the courtyard in the right bank neighborhood de Montorgueil. The 48 -year -old Israeli designer moved last year after working at home, giving life to the Skylit space via hot touch materials which are transferred from a dark and marbled granite soil to the shelves of honey honey with triple layers, oxidized to a smoke shade.
It is an extremely elegant home for creativity. There are models and samples of materials on each surface, traces of an impressive outing ranging from collaborations with brands such as Cappellini, Loro Piana and Roche Bobois, to conceptions for the interiors of the Hôtel des Arts et des Arts in Paris. Navot was rewarded House & Object Designer of the year in 2023, and yet his full-time team consists only of himself and his assistant, Fanny Flamion. “We are like two stakes that do everything,” he said about their work partnership. “And the studio is very new, but it's also very family -friendly: there is a kitchen, there is a bedroom and there is a bathroom. It is not an aesthetic as much as use and mood.”
Navot set up his practice in 2003, but first made waves in 2011 with Club silence – The Underground Hotspot Paris which he created with the late the director, the visual artist and visual musician American David Lynch, which bears the name of the club of his film Mulholland Drive. They were gathered for the project by the owner of the club Arnaud Frisch. Navot took his lead for the interior design of the scenography and the concept of the cult director. “I used to go back and forth at home in Hollywood, which was an incredible house of Frank Lloyd Wright Jr,” he recalls. “For me, it was an interesting process, but it was not always fluid, and at the beginning, he really did not like my job because he found it too elegant. He would really say that as an insult!”
Despite their differences, Lynch and found their shared vision in a sexy, elegant and surrealist aesthetic with retro-future furniture that was, says Navot, “deliberately uncomfortable”. He adds: “I wanted people to sit at the edge of the siege, to get involved.” The project created a precedent for the emerging practice of Navot, with its use of natural materials and crafts. “We have used professions such as domination and very complicated brass, which are not very common for an underground club.”
The first navot influences were shaped by his education in Jerusalem. “My father was creative but not in the profession – he built our furniture, like my bed and my closets,” he recalls. But it was the sanctuary of the book to The Israeli Museum – “A place where they keep the holy rolls and are designed in this very beautiful white biological shape” – and the Henry Moore sculptures in the garden of the museum which really inspired its path. “I thought I was going to study architecture, but I was disabled by responsibility,” he said. “So I chose design.”
He went to the Eindhoven design academy In the Netherlands to study in 1999. “I come from Israel, a very contrasting and complex country with very strong opinions and battles,” he recalls. “When you don't really know where you are or where you want to go, you need neutral soil to grow. The Netherlands were perfect for me. ” When the diploma is obtained, the French approach to crafts have attracted Navot to Paris – and it was these practices that have come to define his work. He refers to himself as a “non-industrial designer”, a term he uses to highlight his concentration on hand over the mass product. He quotes the National Hotel of Arts and Crafts as a typical example, a project completed in 2017 where he worked with 30 craftsmen, including “two elderly gentlemen, already drawing their pensions, who have a small factory that makes woodwork. A new Paris hotel with the same craft goal is currently in preparation.
Navot also works on Six senses The Palais Quexigal, a seaside resort of the 16th century country house of the Spanish King Felipe II in the medieval city of ávila, which should open its doors at the end of 2026. Working with architects based in Madrid Arquitectura on a heritage renovation was rewarded for Navot. “We have very similar values,” he says about the project. “It is ecological and lasting in a way that it celebrates local materials. It's a luxury bare feet. ” This is reflected in its own conceptions, which include lights and sculptures incorporating original wine and olive oil from the estate. Yee Pin Tan, manager of six -senses design, appreciated being surprised by the original approach of Navot. “Raphael's creations are tactile, fluid and undeniably sexy but never predictable,” she says. “There is always an unexpected turn that makes his work really unforgettable.”
For Marc Benda, co -owner of Friedman object gallery In New York and Los Angeles, it is “the simplicity with which Raphaël can transmit very complex thought processes” which attracts him in the work of Navot. They have worked together in the past seven years, showing exceptional parts of design to collect: among them the chair of winding and jumping oak whales (2024); The clading sculpture table (Stream) (2022); and the curvace and bronze velvet sofa (2022). “Its seats are simply exceptional,” explains Benda. When he joined the gallery, Navot was not sure of his place in the list of peak designers of Benda when he joined the gallery. “I said to myself,” I am the stupid rather of the class, “he recalls. “I couldn't really identify myself with what was going on in contemporary design and art, and I considered myself a little behind. It took time to stop apologizing for being interested in beauty. ”
Today, all Navot projects carry its signature – the one that dates back to its first experiences of the Henry Moore sculptures, which can be seen in biological sofas and stools for Loro Liana Interieur (an extension of which is launched this summer) and the recent sofa of New Moon 260 with Jouffre workshopsPadded in a Slabby slate wool fabric by Pierre Frey. He recently added new designs inspired by the landscape to his collaboration with French Rug Maker Day and a collection of dishes with a brand of Belgian dishes Serax – A project with his “collective of friends”, the restaurateur Julien Cohen and the creative director Stephanie Cohen, whom they call Uncharted.
The latter, he says, is a “more democratic” counterpoint to five-star hotels and high-end design furniture for which he is known. “No matter if it's clay or if it's bohemian glass, it's always an interesting challenge for me,” he says. In his studio, he often works with Clay to flow his creation. “I will do really normal things like cups, which is such a relief because most of my work is so sensational. It really calms me. ”
It is important for Navot that his creations feel as well as seen. “Whether you come to a hotel or a bar, to a spa or in your bed, (the experience) should be remarkable without being overwhelming,” he said. “It must be something you have not seen, but feels familiar.” Whether it is one of his spaces or a piece of his furniture, “your body must say:” Yeah, I understand that. “”
