Reminiscing the seaside with 'Dans le sillage de Nérée' at Paris Design Week 2023

As Paris Design Week 2023 unfolds, design professionals, experts, and connoisseurs from across the globe rush to the capital city of France. Every year, the nooks and crannies of Paris are animated with hues of unique talent, unabashed expressions, and unprecedented innovation by emerging as well as established designers. The latest iteration of the festival reaffirms its undying commitment to design, and this time, welcomes those with a passion for design and the young generation of creatives, to share their art of living, perceiving, and designing. Nestled amid the creative effervescence of the design event is a collection that calls out to the seaside.

On the occasion of the design festival, Paris-based interior architecture and design agency Batiik Studio presents their first design collection dubbed Dans le sillage de Nérée (In the wake of Nereus). Helmed by Rebecca Benichou and Florence Jallet, the studio has crafted the ensemble in reference to the god of the sea and his descendants—extending the summer season and bringing back to the city's shores, a memory of the Mediterranean taste. The series of furniture designs comprising the collection employs a material palette of cherry wood, ceramics, glazed lava, and Elitis fabrics. When asked about the inspiration behind the name and design of the collection, the furniture designers explain, “Our shared origins lie in the South of France. We had a deep desire to pay tribute to our memories of the seaside, by bringing in freshness.”

Founded by Benichou in 2014, with Jallet joining in 2018, Batiik Studio breathes life into generous and ambitious interior design endeavours. Prioritising use and functionality, the design duo undertake a creative process in close collaboration with the clients, composing spaces brimming with imagination—spaces in which everyone can feel, be moved, and live. Influenced by their Mediterranean roots, sensitivity and generosity remain characteristic to their designs. The balance of forms, audacious colour palettes and inherent storytelling make Batiik Studio the narrators of elegant narratives. Benichou and Jallet debut as furniture and product designers with the Dans le sillage de Nérée collection. Talking about how the process of designing products differs from designing interiors, they explain, “We could say that in a sense it is the same exercise as a more global project. We still had to find a coherent theme, but we were much freer to create very individual pieces, each with its own approach to craftsmanship.”

Taking cues from the simple treasures of seashells—evocative of the many memories of their childhood spent by the sea—Batiik Studio’s series of furniture pieces exudes a summery feel. The sculpted ceramic mirror, the different fabrics cladding the bench seat and the inside of the bookcase, as well as the waves carved into the table design, are just some of the elements which the French design studio wanted to embed in their first collection of product designs.

Dans le sillage de Nérée began with a few months of drawing, followed by the designers surrounding themselves with craftsmen they knew, and who accompanied them on this project. The studio gave due importance to producing the furniture in France, employing local craftsmen and materials. “For the mirrors, we worked with ceramist Pia Chevalier, who created a finish that was almost a work of art,” they share. The sofa design and bookcase were made by Fayolle Tapissier, while for the table, the studio worked with Lallier, who makes top-of-the-range furniture with a perfect blend of materials.

Batiik Studio continues to expand the reminiscent collection with new pieces and variations, imagining what they want to realise next. Through their troupe of furniture and objects, the studio aspires to inject into the design fair, a style that echoes their identity and their projects: 'warm, colourful and daring.'