PDY's Rudy Guénaire Talks His Entrance Into Architecture
A new name in the world of interior design, Rudy Guénaire has gone from restaurateur to architect.
Photography by Ludovic Balay
Upon graduating from business school at the prestigious HEC in Paris, Rudy Guénaire seemed to have his destiny all mapped out. However, Guénaire wanted something more, and at 24 years old set off on a four-and-a-half month hike, beginning at the border of the United States and Mexico and walking along the Rockies until he reached Canada. The solitude gave him ample time for introspection. “You could go 10 days without crossing paths with anybody or anything,” he says.
After returning to France, Guénaire eschewed a traditional job in banking or finance to open the first PNY restaurant, on Faubourg Saint-Denis in Paris, with his friend Graffi Rathamohan. Serving up burgers, crispy fries, and more, the popular chain’s interiors are inspired by the many American diners Guénaire visited during his hike across the country, but with a high-concept, space-age twist.
"I still had something in my head that I wanted to do and couldn't find the right person for it."
The young entrepreneur always had an eye for aesthetics, which he cultivated during a childhood filled with travel. “My mother is a professor of classics and my father is a lawyer and essayist. They took me and my siblings around the world throughout our childhood, from a museum of antiquities in Cairo to the ruins in Syria,” he says. So finding the right designer for the restaurants was paramount.
He first called on Cut Architecture, and later worked with the Belgian architect Bernard Dubois on PNY’s first eight locations, all in Paris. As they expanded beyond the city, Guénaire took matters into his own hands. “I still had something in my head that I wanted to do and couldn’t find the right person for it, so I decided to go ahead and set up my agency, Night Flight.” The name refers to the novel Vol de Nuit by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Not being a formally trained architect using 3-D software, Guénaire creates all his designs in pencil. His influences include Frank Lloyd Wright—not necessarily his aesthetics, but rather the way Wright incorporates nature into his work—and his pupil John Lautner, who designed the Chemosphere in Los Angeles in 1960. Guérnaire admits that he prefers poetic architects, finding those that are too dogmatic to be ultimately uninspiring.
"From sunrise to sunset, you can follow the sun like a painting."
Night Flight’s first project was Guénaire’s own apartment—a former artist’s studio in the 14th arrondissement. “I imagined it as a boat, with rooms like cabins overlooking the courtyard. The main room is drenched in light thanks to a glass ceiling, resembling an upper deck,” says Guénaire. “From sunrise to sunset, you can follow the sun like a painting.” The apartment has minimal furniture, and what is there is often built-in. “It allows for more breathing room. The space can hardly be modified because nothing can move.”
