Design Duo Studio KO Reflect on Their Most Famous Architecture
Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, jointly known as Studio KO, are leaving their mark on the map. With offices in Paris, Marrakech, and London, and projects across the globe, the French architects are partners in work and life. The duo met while studying architecture in Paris, Marty’s birth city, and established their eponymous agency in 2000. Since then, the two have articulated a design vocabulary that is built upon concrete and natural elements. Creating personal and public spaces for the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Marella Agnelli, and the Hermès family, their status in the fashion world was officially sealed in 2017 with the creation of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech. The vivid Haute Couture foundation—erected in a city that long served as inspiration for the late fashion designer—raised Studio KO to global attention. In Fournier and Marty’s work at the museum and elsewhere since, refinement, tension, and light are a call to contemplation. Inside, they balance elegance, avant-garde, and the vernacular.
NATHALIE NORT: Why is Morocco so significant to your personal and professional journeys?
STUDIO KO: It started when we were studying architecture at [The École des] Beaux-Arts in Paris. We fell for the country, the landscapes, the light, the warmth, and the desire to work there. Marrakech wasn’t crowded then like it is now. We quickly made connections with people like Jean-Noël Schoeffer, an owner of a bed and breakfast there. For us, Morocco is a bit like the series “Protect Me From What I Want” by the artist Jenny Holzer; many of the things that we desired the most happened there. It was a plan without premeditation.
NN: After you established yourselves in Morocco through extensive residential work, the two of you renovated a farm?
KO: Yes, we fell in love with this farm next to the Agafay desert. Its beautiful adobe architecture was slowly deteriorating, and we couldn’t see that without doing anything about it. So with Jean-Noël we decided to restore the building to become a place for friends. We wanted to share its lifestyle. In the area’s local architecture, the space focuses on its interiors and pure [North African] Berber traditions in which vegetable gardens provoke special emotions. The farm is an enchanting place with its own life, so we had the idea to make it an artist’s residency. With no network, the artist is only distracted by the silence, the sky, and the desert. There’s no escape from confronting one’s creative desires.
NN: How did you use a mix of architecture and art for the Yves Saint Laurent Museum?
KO: This museum is a reconciliation of art and fashion. For a long time, museums looked at fashion haughtily, without really measuring what the art form is saying about the present times, our concerns, and our societies. Now you can see a fashion designer’s retrospective in a museum and see how the progress and awareness finally happened.
NN: Whose direction did you follow?
Laurent’s work. The archives of the Paris foundation— drawings, pictures, movies—helped us discover the incredible richness of his talent, an insatiable curiosity that revolutionized his time. Through the museum, it was Pierre Bergé’s desire—beyond paying tribute to the designer—to use the name Saint Laurent and its power to make people dive into culture. For Moroccans, the access to culture is not that easy. Few museums support artistic awakening if it isn’t historical. His vision was to welcome international and Moroccan artists, temporary exhibitions—Christo [Femmes 1962-1968], for example—organized concerts, conferences, and movies in the auditorium, and to open a huge library specialized in the Berber work, including botanics and fashion for students and researchers. To create a place of curiosities and surprises, “opening on the city and on life” was really important to Pierre, who forbade us to design a mausoleum.
NN: Do you think there is a fashion entryism into the architecture field?
KO: Because the sector of fashion has to keep growing, our job as architects is becoming dominated by fashion designers. You now see famous stylists designing the interiors of restaurants, creating lamps, etc. You see [Giorgio] Armani, [Christian] Lacroix, [Jean Paul] Gaultier, or Rick Owens asked to design interiors. You see [Angela] Missoni creating a linen collection or [Simon Porte] Jacquemus creating a restaurant. On the other side, I’m not capable of designing a clothing line. It’s a job that I never learned about and haven’t had any experience in this sector. As fashion comes into the homeware world, another issue we’re facing is the rhythm, the season, and the obligatory need to follow the new trends, the new colors, and increasing consumerism. It’s crazy that interior design magazines are following the same rules! Our job should be about reaching timelessness and staying away from trends. Otherwise you’re a has-been.
NN: What was it like to work on the Flamingo Estate, a unique villa in Los Angeles you designed for the Chandelier Creative founder Richard Christiansen?
KO: The narrative dimension of the Eagle Rock house is its best feature. It is a Hollywood character in itself. Very high and surrounded by wasps’ nests and fruit trees, it has such a powerfulness that Richard bought it without even visiting it. That’s huge. The [house’s previous owner] was an old man who lived there for 40 years with his gay porn collection. It was full of slides, rolls of films, accessories, and sets—an indescribable mess. When Richard was finally able to buy it, he called us to create the future of “his garden of pleasures and fantasies.”
NN: Was it a crazy project or a project for a crazy man?
KO: Both. Richard is a nice crazy person, though, not a raving lunatic. He is as original as his expectations. Without linking it to us, he already had the idea of a Brutalist house against the backdrop of giant agaves and desert. Our work on the Chiltern Firehouse hotel in London was what spurred our connection. He loved our story of an Edwardian family chased from their castle. This Californian project came at the perfect moment, since André Balasz wanted us to redo three rooms at the Chateau Marmont at the same time. For the Flamingo Estate—a three-floor mix between ziggurat, Casa Malaparte, and a bath lodge—concrete was a prime choice for the construction of the stairs. Oriented toward the sunrise, we imagined the spa room as the climax of Richard’s day. As he takes at least two baths a day, he can relax, slow down, and light a fire in this room. And eco-conscious people need not worry...the bath water is reused for the garden.
L'OFFICIEL Hommes USA Fall 2020 issue will hit newsstands starting November 15, 2020.
