This year, the Maison&Objet interior design trade fair and the city-wide celebration Paris Design Week joined forces to highlight emerging designers, bring renewed value to French métiers d'art, and temporarily transform heritage landmarks with contemporary design visions. Both events began on September 4, turning Paris into a city-wide design festival. Galleries, showrooms, and concept stores opened their doors, while renowned landmarks became venues for designers from more than 30 countries. The abundance and diversity of the program have drawn comparisons to Milan Design Week, while giving Paris a distinct platform on the global design calendar. This article presents a selection of installations and exhibitions of architectural interest that emerge from the synergy between the two initiatives.
The September edition of Maison&Objet takes place at the Parc des Expositions de Paris Nord Villepinte from September 4 to 8, with an exhibition titled Welcome Home, curated and directed by Amélie Pichard. This presentation explores contemporary approaches to domesticity and home interiors under the concept of an "Open House – Open to All." In parallel, Paris Design Week extends the celebration across the city with 375 free exhibitions and events running from September 4 to 13. A key point of collaboration between the two is Paris Design Week Factory, dedicated to emerging designers and aesthetics. Hosted within several areas of Maison&Objet, the Factory features a curated selection of over 130 young brands presented across four thematic exhibitions: Collectible, Edition, Craft, and a special section devoted to China.
Celebrating design as both a cultural practice and a commercial ecosystem for established and emerging brands, this joint edition of Maison&Objet and Paris Design Week leaves behind appealing installations and material explorations of architectural significance, some of which extend beyond the timeframe of the festival itself. The following review highlights 10 of the most architecturally engaging experiences from this year's event.
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Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre
Maison&Objet, held twice a year in January and September, highlights young talents, new design practices, and cross-disciplinary approaches, with the September edition taking a more experimental direction focused on innovation. This year's edition, entrusted to Amélie Pichard, explores contemporary domesticity through both an immersive installation titled Welcome Home: An Open House – Open to All, featuring a singular object, a house-teapot or teapot-house, symbolizing the dialogue between craftsmanship and artificial intelligence, and her artistic direction of the September fair under the theme of "renewal."
Folie / Lucas Huillet and Alexandre Helwani
Cour de l'Hôtel de Sully – 6 place des Vosges
From September 3 to 14, designer Lucas Huillet and perfumer Alexandre Helwani present Folie, a multisensory installation on the terrace of the Hôtel de Sully. At its center, visitors encounter a conversational sofa beneath a moving fabric chimæra, enveloped in an aura of perfumes. Conceived as an "isle of deceleration," the experience invites exploration of breathing and emotions, drawing on neuroscientific research and innovations in scent design.
Plastic Glamping Immersive Installation / Marianna Ladreyt
Hôtel d'Albret
Marianna Ladreyt is a fashion designer known for her innovative use of upcycled plastics in furniture, accessories, and clothing. Her Plastic Glamping installation for Paris Design Week 2025 features a large camping tent made from recycled beach buoys. The work is on view in the courtyard of the Hôtel d'Albret, in the heart of the Marais district, from September 4 to 13.
Spinning Around Kinetic Installation / Sophia Taillet
Musee de la Chasse et la Nature
Spinning Around is an outdoor kinetic installation by designer Sophia Taillet, on view in the courtyard of the Musée de la Chasse from September 3 to 14. The work features nine mirrors moving in circular motions, creating a dialogue with the building's classical architecture through reflections and rotations. Described by the organizers as a "silent dance," the installation offers a moment of open-air contemplation shaped by craftsmanship, design, and "choreographic gesture."
Corals of Freedom Textile Sculpture / Aude Franjou
Place de la Bastille
From September 4 to 13, 2025, the towering column at Place de la Bastille hosts a show by textile sculptor Aude Franjou titled Textile Resilience: Corals of Freedom. The handmade installation underscores the importance of craftsmanship in this edition, aligning with the French government's promotion of crafts through the newly established public entity, the Manufactures Nationales, created on January 1, 2025. Sculpted with linen thread using a coating technique, the work takes the form of a monumental intervention that introduces the presence of an organic material into a historic setting.
L'ère libre Exhibition / Hyacinthe & Leitmotiv
Le Corbusier's Maison Atelier Ozenfant
The installation L'Ère Libre by Hyacinthe (Alexis LG) and Leitmotiv (Meike Kraus) at Le Corbusier's Maison Atelier Ozenfant will be on view until Tuesday, September 9. The exhibition revives original furniture designs while offering the public a rare opportunity to visit the architectural landmark. This presentation complements the participation of Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris Design Week, which includes exhibitions at the top two floors of the Molitor building, located on the border of Paris and Boulogne, and at Maison La Roche in Paris's 16th arrondissement, hosting works by artist Lilian Tomasko.
MVE - Collection / Mattéo Lécuru and Vincent Eschalier
Showroom at 34 rue de la Verrerie
MVE-Collection is a creative studio designing furniture, objects, and accessories by upcycling raw materials from construction waste. Founded in 2023 by designer Mattéo Lécuru and architect Vincent Eschalier, the brand presented its creations to the public for the first time in a showroom at 34 rue de la Verrerie in Paris's 3rd arrondissement, as well as within the Paris Design Week Factory fair.
Design Emergency Exhibition
ENSCI Les Ateliers - 48 RUE SAINT SABIN
From September 10 to 13, ENSCI–Les Ateliers (École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, founded in 1982) presents an exhibition designed in collaboration with the French Red Cross as part of Paris Design Week. The show features 26 student projects developed in consultation with field professionals to address humanitarian, climate, and social emergencies, including emergency shelters, low-tech devices, and initiatives supporting vulnerable populations.
Return from Residency: Valuing Granite Exhibition / Collectig ZigZag
art+art Galerie - 28 rue de la Fontaine au Roi
The Collectif Zigzag is a cross-disciplinary collective of designers, artists, artisans, and researchers exploring sustainable practices, responsible materials, and the circular economy through experimental approaches. In Retour de Résidence: Valorisation du Granit, they will present 10 projects created during an immersive residency at Sénégas Gérard, which investigated sustainable, local, and innovative uses of granite. For the second consecutive year, members of the collective will exhibit their creations at the art+art Galerie, located in Paris's 11th arrondissement, from September 12 to 14, 2025.
Jardiner la Ville Exhibition and Workshop
Cité de l'Architecture - Palais de Chaillot
First created in 2011 as an echo to the exhibition The Fertile City: Toward an Urban Nature, a workshop at Trocadéro's Cité de l'Architecture returns this year, between April 12 and September 21, to explore the theme of sustainable cities. The exhibition features an interactive game built around a large-scale, hands-on model of an urban environment transformed by nature. It invites visitors to imagine future scenarios by engaging with community-driven tools and practices such as community gardens, green façades, rooftop gardens, urban farms, the repurposing of abandoned land, and a material library showcasing natural resources used in architecture and urban planning.
Other recent events in the architecture and design field include New Hudson Valley Houses, an exhibition opening on September 7 at the Archive Gallery at 'T' Space, which presents ten recently designed homes by architects Stan Allen, Garrick Ambrose, Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori Architect, and MOS. Also on view in Manhattan, at Paul Rudolph's Modulightor Building, is Architecture = Art: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, an exhibition of architectural drawings by prominent modernist architects accompanied by a selection of photographs. Looking ahead, the 18th Istanbul Biennial has recently unveiled the venues and artists for its first stage, scheduled to take place from September 20 to November 23, 2025, while the inaugural Copenhagen Architecture Biennial will open in ten days. Meanwhile, the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale remains open to the public until November 23.
