28th June 2018

The Making of Mad Atelier: Q&A with Julien Desormeaux

For over a decade, if you wandered up Lower Clapton Road in Hackney, you were often confronted by the rather sad sight of the Lord Cecil, an old-school East London pub that took its last orders in 2007.

Then in November last year, something happened. The steel shutters came down. A long-absent staircase was restored. Many of the pub’s original features were rescued from dereliction. Light and colour began pouring forth from the inside of the Georgian building. Mad Atelier was born.

Evolved from Chantal Martinelli’s existing architectural practice, MAD, Mad Atelier is a one-of-a-kind concept – an architect’s studio, interior consultancy and design boutique woven together in an interdisciplinary celebration of creativity. Established by Italian-born Chantal and her husband, French-Algerian-born operations man Julien Desormeaux, the atelier aims to bring the vibrancy and colour of the Mediterranean design scene to London, offering a head-turning alternative to the minimalist-industrial design landscape that seems to dominate modern interior thinking.

They’ve now had a few months to bed into the neighbourhood, so we caught up with Julien to find out about how and why Mad Atelier came to be, how the hybrid business model works, and what kind of products make the Mad Atelier cut…

Julien Desormeaux and Chantal Martinelli, photography by Dan Weill

What are your respective backgrounds?

Chantal is from Southern Italy and studied architecture in Rome and Versailles. She then moved to London to work for Norman Foster and other major architectural practices (BDP, Arup) and stopped a couple of times – once for a year to do a master’s in urbanism at the Architectural Association and the second time for good to start her own practice in 2013, just after having had our 2nd child. That was the beginning of the Mad adventure...

I’m half French and half Algerian. I was born in Congo and my family moved to France when I was six. I studied at the Institute of Political sciences in Toulouse and then business in Lille and Barcelona. Afterwards, I moved to London and started a 12+-year career in the City as an infrastructure project financier. I started to work part-time in 2016 to make time to establish a project of my own – that was the beginning of chapter two.

As you can see, our origins and our backgrounds very much make the Mediterranean our land, and London our home.

What led the business from architecture to design boutique?

It was two things: the nature and scale of our projects and the need for design that wasn’t available in London to complete them. Chantal went from architecture to urban planning before starting her own practice, doing mostly residential projects. Establishing MAD architecture moved the scale towards residential and the next step was naturally interiors, which Chantal did more and more. While doing this, she found that it was very difficult to source certain things that would be readily available in Italy or in other Southern Europe countries, as well as a lack of diversity in the styles of products proposed. We believed that we had something to propose beyond Scandinavian or bare industrial designs.

Putting together a selection of different pieces gathered in a unique space was a natural progression. In parallel, we had been fascinated by the concept of having both production and the final product offered to the public in a single location. We were inspired a lot by this model during a trip to California, where we found it applied in all sorts of settings: coffee roasters, bakers, fashion designers... We kept thinking about how to adapt that to the world of design. That’s how the concept of Mad Atelier was born – an architecture and interiors studio with an interiors boutique of hand-picked pieces from the Mediterranean, all under one roof.

Is there a crossover between the two halves of the business?

Definitely, the atelier is the extension of the practice. The clients of the studio find it convenient and efficient to be able to source furniture/lighting directly from the architect’s studio and vice versa. Some of our customers walk in attracted by a lamp or a table and then ask, ‘Would you come to our home and give us more general advice?’ The atelier is also a way to demystify what an architect/interior designer can achieve – our customers can understand the atmospheres that we can create.

Mad Atelier, photography by Jorn Tomter.

How does your partnership operate on a day-to-day basis? Do you each have specific roles or do you both do a bit of everything?

Chantal handles the architectural side of the business on her own, with the help of Francesca and Alberto, who have been with us since the beginning, and I have limited input on the day-to-day operations. Regarding the other side of the business, i.e. the boutique and interiors consultancy, we both do a bit of everything. First, because of the scale of our business and also because we think it is important that we both fully understand all that’s happening. I think it is important that Chantal sees what’s going on with the numbers side and she sees some value in having me overlooking our collection with her. We also do Mad Atelier to have fun and we enjoy working together, so that keeps up late at night discussing the concept of new projects at times. For efficiency, we also spend time working separately, with Chantal steering the creative direction and me improving our operations.

How do you decide what to feature in the boutique?

We curate the atelier it very much like our home – a collection of travels and experiences that we blend together organically. For the organisation of the space, Chantal gives a lot of consideration to flows and layers – I think it’s her background in urbanism.

Our prism is that of Mediterranean design. By this we mean pieces coming from certain countries, for instance, Italy (like Chantal) or France (like me), but also more broadly – in terms of the use of colour or bold shapes. We view Mediterranean design as being infused with elegance, vivid colours, warmth and fun. We’re not restrictive as to the origins of a designer or a piece so long as it makes sense in our context. And we can also occasionally deviate from that. Ultimately, a design has to pass two filters – Chantal’s and mine. Chantal is very much intuition-based, and I try and make sure a choice makes sense in the context of our overall offering.

Who is your ideal customer?

A balance between trusting and demanding. It’s almost essential that some leeway is left to creativity to deliver a special result, but we learn and progress by working for design-sophisticated clients with high expectations, which all our clients are. It keeps us on our toes. One of our clients punctuated a demanding brief with the phrase ‘and please, go wild!’ That’s probably as good a brief as we could dream of!

Mad Atelier, photography by Jorn Tomter.

Is there a specific design movement or style that you especially admire?

Yes – we definitely draw a lot from the Memphis movement; not only the use of bold colours or exaggerated forms, but what we really love isthat their design appeals to you on an emotional level. The Memphis aesthetic has been so strong and effervescent to be able to quickly influence the music and fashion world – this is fascinating. But its capability to touch the world of emotions and memories and to bring an object to life is even more seductive. It is timeless, too – I can see in this a major force.

In art, we admire Dadaism for the subtle balance of apparent nonchalance, offbeat humour and extreme rigour and elegance. Other fundamental figures for us include Louise Bourgeois and Alexander Calder.

We admire contrasts and contradictions. We often think that form should follow function as per the modernist credo, but we also think the opposite when in reference to, say, a light, or to a particular type of seating. Our paradise in an eclectic combination of objects and styles.

Tell us about the process of renovating the pub – what was the biggest challenge involved? Was it that it was a completely empty shell with not even a staircase to go downstairs? The awful state of the premises? The complications of having to deal with the building being in a conservation area?

It was a big piece of work, but it was great to have a blank canvas on which to draw our atelier. We spent a lot of time considering how to change the use of the space without emptying it of its history. For example, enhancing the visibility from outside (by making the central part of the windows a massive single pane) without detracting from the beautiful character of the pub (by keeping the lead work in the upper part of the window and not touching the level of the sill). A large part of Mad Atelier’s look is how striking Mediterranean design can be in the British context, so we had to make sure we preserved the originality of the pub.

Why is Hackney the best location for a store with a distinctly Mediterranean flavour?

Hackney is one of the quintessential manifestations of the mix of cultures and the importance of arts and creation in London. It is also (partly because of this), very progressive-thinking and very sophisticated when it comes to aesthetics, and therefore open to a colourful new Mediterranean offering such as ours. Hackney is also a place that we know very well and that we have loved living in for 10 years now. Our locality means a lot to us.

Mad Atelier, photography by Jorn Tomter.

On your website, you refer to ‘a design evolution that is perhaps even more relevant and worth celebrating in today’s political landscape.’ Could you elaborate on that?

We think that, through history, some indestructible cultural bonds have been built between this country and Continental Europe. By celebrating Mediterranean design in the British context, Mad Atelier is a humble manifestation of these bonds. We think that, in times where some of the links between the UK and Continental Europe are questioned or threatened, there is some merit in reaffirming this special relationship –that’s all.

What has the local response been like since you opened the boutique?

Brilliant! That’s one of the best things. We were wondering if Clapton was ready or how it would respond to our offering, but locals have welcomed the fact that the space had not been used as an estate agent or another café and that it is open to the public. A lot of people walked in and shared some of their memories of what used to be the Lord Cecil pub. They’re happy to see it being given a new life. Our five-year-old son’s teacher even told Chantal that she kissed her partner for the first time in the pub some 20 years ago!

Besides this, the vast majority of our customers are very local. We are happy to see that there is an appetite for high-quality and different design so close by. Our local customers are design enthusiasts and very discerning – we love it.

Mad Atelier, photography by Jorn Tomter.

For more information on Mad Atelier, click here.