Julien Sebban

JULIEN SEBBAN:

We were invited as part of the “What’s New?”, these thematic spaces showcasing the new design and decoration items of the participants in the trade fair through a signed scenography. As ours focused on hospitality, the concept of “Hôtel Uchronia” was born. It consists of a bar, a breakfast room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a gym room. Apart from the constraint of curating around sixty exhibitors’ pieces, we benefited from total freedom (which is rare) and therefore, fully express our vision.

And then, this installation gave rise to some great collaborations: the edition house Misia and Casamance with its exceptional fabrics, Tréca to create an ultra-large round bed in Cashmere, Christofle who provided us with a tableware set. For the “sport” section, we created yoga mats with Hercule Studio and exhibited Technogym equipment. Not forgetting the legendary edition house BD Barcelona Design (Barcelona) who provided us with reissued pieces of Dali furniture.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I think that our intervention is first and foremost part of a process of renewal at Maison & Objet since Mélanie Leroy took over last year. Between the “Designer of the Year” invitations offered to Lionel Jadot and Faye Toogood, and the carte blanche given to our studio, this fair has chosen to bring together a new guard, which brings in fresh blood.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

The word “experience” is indeed the most appropriate. Our immersive “box” concept allows us to cut the visitor off from the environment of a design salon, to make him experience the atmosphere of a full-fledged hotel. Echoing the surrealist spirit, this box transports him into a “parallel” world, generating dreams and imagination. The phantasmagorical nature of the whole is amplified by plays of light and scale: alternating day and night atmospheres, inversions of proportions, flying objects, a bathtub in the shape of “peanut” (a recurring code of our universe) with Marmi Faedo, or even moving characters completely transforming the functionalist perception of Technogym machines in the gym. Generally speaking, we love theatrical stagings that carry meaning, and then tell stories.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

Uchronia is first and foremost a multidisciplinary collective capable of declining a concept of space into a more global visual identity. On the other hand, I love the temporality of ephemeral projects, scenographies in particular. We have been working for 4 years on the construction of a “real” hotel in Paris. It still hasn’t seen the light of day. The installation of Maison & Objet took us 5 months, but it allows us to show the full extent of our possibilities in terms of innovation.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I don’t like this term “pop”, too connoted. I prefer to talk about architecture in a 2025 style that is uninhibited, sunny, joyful, colorful. Even white is a color in my eyes. Overall, we try to have fun and provoke emotion, that’s what touches people. On the other hand, the underwater world inspires me enormously, I dive a lot in Australia every year, it’s one of our main references.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

That’s why we work much better in England or the United States. But we manage to do both. Typically, two radically different projects have just been released. A residential apartment near Parc Monceau in Paris in a soothing shade of green. While the intergalactic delirium of the Koibird concept store in London is much more playful. It must be said that the scripted context of a store lends itself better to risk-taking.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I had a “colorful” childhood but I was born in the 14th arrondissement in Paris, in a family of very cool doctors, except that it was located at the opposite end of an artistic environment. My very “Anglo-Saxon” creative freedom comes from my years of studying architecture in London, and then from my travels to New York, Argentina and Australia where I spend a month and a half of the year.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I don’t consider myself a decorator at all! The AA School in London is one of the most sought-after architecture schools in the world, where Zaha Hadid and Virgil Abloh have attended. I devoted 7 years of my life to it. Access to it is extremely difficult and I was also able to attend thanks to a scholarship. It was in this school that I developed my thesis on “uchronia”, a rather serious subject.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I am not going to deny my attachment to the figures of 70s design like Verner Panton or Ettore Sottsass. But the “gang” of surrealists from Magritte to Dali inspired me more. Regarding our artisanal approach, not only do we pay great attention to the materials we use, but I am passionate about excellent French know-how. AD magazine has just published a beautiful family portrait of the artisans who surround Uchronia: from our carpenter Bruno Cassaro of La Fibule to Sabine Verzier of the Manufacture d’étoffes Prelle, or Sophie Toporkoff who developed her workshop for the creation and edition of stained glass windows. Unlike other architects, we want to put our artisans forward! And then, we talk to them every day, we have become friends.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

Julien is one of my best friends. We have known each other since we were 15. He was the one who first approached me about creating his restaurant Créatures on the roof of Galeries Lafayette. Following which, we were able to integrate him into the projects we were developing with the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Thus was born the Forest restaurant, which was immensely visible, generating many restaurant commissions later.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

Pierre Marie, I love commissioning pieces from him! We will very soon be unveiling a slightly crazy project that involved the eccentric sculptor and furniture designer Mark Brazier-Jones. Not to mention the iconic duo Garouste & Bonnetti, or the ceramicist Ebony Russel with whom we imagined fascinating vases.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

The more we advance, the more we attract different personalities, I find that extraordinary. After having collaborated with houses very close to us like Charles Paris or the Prelle manufacture, I would not have imagined expressing myself in the sports sector. However, we are going to sign the first padel center (this new trendy racket sport) in Paris intramural. Concerning Coachella, we are going all the way with our fantasies by proposing an XXL sculptural installation based on multi-colored inflatable flowers 17 meters high, which will light up during the night to become the rallying point for a human tide of more than 300,000 people. Uchronia was initially a bet, I had no idea where it would lead us, and our adventures surprise me day after day.

JULIEN SEBBAN:

I love collaborating with the cultural field, and I always accept showcase projects. Even if they don’t allow us to earn a living, there is always this idea of ​​intention pushed to the extreme. These projects become an opportunity to explore new territories, to try out exercises in style. Of course, the Coachella festival represents a dream come true, but my ambition would rather be in the production of installations in the context of the city. Our monumental bed installed in the courtyard of the Hôtel de la Marine for the last Design Week was a first step towards public space, open to all, without distinction. Which gave rise to all kinds of reactions, that’s what was enriching.