Tandem, singular, multicultural, ambitious, neither architects nor designers : Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku invent a métier at the crossroads of industrial production and the long tradition of craftsmanship.
By combining their experience and concordant conceptual and experimental approaches they recognized the opportunity for a dynamic collaboration that would break down the boundaries between object, interior and structure.
One of the fundamental values of the agency is reinventing itself with each project by working on a unique conception, there are fundamental ideas and design philosophies that inform every project. every aspect of a space, from ceiling height to door handle, spoon to staircase – is an opportunity to demonstrate their combined vision of objects, spaces and structures .There are always custom furniture designs produced by Cassina, Murano Due, Ligne Roset, Cinna, Fermob, Kartell, or Alessi associated with each project.
Substance, humour, poetry, sensitivity, a humanistic vision, a passion for unexpected encounters—every project is a combination of creativity and risk taking.
Since 2007, the studio has achieved the restaurants, Le Jules Verne and 58 Eiffel Tower and at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Chlösterli-Spoon des neiges in Gstaad, the Dorchester in London, Gilt at the New York Palace Hotel and Mix in Las Vegas, for which it received the 2006 Travel + Leisure Design Award for the most beautiful restaurant. From that time, the projects diversify in sectors such as hospitality in Saint-Tropez for the Hotel Benkiraï or W Hotels, in high jewellery at Place Vendome for the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique, for the Silvera showroom in Paris or for a 3500m2 private house in Kuala Lumpur. the development of restaurants and the bar of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, a new proposal for the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, catering areas for the Galeries Lafayette.
A team of 20 individuals, designers, interior designers and architects work together to push back the creation.
Good taste and attention to technique and innovation are the production characteristics of the agency. The complementarity between Sanjit Manku and Patrick Jouin holds at the edge of two creative worlds that are tuned into each other, where it is less about sharing the work than–thanks to the force of the tension, it is about "working together". Patrick Jouin draws on the movement of the contemporary world–substance for formalisation, where Sanjit Manku is not in the same frame of mind, searching on a personal level by being in tune with his own voice.
The agency also collaborates with leading museums in the world and in France including the Musée du Quai Branly, for which the agency created the scenography for Photoquai in 2007 or the exhibition Set in Style for Van Cleef & Arpels at the Copper Hewitt Museum in New York or to present the agency's work at the Instituto Tomie Ahtake in Sao Paolo on the occasion of the Year of France in Brazil in 2009, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2010 and MAD in New York in 2011.
The ongoing projects hone their style and unlock untapped territories: The scenography for the two upcoming exibitions of Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery Maison at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. The transformation in Strasbourg of royal estable in an hotel and restaurant, the development of restaurants and the bar in the Abbaye de Fontervraud, the creation of restaurant and bar for new Mandarin Oriental hotel in Doha or the interior design of several private residences in Shanghai.