Jury-GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN / Published on January 7, 2021
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Martine Dressou
Interior Architect
Open Architectes
Brussels, Belgium
PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE – PEOPLE OF DESIGN VERSION!
What prescient youthful memory relates to your present career?
My visits to the Textile Fair (Paris, France) and Design Fair (Kortrijk, Belgique).
What are three basic rules you learned from your mentors?
■ PASSION
■ OBSERVATION
■ PRECISION
What project launched your career?
The Crystal boutique hotel in Kinshasa. A concept worked in collaboration with Provencher_ Roy and Architecture 49 firms in Montreal.
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Concept hôtel-boutique Crystal, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Photo credit: PROVENCHER_ROY.
Hotel-Boutique with clean contemporary lines combining textures of marble, black wood, metal in the different spaces. All elegantly punctuated with touches of gold.
Any music playing while you work?
Absolutely, depending on the project I’m working on:
Classical music, Jazz, variety, Rock, Soul, Folk….
Do you work in PJs or three-piece suits?
Neither… or both together.
What is your current design state of mind?
A state of mind… OPEN!
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Sauveur, Renaix, Belgium, 2015.
Photo credit: Utku Pekli.
Materials and colors. Transformation and makeover of a Special Techniques office.
What living designer/architect do you most admire?
There are so many who deserve to be admired and among them a poet of light:
DAVIDE GROPPI, italian designer.
Photo: © Jonathan Frantini
What past designer/architect inspires you the most?
French interior architect and designer, ANDRÉE PUTMAN.
Hotel Morgans, New York, 1984- Andrée Putman
What is your most marked design quality?
I like to combine materials, to put them into shapes by associating them with colors taken from nature.
How would you like your designs to go down in history?
With elegance and timelessness.
Concept: The nose in the trees…, Belgium.
Photo credit: Open architectes.
Single family dwelling concept.
Architecture, Interior design, in interaction with the natural space in which the project will take place.
What peer quality do you most value?
Open-mindedness and great listening.
Which project is the epitome of your work?
The Hôtel Crystal boutique project in Kinshasa.
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Concept hôtel-boutique Crystal, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Photo credit: PROVENCHER_ROY.
Hotel-Boutique with clean contemporary lines combining textures of marble, black wood, metal in the different spaces. All elegantly punctuated with touches of gold.
How are your country of belonging’s values reflected in your work?
Belgium values of compromise, diversity and dialogue with a touch of absurdity but always with elegance.
What always inspires you?
Nature, people I meet and my readings.
If a spell were to transform you into an object, by all means, what would you like to be, and why?
A sketchbook that would allow to transmit and receive new ideas and discoveries which will in turn be transmitted again…
What is your favorite place in the world?
At home, by the fireplace… if I had one!
What design or architecture project do you wish you would have thought of yourself?
To the «Thermes de Vals» project designer by Peter Zumthor in Switzerland.
If you could host any three guests, past or alive, over for dinner, who would you choose and what would you dare serving?
MY FATHER, MICHELLE OBAMA and ANDRÉE PUTMAN.
I would serve them a well-selected cheese platter from “Catherine” in Brussels“ and a fine selection of wines.
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What is your mantra?
Speak from the heart.
What is your dream? THINK BIG!
To transform the Brussels courthouse and free it from its scaffolding.
Marbrite, Ronquière, Belgium, 2018.
Photo credit: Utku Pekli.
A green industrial project. Nature, architecture, interior design, everything connected.
St-Sauveur, Renaix, Belgium, 2015.
Photo credit: Utku Pekli.
Materials and colors. Transformation and makeover of a Special Techniques office.
BRASSERIE, Manage, Belgium, 2016.
Photo credit: Utku Pekli.
Volumes, transparency, material, office interior design.
