French class

Parisian creative agency Art Recherche Industrie's new HQ translates a 19th-century landmark into a chic open-plan office worth leaving home for

- By Rosa Bertoli

Ask Ramdane Touhami what inspired him when creating his new office in Paris and he offers a succinct answer: ‘Beauty’. Set within a 19th-century ballroom in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, the space is a mix of old-world charm and colourful, contemporary interventions. ‘I didn’t have a vision for the space, I just improvised,’ says Touhami of the interiors. ‘I wanted to create a big, beautiful space for my team that would feel like a home.’

The grand office space is the headquarters of Touhami’s art direction agency, Art Recherche Industrie (ARI), which he started in 2013 with the goal of ‘advocating homemade and zero-out-sourcing’. Its fields of operation include architecture, typography, graphic design, photography, writing and product, as well as ‘development of brand philosophies and redefinition of identities’. Among its many and diverse projects is Officine Universelle Buly 1803, the beauty brand Touhami relaunched in 2014 with his wife Victoire de Taillac: under their direction, the former 19th-century pharmacy has become a cult brand combining innovative skincare with diverse aesthetic approaches that merge past and present.