Sophie Dries | Best Interior Designers in France

Luxury Neighborhoods | Oct 10, 2022

Sophie Dries | Best Interior Designers in France – Architect and designer HMNOP, Sophie Dries is a graduate of ENSA Paris-Malaquais and Aalto University in Helsinki. She was also trained in Contemporary Art at L’École du Louvre. After working with prestigious architecture and design offices such as Jean Nouvel, Pierre Yovanovitch and Christian Liaigre workshops, Sophie Dries created her studio in Paris in 2014 and then opened a second address in Milan in 2017. Far from being locked into a style, Dries draws inspiration both from the Age of Enlightenment and from contemporary art.

The quintessence of material and craftsmanship are at the heart of her work: combining traditional artisanal techniques with new contemporary know-how, whether it be in her interior architecture projects or for her furniture creations. Surrounded by exceptional craftsmen, she uses her knowledge of materials and constant experiments with them, practicing new ideas and methods in order to achieve “the cosmic essence of matter”, a concept that was held dear by Brancusi.

Free from any preconceived idea, she creates spaces in the image of its occupants, guided by the singularity of each encounter. Today, Dries is present in Paris and Milan, and is specialized in creating private residences, hotels, luxury boutiques, and exhibition scenographies. Sophie Dries has been selected of the top 100 AD designers selected for 2022, one of the 100 Phaidon’s World Best Interior Designer, and AD & Land Rover Awards.

The Projects

Apartment | Paris

Apartment designed for a young couple, she is a fashion designer and he is in digital. Sophie Dries retained the very marked Haussmannian character of the reception rooms bringing to the other spaces an architectural interior that plays on the dialogues between sculpture and texture. She has designed the spaces according to axes creating points of view on the couple’s modern artwork including works by Calder, Sol Lewitt, and Annette Messager, as well as for the contemporary works of emerging artists such as Edgar Sarin, Vittoria Gerardi or Paloma Proudfoot. She has chosen a raw aspect to the materials, devoid of ostentation, the tones are natural with a special note of water green; it is the through light that illuminates the space.

Arturo Arita – Flower Gallery | Paris

Formerly a delicatessen, into a scenographic flower shop at 15 rue Jean Jacques Rousseau – 75001, for the New Yorker Arturo Arita, a native of Honduras adopted by Paris. A stone’s throw from the Palais Royal, the flower gallery is inspired by the Mannerist caves of the Italian Renaissance: a plaster wall, with rocky cavities that house niches in which to showcase the colored bouquets, the pyrite appliques on the mirrors are made to measure, just as precious stones to their setting in high jewelry. Powder of chalk tones is discreet in order to highlight the intense marble stele as well as the flowers and creations of Arturo Arita.

Apartment | Paris

Apartment of a young collector who runs a contemporary art gallery. The project combined two apartments that have been simplified by Sophie Dries into a master suite, a guest suite as well as a small and a large living room, a kitchen and a dining room. The apartment was designed in a minimal Haussmann style. Sophie Dries has been inspired by the Scandinavian painter Hammershoi and his reflection on shades of grey to highlight the works. The parquet floor is grey as well as the joinery. Raw materials such as linen, wool carpets, ceramic and plaster lighting ass warmth to the noble materials in place (old parquet, moldings and a marble fireplace).

Attic Apartment | Paris

The architect Sophie Dries has renovated a 70m² apartment under the Parisian charming roofs, for the young film artist, Zoe Le Ber. Located in the beautiful Hôtel Particulier d’Aligre, on 15 Rue de L’Université Paris 7, Zoe asked Sophie Dries to open the multiple small spaces of the apartment and give it a contemporary spirit without opulence, including vintage pieces the owner had gathered from her several trips. Matching the owner’s spirit, the architect wanted to emphasize the spirit of place (deus loci) and so give a purist style, using raw natural materials: the floor terracotta tiles and the oak beams of the origins have been restored and enlighted, the kitchen is now open with a wood birch mat finish and the large library and its long bench, have made this apartment more functional and bright.

Apartment | Paris

The architect Sophie Dries has renovated a Haussmannian apartment in Paris, in the Marais neighborhood. A double living room, a kitchen and a master suite (bedroom/bathroom), and two children’s bedrooms with their bathroom and playroom were created in this 100m2 space. The quasi-totality of the layout was redesigned to bring together two originally separate apartments and all superfluous doorways have been removed and simplified. Raw materials such as linens, carpets in natural wool, light fixtures in ceramics and silver give warmth to the noble materials in place: herringbone parquet flooring, marble fireplace and floral moldings. The classic spaces of the double living room are counterbalanced with the street art collection of the property owners (Banksy, Jon One, Space Invaders, Obey…), pieces by some of the greatest names in vintage design, such as Hans Wegner, Eero Saarinen and Charlotte Perriand, and also more recent pieces from the 1990s by Philippe Starck, among others.

Michel Vivien – Flagship Store | Paris

It is in the prestigious rue du Faubourg St Honore that shoemaker Michel Vivien has chosen to open his unique Parisian address. He entrusted this very personal project to Sophie Dries’ studio, to create a space for his singular universe. From this conversation was born, a place with unexpected contours, yet in the tradition of craftsmanship and noble materials, dear to the designer.