Pascal Grasso's uncluttered design takes inspiration from art history and architecture
Pascal Grasso founded his eponymous design agency in 2009 in Paris. Located in the heart of "SoPi" where Paris's creative influences intersect, Pascal Grasso Architectures works on a variety of projects that share his desire to create an immersive experience, a reason "to be in a place" that transports us away from its basic function.
The firm is specialised in designing contextual, immersive architecture and atypical, ephemeral or durable projects. Its work is characterised by balance, an aesthetic that combines light, contrast and colour and embodies a sense in material harmony.
The architect's designs take great inspiration from the environment in which they will take form. He combines natural aspects, contemporary art, minimalism, conceptual art, Arte Povera and Land Art. The common theme in all his designs is the desire to do away with the superficial and focus on the essentials.
At the Accor Arena, Pascal Grasso's work resembles an art installation.
Pascal Grasso's idea to cover the box's walls with a felt covering is a reference to the conceptual work of Joseph Beuys entitled Plight, which was first created in 1985. This installation, which can now be seen at Paris's Centre Pompidou, is comprised of walls covered in rolls of felt. This material alters the temperature and sound once you enter the room. You can almost hear your heartbeat!
L'ATELIER offers a sensorial awakening centered on an immersive experience.
Sight, sound, touch, perhaps smell: this place is both a confined space, like a cave, and a special observation post.
Beyond its forms and materials, this box looks to improve well-being and to experience a slow-paced regular heartbeat.
It offers content to be discovered in a special experience of heart coherence.
Learn about it. Can the heart beat for art?
The heart is universal and unifying. What can the heartbeat look like in art?
The Japanese artist Sasaki is one of the artists who has been inspired by the symbolism and movement of the organ and has worked on representing the heartbeat since 1995.
There are 26,000,000 of them in his work!
He creates paintings and frescoes by ear with red waves that echo several heartbeats. Instead of naming his site after himself, he chose www.heartbeatdrawing.com.
He exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2011, and the same year he painted for the Dwell on Design Project in Los Angeles to benefit the reconstruction of Japan.
Go further.
The website Pascal Grasso Architectures
A visit of L'ATELIER with commentary by Pascal Grasso:
Photo credits
Maison Le Cap, Photo Cyrille Weiner for Pascal Grasso Architectures
Plight, photo Marc Wathieu
Sasaki, photo Dwell on Design, Los Angeles