{"id":515918,"date":"2026-03-05T12:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515918\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:08:13","slug":"archyvio-at-versailles-a-midcentury-design-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515918\/","title":{"rendered":"Archyvio at Versailles, a midcentury-design love story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0work for them for free,\u201d says French photographer Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel. He\u2019s talking about his friends Lilya Turki and Antonio Fazio, the husband and wife co-founders of Archyvio, a design studio that sells vintage objects. When Coquerel photographed a selection of their ceramics and glassware at his apartment in Versailles, the \u201cpayment\u201d was his pick from the collection. He chose a rare and highly sought-after pair of stoneware urns, created in the 1930s by Swedish artist and designer Wilhelm K\u00e5ge, in a vivid-green glaze \u2013 pieces that Turki and Fazio had been eyeing up for their own collection. \u201cOh, Antonio\u2019s face!\u201d exclaims Coquerel, laughing. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t recovered yet.\u201d Fazio smiles: \u201cI\u00a0think, Fran\u00e7ois, in the future we need to rediscuss the terms of our collaboration\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe living room, with a Pierre Chapo bench displaying a B&N \u201960s accordion vase by\u00a0Linde Burkhardt. The tall ceramic vase on the floor is by Luigi Santi. On the coffee table is a \u201940s glass fruit bowl by Alfredo Barbini and a black carafe with red stopper by Anne Nilsson, 1996\u00a0 \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel<\/p>\n

Coquerel first met Turki,\u00a0a\u00a0Swiss-Tunisian creative director, 10 years ago; she was working at Marie Claire magazine and\u00a0hired him for a shoot. Coquerel\u2019s focus is still-life photography; he has created campaigns for brands such as The Row, Herm\u00e8s and Tolix furniture, as well as editorial for magazines including HTSI and\u00a0Harper\u2019s Bazaar France.<\/p>\n

When you get obsessed with design\u00a0and furniture, it can become like a\u00a0disease<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel<\/p>\n

He moved to Versailles from Paris eight years ago, in search of more green space for\u00a0his now 12-year-old son. The apartment is found in a \u201cvery typical, very classical 18th-century building\u201d, but the interior design is the fruit of another creative exchange. He collaborated with the French architect Marine Bonnefoy<\/a>, whom\u00a0Coquerel\u00a0also met through work. She first\u00a0commissioned him to photograph an\u00a0apartment she\u2019d designed in the Lyon countryside. \u201cSince then I\u2019ve shot most of\u00a0her projects,\u201d he says; in return, Bonnefoy helped to renovate his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe co-designed the place,\u201d says Coquerel. \u201cWe tried to do something a\u00a0little\u00a0bit different. We didn\u2019t try to be too\u00a0original or too modern. It was about finding\u00a0the right balance between my own taste and the Versailles vibe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe living room. The iridescent terracotta vases on the rug are by Riccardo Gatti. The shelves hold works by Enzo Mari, Wilhelm K\u00e5ge, \u00c5ke Holm and Gunnar Nylund. The vase next to the record player is by Stig Lindberg \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel\"AA red Zbigniew Horbowy vase and \u201930s glassware by Vicke Lindstrand \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel<\/p>\n

The result is slightly \u201970s, serene but\u00a0playful. A blue micro-tiled bathroom summons \u201ca swimming pool in the forest\u201d, says Coquerel, but also hosts a grand marble column next to the shower. The kitchen worktop and sink are hewn from neutral travertine marble but offset with a bright red tap and cabinet handles \u2013 a nod to the bright colours of his childhood home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Archyvio<\/a> pieces \u2013 lined up on shelves and clustered on surfaces and table tops \u2013 look completely at home. Turki and\u00a0Fazio describe their project as \u201ca gallery of\u00a0shapes and colour presenting unique design pieces from different eras\u201d. Ceramics are a strong point \u2013 particularly midcentury Scandinavian. The current offering includes a c1950s double teapot by\u00a0Gunnar Nylund for R\u00f6rstrand (\u20ac500) and a\u00a0number of square stoneware dishes by Swedish designer Stig Lindberg (from \u20ac530). A rare Persian herb jar, decorated with painterly deep-blue brushstrokes, dates back to the 17th century, while a\u00a0sculptural Ettore Sottsass glass vase is\u00a0pure\u00a01980s (both price on request). \u201cI\u00a0love\u00a0the Murano glass bowl of fruits [by\u00a0Alfredo Barbini in the 1940s or \u201950s] on\u00a0the\u00a0living-room coffee table and the ceramic vase placed on the marble shower\u00a0column,\u201d says Bonnefoy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe office with (left) a\u00a0\u201960s wooden puzzle by Enzo\u00a0Mari and a vintage Italian green coffee pot on the desk \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel<\/p>\n

The gallery grew out of Turki and Fazio\u2019s own collection, which they started when they were living in Lausanne but which really took shape in New York, where they moved in 2018 (when Turki got a job as a\u00a0creative director at Tiffany & Co). \u201cWe\u00a0had these big shelves in our apartment and Antonio decided to classify the pieces by colour,\u201d says Turki. Among their most treasured items are Gio Ponti collaborations<\/a> with master enameller Paolo De Poli in the shape of cats, birds and the odd watermelon.<\/p>\n

\"ArchyvioArchyvio ceramics on the table in the kitchen. The chairs are by Bruno Rey \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel\"TravertineTravertine marble and red fittings in the kitchen, with vases by Berndt Friberg (left) and Anna-Lisa Thomson (in sink). The black jug is 1930s French art deco \u00a9 Fran\u00e7ois Coquerel<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"India<\/a><\/p>\n

For Fazio, an art director and designer who has worked with brands such as Versace, Prada, Maserati and Swatch, Archyvio is \u201calso an extension of what we\u2019re doing on a\u00a0daily basis through our respective work. It\u00a0requires creativity; we\u00a0constantly need to\u00a0find inspiration through\u00a0colours, shapes and materials.\u201d Coquerel, on the other hand, is not a collector. \u201cI\u2019m trying to get\u00a0rid of objects and not own too much,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you get obsessed with design\u00a0and furniture, it can become like a\u00a0disease. People get crazy. I\u2019m trying to get\u00a0better.\u201d He\u2019ll no doubt make the odd exception for select pieces of vintage Swedish ceramics, if only to ensure this virtuous circle of friendship and creativity keeps on flourishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-515918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}