A naturalist architectural manifesto. Villa M by Triptyque Architecture, Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck was born in 1949. From his childhood spent beneath the drawing tables of his airplane building, aeronautic engineer father, he retains a primary lesson: everything should be organised elegantly and rigorously, in human relationships as much as in the concluding vision that presides over every creative gesture. His absolute belief that creation should be used and enjoyed by all sees him relentlessly endeavouring to do well, right down to the tiniest detail.

But years later has he really left his first improvised office? According to him, not completely. “Ultimately they were children’s games, imagination games, but thanks to various skills, especially engineering, something happened. I’m a kid who dreams and at the same time I’ve got that light-heartedness and gravity of children. I fully accept the rebellion, the subversion and the humour.”

Starck first showed interest in living spaces while he was a student at the Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris, where in 1969 he designed an inflatable house, based on an idea on materiality. This revelation bought his first success at the Salon de l’Enfance. Not long afterwards, Pierre Cardin, seduced by the iconoclastic design, offered him the job of artistic director at his publishing house.

“My father was an aeronautical engineer. For me it was a duty to invent”.

Philippe Starck

Inventor, creator, architect, designer, artistic director, Philippe Starck is certainly all of the above, but more than anything else he is an honest man directly descended from the Renaissance artists.

Driven by the same interest in contemporary metropolises and the desire to confront other realities, they founded the Triptyque office in São Paulo in 2000 and Paris in 2008. In more than two decades of history, Triptyque has developed public and private architecture, urbanism and interior projects in Latin America and Europe in various fields such as residential, corporate, education, hospitality, health and research. The firm is also present at exhibitions and biennials. Models of some of its projects have been included in museum collections such as those of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Triptyque has received numerous international awards and has been published by publishers in several countries.

The sensuality of its proposals, combined with an intrinsic naturalness, propels Triptyque into the international panorama of innovative architects. Winners of the New Albums of Young Architects (NAJA-2008), the quartet, eager for challenges, set up a second office in Paris. Triptyque currently has more than sixty employees.

As creative as it is rigorous, Triptyque participates in various projects in Brazil and France - housing, offices, and public spaces - both private and public. Adept at the work of land and urban issues, Triptyque also intervenes in housing policy redefinition and the urbanization of neighbourhoods. Supporters of the virtuous city, also accompany foundations with a social vocation to contribute to a better life.

Triptyque also attracts the world of luxury and creates hotels, resorts and places of contemporary expression, art galleries and exhibition spaces. The architecture studio has also been invited to curate various exhibitions; some of their designed pieces now belong to museums such as the Pompidou Center in Paris.