Focus on Ubalt

Text by

Moulin, ph. Ubalt

UBALT’s characterful interiors are elegant, synthetic and rigorous, with pops of strong colour and forceful concepts, making for shops, restaurants, pop-up shops and homes that bring textures and geometric patterns together with unusual harmony.

Name: UBALT / Nastasia Potel & Mylène Vasse

Where do you work? In Paris.

Your Instagram account: @ubalt.architectes

Describe what your studio does: We are an interior design and scenography studio

Where did you study? We met at ENSAV (Ecole Nationale d'Architecture de Versailles) and Nastasia studied at La Cambre in Brussels for a year.

What are you working on right now? At the moment the projects are quite varied: flat renovations of course but also retails and a beer shop.

The project you have just completed: in terms of scenography, we were part of the team that created the latest Jacquemus pop-up shop. We have also just finished a 95m2 flat in Paris, located in a former workshop.

Your dream project? A public space and a place of worship must be interesting to work in.

ART_01_Focus-on-Ubalt_2_ubalt-portrait — Ubalt, Nastasia Potel and Mylène Vasse

The project that’s influenced you the most: Fondazione Prada by OMA, in Milan.

A crucial detail in all your projects: we always try to create formal settings emphasised by the contrast of several materials. Mirrors are a recurrent element in our projects to bring light, create a trompe-l'oeil or enlarge the space.

City centre or far-flung places? It depends on the time of year! But on the whole we are two country girls who have become very urban.

Something you have at home designed by you? Our tables: in Corian at Mylène's and in stained concrete at Nastasia's.

What gifts do you like giving? A personalised object and a humorous photomontage.

If you could build a secret passage in your house, where would it lead? To a planted patio.