For Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy, partners in business and in life at their design firm, Laplace, the days are hands-on; fast-paced but somehow slow moving too. In their Paris atelier, a team of 50-plus focuses on the architecture of the house. The furnishings, the landscape, the art and the objects too. This is what is worked on and talked about. A lot. But Luis tells of a team member who also calls the work a réveillé—an awakening. And it's here that you realize that for the pair, for their studio and clients, this is where the real focus is. A sense of connectedness, how one thing relates to the next. A sum of the parts with the common goal in every project: to awaken, though this awakening is no single tap on the shoulder. Instead, it appears as a developing story, one that requires an awareness on the client's part as there is no signature Laplace style. An astute client will feel an ease and an interest in the environment Laplace has created for them. It's a unique approach that has earned the firm international acclaim.

Today, museums, private residences, commercial spaces and gallery projects abound, but Laplace's studio practice, regardless of a project's scale, is noted for its intense enterprise. When one hires Laplace, you don't simply receive a set of plans and put it out for construction bids. Rather, it is completely the opposite. Laplace delivers a nuanced body of works— a series of designs and activations that will touch on every aspect of the project's final outcome. It is why a Laplace building is full of Laplace furniture, decoration, soft furnishings, and most importantly, the spirit that goes along with it. Why as a studio they never repeat a design, and Luis, with warmth, will report that he goes to trade exhibitions to remind himself that he is not interested in trends nor, what they both call, "ticking the boxes." This is why being with them in their studio is so thrilling. The pair is certainly not phoning it in.

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Read the full story in The Current, Vol 6.