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“We cannot call it an office,” Raphael Navot smiles while looking around the Paris headquarters of his homonymous design study: a patio apartment in the right bank Fourth of Montorgueil. The 48 -year -old Israeli designer moved last year after having previously worked from home, giving life to Skylit’s space through tactile and warm materials that appear from a dark and mottled granite floor to triple oak honey shelves, oxidized to a smoked shadow.
It is a seedbed of supremely elegant creativity. There are models and samples of materials on each surface, traces of an impressive production that range from collaborations with brands such as Cappellini, Loro Piana and Roche Bobois, to designs of the interiors of the Hôtel National Des arts et Métiers in Paris. Marine He was awarded Maison and Objetón Designer of the year in 2023, and yet his full -time team consists only of himself and his assistant, Fanny Flamin. “We are like two octopus that do everything,” he says about his work association. “And the study is very new, but it is also very similar to the home: there is a kitchen, there is a bedroom and there is a bathroom. It is not an aesthetic as much as the use and mood.”
Navot established his practice in 2003, but first waves in 2011 with Club silence – The Underground Access Point of Paris that he created with the late American film director, visual artist and musician David Lynch, who is named after the club in his film Mulholland Drive. They were gathered for the project by the owner of the Arnaud Frisch club. Navot took his leadership for the interior design of the scene and the concept of the cult director. “He used to come and go home in Hollywood, who was an incredible house of Frank Lloyd Wright JR,” he recalls. “For me it was an interesting process, but it wasn’t always soft, and at first he didn’t really like my job because he found him too elegant. I would really say it as an insult!”
Despite their differences, he and Lynch found their shared vision in a sexy, elegant and surreal aesthetic with retro-fouturist furniture they were, says Navot, “on an uncomfortable purpose.” He adds: “I wanted people to sit on the edge of the seat, get involved.” The project established a precedent for the flourishing Navot practice, with its use of natural materials and crafts. “We use crafts such as gold and very complicated brass work, which are not very common for an underground club.”
Navot’s first influences were molded by their education in Jerusalem. “My dad was creative but not in the profession: he built our furniture, like my bed and my cabinets,” he recalls. But it was the sanctuary of the book in The Israel Museum – “A place where sacred scrolls maintain and are designed in this very beautiful white organic shape”, and Henry Moore’s sculptures inside the museum’s garden that really inspired their way. “I thought I was going to study architecture, but responsibility turned off,” he says. “So I chose the design.”
He went to Eindhoven Design Academy In the Netherlands to study in 1999. “I come from Israel, a very contrasted and complex country with many very strong opinions and battles,” he recalls. “When you really do not know where you are or where you want to go, you need a neutral land to grow. The Netherlands were perfect for me.” When graduating, the French craft approach attracted Navot to Paris, and it is these practices that have come to define their work. It refers to himself as a “non -industrial designer”, a term he uses to underline his focus on the fact that he produces it in mass. He quotes the Hôtel National Des arts et Métiers as a typical example, a project completed in 2017 in which he worked with 30 artisans, including “two older knights, already drawing their pensions, which have a small factory that makes carpentry. They needed a year to make 70 boards because they were a lot for them,” he smiles. Smile. It is currently working in a new hotel in Paris with the same artisanal approach.
Navot is also working on the Six senses Quexigal Palace, a resort in the Casa de Campo of the 16th century of the Spanish king Felipe II in the medieval city of Ávila, which is expected to open at the end of 2026. Working with the architects based in Madrid Arvo Architecture in a heritage renewal has been rewarded by Navot. “We have very similar values,” he says about the project. “It is ecological and sustainable in a way that celebrates local materials. It is a barefoot luxury.” This is reflected in its own designs, which include lights and sculptures that incorporate original vessels of wine and olive oil from the farm. Yee Pin Tan, Head of Design in Six Sensses, has enjoyed being surprised by Navot’s original approach. “Raphael’s designs are tactile, fluid and undeniably sexy but never predictable,” she says. “There is always an unexpected turn that makes your work really unforgettable.”
For Marc Benda, co -owner of Friedman Benda Gallery In New York and Los Angeles, it is “the simplicity with which Raphael can transmit very complex thinking processes” which leads him to Navot’s work. They have worked together during the last seven years, showing outstanding pieces of collectible design: among them the sinuous and dazzling chair of oak whale (2024); the bronze sculpture table (transmission) (2022); and the intertwined stopwatch and bronze (2022). “His seat is simply exceptional,” says Benda. When he joined the gallery, Navot was not sure of his place inside the list of Benda avant -garde designers when he joined the gallery. “I thought: ‘I am the quite stupid of class,” he recalls. “I really couldn’t relate to what was happening in contemporary design and art, and I considered myself a bit upside down. He took time to apologize for being interested in beauty.”
Today all Navot projects carry their signature, one that goes back to their first experiences of Henry Moore sculptures, which can be seen in the sofas and stools in an organic way to PIANA INTERIEUR LORO (an extension of which will be launched this summer) and the recent new moon sofa 260 with Ateliers JouffreUploaded on a color wool cloth of Pierre Frey. Recently he added new designs inspired by the landscape to his collaboration with the French carpet manufacturer Day And a collection of dishes with the Belgian brand of household items Serax – A project with its “Collective of Friends”, Restorer Julien Cohen and the creative director Stephanie Cohen, which they call Uncharted.
The latter, he says, is a “more democratic” counterpoint for five -star hotels and high -end design furniture for which he is known. “It really doesn’t matter if it’s clay or if it’s a bohemian glass, it’s always an interesting challenge for me,” he says. In his study, he often works with Clay so that his creative juices flow. “I will do really normal things like cups, which are a great relief because most of my work is very sensational. I really calm down.”
It is important for Navot that your designs feel and look. “Whether you come to a hotel or a bar, to a spa or your bed, [the experience] It should be remarkable without being overwhelming, “he says.” It must be something I have not seen, but you feel familiar. “Whether one of its spaces or a piece of its furniture,” your body has to say: ‘Yes, I understand it.’ ”