The Penthouse: Distinctive Design by Rémi Tessier

Rémi Tessier spent five years learning to be a cabinet maker as an apprentice member of the Compagnons du Devoir, the ancient organisation set up to pass on the techniques needed to build the cathedrals of medieval France, which he joined aged just 15. He travelled from workshop to workshop around the country, living an almost monastic existence in communal houses owned by the Compagnons. When he set up his own studio in 1988, he closed his toolbox for good. Workwear these days is a pair of white jeans and an unassuming Loro Piana jacket rather than a carpenter’s overalls. But it is his experience as a maker that has given Tessier an unusual and wide-ranging set of skills. An ability to get difficult things done while making them look easy is perhaps the most important. That, and the charm needed to get along with the demanding but interesting people that he works for.

He has put those skills to work on projects as large as fitting out a Boeing 787 for a private client, and as diminutive as the patisserie on the ground floor of The Berkeley for Cedric Grolet (Tessier took inspiration for the latter from a Formula 1 pit-stop team). He is currently working on 30 projects worldwide, using his 15-strong team in Paris, together with local artisans who specialise in particular fields. He designed Larry Gagosian’s new gallery in Paris, curated Damien Hirst’s summer 2023 exhibition Where the Land Meets the Sea at Phillips in London and has an international reputation as a yacht designer.

For Tessier, it is not enough for a design to be well made: it needs an idea to underpin it. In the case of the Claridge's project, that idea was to introduce a variety of work from Damien Hirst. The two had been friends long enough for the artist to say yes immediately when Tessier asked to borrow 75 works for the next three years. He chose pieces from every period of Hirst’s career, from pill cabinets to cherry blossom paintings and ecstatic gold classical figures, some sitting on shelves and bedside tables.  ‘Damien told me, “I will be pleased to have artwork as objects that people can touch.” That is very unusual, very casual. The art is there without it ever being too much or in your face.'

'I love all Rémi’s designs and he designed my apartment and studio in London, ' says Hirst. He has the most amazing sensibility of any architect or designer I have worked with and it’s a joy to work with him. I just let him have the artworks he wants and he always places them and makes them look phenomenal. He’s the real deal.'