i seldom pay any attention to cv’s in general… i feel it takes a bit of the surprise and spontaneity out of one’s first immpressions. however in the case of grégoire de lafforest is was hard to ignore; having worked at the agency of bruno moinard, noah duchaufour lawrence and gilles & boissier where he could be involved on major projects such as the headquarters of hermès in paris, cartier boutiques, a mansion for veuve clicquot and more recently the restaurant ciel de paris at the top of la tour montparnasse, all while building his own practice and receiving awards from the valorisation de l’innovation dans l’ameublement for 2011,12,13 and 2014. as mentioned before, i’m still in my post pierre chareau neo-industrial-glamour mood and therefor quite biased about combinations of materials and functionalities, but that is exactly what makes grégoire’s work so fascinating. there seems to be a good understanding of the relationships between textures in his constructions, this is cleverly balanced with a novelty factor even if is is at times a bit formulaic but still unpredictable. nonetheless his simplified designs have an elegance and intelligence that blends a late-fifties-aesthetic with a modern-day-consciousness successfully. this is why i mentioned the impressions from the cv; it seems that i am often more scrutinising on the acclaimed and achieved than on emerging designers… i call it my critical compassion.