In Profile:
Malherbe Paris

Company Name: Malherbe Paris
Position Within Company: Creative Studio
Website: www.malherbe.paris

Tell us a little about your background in design

Founded in Paris and operating globally with offices in Shanghai and New York, Malherbe Paris is a high-end creative agency specializing in retail, hospitality, and branding. For over 30 years, our studio has been a laboratory where architects, interior designers, and brand strategists collaborate to create immersive environments for the world’s most prestigious luxury brands.

How would you describe your personal design style?

At Malherbe Paris, we do not define ourselves through a single aesthetic style.
Our approach is narrative-driven and deeply contextual, with each project shaped by its cultural environment, audience, and purpose.
What defines our design language is the ability to create bespoke experiences that merge French heritage and craftsmanship with the energy, innovation, and contemporary pulse of international cities. We seek to balance emotion and operational intelligence, designing spaces that are both immersive and highly functional.
Rather than imposing a signature look, we create unique identities and stories for every destination, ensuring each project feels timeless, relevant, and deeply connected to its context.

Where does your design inspiration come from?

Our inspiration is plural. It comes from the dialogue between art, gastronomy, craftsmanship, music, cinema, history, and the rhythm of urban life.
For a project such as Terrace Boulud, inspiration emerged from the poetic world of historic train journeys. We explored references ranging from the Orient Express to Chef Daniel Boulud’s own culinary universe and personal story. His memories, anecdotes, and narrative became a meaningful starting point for the concept.

At the same time, the spirit of Hong Kong played a central role in shaping the project. The sense of place, the local landscape, colors and traditional craftsmanship deeply informed our design approach. The rattan creations, for example, were directly inspired by local weaving techniques and their connection to the region’s cultural identity.

For us, inspiration always comes from layering stories, emotions, and cultural references to create spaces that feel authentic, immersive, and memorable.

In what direction do you feel that design is moving towards in a general sense?

We believe design is moving toward “Hyper-Personalization” and “Emotional Durability.” The focus is no longer just on the aesthetic object but on the sensory experience and how a space makes a guest feel over time.

Name five key themes to consider when approaching design in the future

Holistic Branding: Space and brand identity must be one.

Cultural Resonance: Designing with deep respect for local context.

Multi-Sensory Design: Engaging touch, sound, and lighting.

Resilient Luxury: Using noble materials that age with grace.

Human Choreography: Organizing flow to facilitate natural connection.

If you could offer one piece of advice when it comes to designing, what would it be?

Focus on the “empty space” as much as the furniture. The atmosphere is created by how people move and breathe within the architecture, not just by what they look at.

How important are The International Hotel & Property Awards?

They are a crucial platform for the industry. They recognize the complexity of hospitality design, which requires a perfect balance between architectural beauty and high-performance operations.

What are your aims and goals for the next twelve months?

Over the next twelve months, our goal is to continue expanding our presence across Asia and North America while deepening our commitment to eco-conscious luxury, local craftsmanship, and culturally rooted design.
We also aim to further strengthen our narrative-driven approach, creating meaningful and immersive experiences that respond to our clients’ ambitions with both creativity and operational intelligence. For us, every project is an opportunity to build a unique story that feels authentic to its location, its audience, and its brand identity.
At the same time, we want to continue fostering collaborations with exceptional artisans, artists, and creative partners around the world in order to push the emotional and experiential dimension of hospitality and retail design even further.

Your most treasured possession?

Our most treasured possession is undoubtedly our creative archive thirty years of sketches, references, material research, books, and collected objects that reflect the history and identity of the studio.

Within the agency, our founder has assembled over the years a rich collection of art pieces and objects gathered from travels around the world. Alongside this, our material library, with its extensive and carefully curated collection of samples, represents an essential source of inspiration and experimentation for the team.

More than a collection, these archives embody our creative memory, our curiosity, and the cultural dialogue that continuously nourishes our design approach.

Your favourite holiday destination?

Wherever the next project takes us. We find beauty in the diversity of global landscapes.

Your favourite hotel, restaurant & bar?

Hotel: The ones that prioritize the guest journey over pure ostentation.

Restaurant: Terrace Boulud (for its immersive atmosphere).

Bar: Historic hotel bars that have stood the test of time.

Your favourite book, film & song?

Book: we have always been drawn to collections of architectural manifestos and essays, texts that explore how design can shape emotions, culture, and human experience. They are a constant reminder that architecture is not only about aesthetics, but also about storytelling and vision.

Film: In the Mood for Love remains one of our favorite films for its extraordinary sense of atmosphere, lighting, and emotional subtlety. Wong Kar-wai’s vision of Hong Kong has been a lasting source of inspiration, particularly in the way romance, nostalgia, and urban intensity coexist within the same cinematic language.

Song: A mix of French classics and contemporary global beats.

Your favourite food and drink?
A fusion of French culinary technique and local global ingredients, paired with a great vintage wine

Your favourite way to spend an afternoon?

In a workshop with artisans, refining a detail or testing a new material. We find great pleasure in those moments where ideas become tangible, when a drawing is translated into matter, texture, and proportion. It is often in the making, through trial, error, and conversation with craftsmen, that a project truly comes to life.

If you weren’t in this sector, what would your alternative profession be?:

Film production. Building a set and designing a restaurant follow the same emotional logic: both are about storytelling, atmosphere, and the precise orchestration of space, light, rhythm, and detail to evoke a feeling. We’ve always been fascinated by the way cinema constructs worlds and directs emotion through space, it is very close, in spirit, to what we do in architecture and design.

Anything else interesting?

Our team is composed of over 15 nationalities, which is our greatest strength when designing for a global audience.