Curious to discover the different practices of Architecture and design, Agathe Lavaud began her studies at ESAG Penninghen and graduated as an interior architect in 2014. She then continued her studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Marne-la-Vallée, interspersed with a semester of study in Italy. She then joined the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, where she received her Habilitation à la Maîtrise d’Œuvre en son Nom Propre. After several experiences in agencies (Wilmotte & Associés, Vidalenc Architectes, Thierry Lemaire Architecture), she decided to set up her own structure, specializing in private commissions.

The agency Volta works in the fields of architecture and interior design. Founded in 2016 by Agathe Lavaud, it articulates its work around attention to detail and a tandem between contemporaneity and tradition. The agency considers each project unique. For each one, it undertakes personalized research, both in terms of volumes and materials, guided by the existing context.

1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I was born in Rennes, Brittany, France. I’ve lived in Paris all my life, and I certainly consider myself more of a Parisian.

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

My mother made all kinds of creations during my childhood. I always saw her using her
hands to create, from framing, to drawing, to floral art. I think that’s the first art form that
comes to mind. For the real world of Art; of course the Museums. Growing up in Paris, I had access to them as a child.

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field, and what led you to the design creation ?

Yes, always. In fact, I don’t even feel like I’m working.

4. What led you to the design creation ?

I think it’s the encounter with the material “cork”. By dint of proposing it as a covering in
our interior design projects (without much success!) I began to create with this material, in the free form of furniture.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

I think my process is fairly classic: I draw a lot by hand. I have images, shapes, colors, and sensations in my head and in my dreams, which I put down on paper.
I read a lot of the art press, and I’m generally curious about the world of art and design:
which inevitably also influences my creative process.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

Aha, no day is typical! There’s a bit of everything: quiet design/creation sessions at the agency, site meetings, customer meetings, vernissages, and exhibitions. It’s a job that imposes a very changeable and irregular rhythm: I really enjoy it.

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

I chose cork for this first design collection for several reasons. The first was the desire to
magnify it and change the image we might have of it. By developing patterns and colors, cork really takes on another dimension, almost looking like marble visually.
Then, of course, for cork’s sensitive, durable, economical, and ecological qualities.

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

Cork processing: the pattern is created by compressing pieces of cork from various sources: pieces of bark, offcuts of wine bottle corks, other offcuts destined for disposal, etc. This process creates unique, authentic, and singular cork sheets.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Remain free, be bold.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

«Sustainable experimentation».

11. What designers and artists have influenced you ?

Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa, Charlotte Perriand, Marcel Breuer, Giancarlo Piretti, Paulin.

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Martin Massé, Sabine Marcellis, Bernard Dubois, Studio Ebur, Faye Toogood.

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Paolo Sorrentino (film), Ossip Zadkine (sculpture), Brancusi (Sculpture), Alex Foxton
(paint), Joan Miro (paint).

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

«Sustainable experimentation».

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

–

12. Which talent would you most like to have?

Being a polyglot.

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My age.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being where I am today.

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A cat.

16. Where would you most like to live?

By the Mediterranean, in Corsica.

17. What is your most treasured possession?

–

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Solitude.

19. What’s your favorite thing to do?

Take a bath.

20. What is your most marked characteristic?

My listening skills, I think.

21. What do you most value in your friends?

Their humor.

22. Who are your favorite writers?

Sagan, Murakami.

23. Who is your hero of fiction?

Totoro.

24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

–

25. Who are your heroes in real life?

I have no heroes.

26. What are your favorite names?

Anne, Claire, Gabriel.

27. What is it that you most dislike?

Shouting.

28. What is your greatest regret?

I don’t have any.

29. How would you like to die?

I don’t want to die.

30. What is your motto?

Fight the good fight.