Portrait

Revealing space, Odile Decq

Revealing space

After graduating from La Villette and Sciences-Po in Urban Planning in the late 1970s, Odile Decq waited 10 years before getting international fame with her Banque Populaire de l’Ouest work in Rennes. “It took time to people to admit that even a woman could be an architect, she smiles.” Awarded with the Golden Lion in 1996 at the Venice Mostra, she renovated the Unesco conference hall in Paris and designed various items including the armchairs of the Opera Garnier restaurant or Luceplan’s famous Pétale suspension lamp. The Maison & Objet show features some of her signature works including furnitures and lamps. At the same time, Paris-based Polaris gallery, which she renovated in 1997, offers until the end of september 2013 her ”Force en présence” exhibition where she focuses on the body and space. “The architect work also includes an artistic element, she says.”

© Markus Deutschmann

Galerie Polaris. 15, rue des Arquebusiers, 75003 Paris. Tél. : 01 42 72 21 27.