French design studio Paf atelier makes interior architecture that places you inside an art object. For the 2022 iteration of Collectible Fair, Paf presented custom-made objects representative of its design process. The designs are enveloped in electric orange blinds that function as a backlit canvas for the stainless-steel forms to reflect. Each piece is meant to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed continuously, changing function until, eventually, dismantled.

For First Class 2023, a surrealist’s paradise erupted in Paf’s pavilion located in the Jardin de Tuileries in Paris. Tarpaulins printed with dreamlike AI-generated images and patterns disrupted viewers’ sense of space and continuity, accented with neon lights along a central “spine.” The design was inspired by the typology of the tent itself and the basic materials that make the material a 3D envelope: the tarpaulin, the rope, and the metal frame. The result blurs the lines as to what it means to make an environment.

Tasked with the scenographic design for both the 2022 and 2023 Collectible Fairs at the Tour & Taxis building in Brussels, Paf’s creative challenge was to initiate impactful moments that nevertheless wouldn’t interfere with the exhibitor’s works on display. The careful curation of white and orange inflatable elements tied together and hung as “a game between repetition and gravity,” successfully mark the fair’s beginning and end, and also made its way to Soho House, albeit in black.

Paf atelier is a collection of designers from an architectural background, but they specialize in scenography. This emerging design genre blends the best of exhibition, set, and runway design with graphic sophistication and sculpture. Paf atelier activated the iconic Palais de Tokyo in Paris for Louis Gabriel Nouchi’s 2023 runway. Hovering above the fountains and streaming down the steps beloved by Parisian skaters, Paf’s installation of mirrors is as reflective as the water the models walked upon.