Interview with Juan Pablo Molyneux, an exclusive club archives reprint from the pages of Manner of Man Magazine

 

Interview with Juan Pablo Molyneux

Juan Pablo Molyneux stands in the formal vestibule of his Paris hôtel particulier,

a nearly six meter high space decorated with azulejos depicting long-vanished historic castles of the Île-de-France .

Photo by Antonio Martinelli. All rights reserved.

 

This exclusive interview with interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux was conducted in Paris by Nicola Linza and Cristoffer Neljesjö during April 2017.

 

What prompted you to enter interior design and decoration?

After finishing my architectural studies, I was asked to take part in a project integrating architectural interior elements and propositions for furniture. At that time, I had the realization that I could never separate these different métiers that I considered indivisible, and I have continued in this manner ever since.

 

Where do you find inspiration?

I think that inspiration is everywhere and it is a question of being receptive and interested.

 

What single room would you consider particularly important? And why?

A vestibule. It talks about the rest of the building, about the owners, their taste, and their status.

 

Do you have a particular favourite period for interior decoration and architecture?

Not precisely, but I do love late 18^th Century French and mid 19^th Century Russian, not to mention contemporary architecture.

 

Your work often embraces a balanced Classical structure while you imbue your interiors at the same time with a sense of now, a feeling of today. Can you describe how you achieve these results so successfully?

Perhaps my background of classical architecture and my way of life, being a contemporary man, is the answer to this balance.

 

How do you first approach the re-decoration of a historic structure?

By studying the original architecture of the project and traveling through the mind of the architect who imagined it and then adding to that, the requests and program of the present owners.

 

If you could have done any house or space in history which would it be?

Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, perhaps.

 

How important is fantasy?

VITAL.

 

The above interview with Juan Pablo Molyneux 2017 © Manner of Man Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.