Meï - Meï 05 Side Table

Volta is a Paris architecture and interior design studio founded in 2016 by Agathe Lavaud. Based in the Marais (3rd arrondissement), the studio works on bespoke private commissions: apartments, country houses, and heritage buildings treated as distinct spatial problems rather than typological exercises.

Six months studying in Rome gave Lavaud her foundational references. Aldo Rossi and Andrea Palladio shaped her attachment to symmetry and classical proportion. Those references surface in her work through structure and restraint, not quotation. The studio draws by hand and builds physical models; 3D renderings come last, if at all. Lavaud notes that 90% of clients learn to trust what they cannot yet visualize.

Materials define the studio's practice. Lavaud has developed a proprietary cork tinting process using natural pigments, a formula refined after a sourcing trip to Porto. The studio also collaborates with startups producing merrazzo from marine sediments, treating material innovation as a design value rather than a sustainability checkbox. Natural varnishes, textured stone, and a restrained chromatic palette run through the work consistently.

Notable projects include a duplex renovation in a Paris Art Deco building, an apartment in Marcel Breuer's Flaine ski station (2019), and a country house near Chantilly (2023). Each project begins with a detailed reading of the site; the intervention seeks to enhance the existing character rather than overwrite it.