
Industrial designer Chafik Gasmi is a registered architect in France. He designed and furnished a home in Algiers and a hotel in Paris to launch his career in 1987. After finding success with his own furniture designs, he founded UNIVERS INTÉRIEUR, his own publishing house, in 1990. His publishing house specialized in interior design and architecture books, and he quickly became a well-known figure in the industry. He has since expanded his brand to include a variety of home goods and decor items, as well as collaborations with major retailers around the world.

Education
He studied architecture at the Paris Polbiac University.
Biography
At the International Furniture Show in Paris in 1992, he won the Critics’ Prize for his group of works.
After three years on the rise at MOULIN GALLAND (now FERMOB), where he reinvented the entire “outdoor” collection, including the iconic “Square” chair that adorns the world’s most famous public spaces, including Times Square in New York, Chafik received the “Prix du Nombre d’Or” in 1997, which honours the collaboration between business and design, along with the MOULIN GALLAND brand. He was honoured with a solo exhibition by the VIA association (Valorization of Innovation in Furnishing). The Hotel Matignon, for which he also furnished the Prime Minister’s reception rooms, selected his “Ying” armchair, which HUGUES CHEVALIER had designed. The chair would also be present in various hotels’ lobby areas, including, most recently, the Hotel Shangri in Paris.
Since 2000, the LVMH brands DIOR, GALLIANO, KENZO, DOM PERIGNON, GUERLAIN, GIVENCHY, and EBEL have worked closely with Chafik, who has challenged all of their creative and strategic approaches at the request of Bernard Arnauld, the new owner of SEPHORA.
In 2004, the French National Assembly gave Chafik the “Prix du talent de la Réussite des Français venus from far” award. He founded CHAFIK.STUDIO the same year. His clients included institutions in France and abroad, private investors in the hotel and spa industry, and KENZO, BULGARI, and BACCARAT for the world of luxury (the city of Desvres, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture of Algeria and the Museum of Modern Art in Algiers). (The Designer Chafik Gasmi – FIAM Italia, n.d.)
Chafik served as BACCARAT’s artistic director from 2007 to 2009. In this capacity, he developed a more refined understanding of light and worked on projects between vision and illusion. A retrospective and perspective-heavy solo exhibition of Chafik’s work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Algiers (MAMA) in 2008. In 2010, Chafik developed his ideas for the brand and graphic identity of the LE ROYAL MONCEAU building in Paris. He designed a four-meter-diameter crystal chandelier for BACCARAT in 2011 to illuminate the lobby of the opulent CORINTHIA hotel in London.
2011 also saw the start of Chafik’s collaboration with LANCOME. He was responsible for managing the development of a new identity for the brand in retail locations around the world.
In 2012, Chafik started working with FENDI CASA, for whom he created high-end lighting and furniture.
In 2013, he created a school in the Paris region and a villa in Algiers, for which he recreated all the furnishings and an amazing portico.
The final displays of Chafik’s MAISON LANCOME were installed in 2014 in China and other countries, as well as in Paris’s Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marché department stores. In 2015, he collaborated with LANCME to develop a new retail concept. In 2015, Chafik created a resort to launch high-end Burgundy wines on behalf of a renowned vineyard, OLIVIER LEFLAIVE, in Puligny Montrachet, as well as several villas on the Mediterranean coast for private clients. As artistic director and furniture designer, he continued his partnership with HUGUES CHEVALIER. He also started a partnership with VAL SAINT LAMBERT, a renowned Belgian crystal glassware manufacturer and official supplier to His Majesty, the King of Belgium.
Recognition
The Janus Design Award and the Oscar in Cosmetics went to Chafik in 2016 for his innovative Lancôme store concept and customer experience. The largest Moroccan distribution company, AKSAL, tasked him with developing a novel store concept. In the spring of 2017, Casablanca saw the opening of the first store, which is 3500m2.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
The Designer Chafik Gasmi – FIAM Italia. (n.d.). The designer Chafik Gasmi – FIAM Italia. Retrieved March 18, 2023, from https://www.fiamitalia.it/en/designers/chafik-gasmi
Industrial Design books – Amazon
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