04/02/2025 -
Eileen Gray icons by
ClassiCon grace the public spaces of the
Grand Dame of
Biarritz hotels on a cliff overlooking the sea. Founded in 2007, the hotelier Experimental Group tasked French interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon with renovating the 19th-century structure in the popular resort. The project sought to preserve the building’s essential and characterizing elements, such as the Belle Époque façade and the central courtyard space surrounded by open corridors leading to the guest rooms on the upper floors and topped by the spectacular glass and metal roof.
Pin itThe Roattino floor lamp from ClassiCon is a design by Eileen Gray
The central space of the
Regina Experimental Biarritz includes lounge and conversation areas as well as a bar, for which Meilichzon chose Eileen Gray’s
Bar Stool No. 2, designed at the end of the 1920s, originally for her own home in Paris. The idiosyncratic design features a rounded seat with a subtle, ergonomic contour for comfort, resting on a unique support system of two key elements: two brushed stainless steel vertical rods and a curved, solid section introducing a dynamic and asymmetrical element to the design. The seat supports are anchored to a sturdy, flat base with a rectangular outline featuring softly beveled edges. The overall composition creates a visually engaging contrast between solid and void and straight and curved lines in true Eileen Gray style.
The seating areas are illuminated by the singular and ironic 1931
Roattino Floor Lamp with its asymmetrical ‘hat-shaped’ shade, again by Eileen Gray. The vertical structure is composed of a single continuous tubular rod that bends into an elongated ‘S’ in an almost-angular yet fluid manner. The vertical element is supported by a truncated cone-like structure, providing a sturdy foundation.
Pin itThe lounge groups are enveloped in the light of the Roattino floor lamps
The rod extends upward and bends twice: first into a soft, angular curve near the midsection, then into a rounded loop at the top, which supports the asymmetrical lampshade that directs light downwards.
ClassiCon, which holds the licenses for these designs and masterpieces by other design greats, describes the piece as looking
“as though a snake charmer had made the cable rise and the lamp head bend.”
ClassiCon on Archiproducts.com
Pin itThe new design of the bar by Dorothée Meilichzon picks up on the architectural elements of the space