Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy on Interior Design—And Working Together as a Couple

As life and business partners, Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy do their best to avoid bringing their work home. With their Paris apartment located in the same building as the office of their design firm, Laplace, that’s easier said than done. Since the company’s founding in 2004, its namesake Argentinian-born designer has remained the creative lead; Comoy serves as the CEO, managing the overarching vision for Laplace along with its business plans. Together, they’re known for creating unique yet functional spaces that feel timeless and unexpected all at once.

The duo primarily work with clients in the international art and design space, tackling projects with artists, museums, and collectors. They also dabble in the realms of private residence and hospitality, and they’ve designed a plethora of spaces for the famed Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery Hauser & Wirth as part of an ongoing collaboration. That successful business relationship is, perhaps, a testament to the couple’s own. Laplace and Comoy opened up to L’OFFICIEL about their remarkable dynamic, creative inspirations, and current projects.

L’OFFICIEL: You share both your personal and professional lives. How do you make it work?

CHRISTOPHE COMOY: Living as a couple means accepting a series of compromises, but in professional life, decisions must be made. There is pressure—a little ego, although we don’t have much of it—but we each have our own expertise and fields of action. That doesn’t prevent us from consulting each other. If we talk about strategy, acquisition, or the choice of a new customer, I take the lead. If we are talking purely about architecture, design, or creative direction, it’s Luis who takes over.

L’O: Why did you decide to open your agency in Paris?

CC: At that time, the market began to evolve towards very high-level service. You could no longer just be an excellent architect—the quality had to be perfect. Paris allows us to offer a wide range of services, from building a house from scratch to its interior decoration. Working with us provides access to our antique dealers, our merchants, our carpenters, our glass-makers. And all of the galleries that have opened in the past 20 years have put Paris center stage, especially since Brexit.

L’O: The art world is integral to your projects—you’ve worked with the gallery owners Hauser & Wirth for over 25 years. What is that collaboration like?

CC: Luis met [cofounder] Ursula Hauser in 1999 in Mallorca. She was our first client.

LUIS LAPLACE: I was working for the architect Annabelle Selldorf in New York, and she entrusted me with Ursula’s project [designing her Mallorcan residence].

CC: That relationship is more than professional or friendly; we’re like family. It’s changed our approach to the world.

L’O: You’ve also designed homes for gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin and artist Cindy Sherman. What do private spaces like that say about your clients?

LL: I was at the birthday dinner of one of our first mentors, [German art collector and editor] Mick Flick, and in his speech, his son said that one could know his father through his homes, because they were almost a bibliography of his life. I found that interesting. Our clients don’t want trendy decor; they want to convey something deeper—to transmit their DNA and share their culture. I’m a silent architect. I’m trying to disappear. I put projects into context and showcase a collection based on the values of its owner.

CC: Artists feel confident with Luis because he does not impose his ego. I find it exciting to work with people who have values, who advance the world of art as a cultural mission. Not just people who have money; I’m not interested in that.

L’O: Are there any common themes in your work?

LL: Eclecticism.

CC: A lived-in feeling, even for projects that are barely finished.

L’O: What projects are you working on now?

CC: The Roth Bar & Grill at Hauser & Wirth in Somerset, England, and a historic apartment on rue de Bellechasse in Paris, which once belonged to the Daudet family. It’s where Proust met his then-lover, Lucien Daudet.

L’O: Where do you find inspiration?

LL: The homes of collectors from other eras. I love the eclecticism of looking at a Mondrian next to an African mask and an Asian ceramic.