For Laurent Maugoust, an interior is never simply a collection of beautiful objects. It is a stage, a narrative and, at its most successful, a place whose history remains perceptible even after everything has been reconsidered.
The Paris-based interior architect has spent much of his career refining that balance. His work moves comfortably between Haussmannian grandeur and contemporary restraint, pairing architectural memory with bespoke furniture, noble materials and the expertise of French artisans. Rather than imposing an instantly recognizable signature on every commission, Maugoust prefers to uncover what makes a place distinctive and build from there.
That philosophy has shaped hotels across France and abroad, from Hôtel Bowmann and Hôtel Victor Hugo in Paris to projects on the French Riviera and the Chairman Suite at Hyatt Place Tokyo Bay. More recently, it has culminated in one of his most significant Parisian commissions: the extensive reimagining of Hôtel Westminster on Rue de la Paix.
Maugoust’s path toward hospitality design began with drawing. “I always had a passion for drawing,” he told Upscale Living Magazine. “After hesitating between car design and creating cinema sets, I finally chose to study applied arts and followed in the footsteps of my father, who worked in architecture firms.”
The cinematic instinct never disappeared. It would eventually become one of the defining ideas behind his interiors.
After graduating from École Camondo, Maugoust worked with Christian de Portzamparc, the French architect awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1994, before spending close to a decade with hospitality designer Jean-Philippe Nuel. Those formative years exposed him to large-scale international projects and helped establish the technical discipline required for complex hotel commissions.
Maugoust later developed his own studio and gradually assembled a multidisciplinary team. The breadth of expertise is deliberate. He has spoken of bringing together people trained not only in design, but also in art history, sociology and what he describes as the anthropology of space. The objective is to look beyond decoration and understand the cultural life of a building before deciding what its next chapter should become.
“Our approach goes far beyond creating interiors,” Maugoust explained. “It aims to harness the link between original features and décor so that they easily echo one another.”
That sentence captures much of what distinguishes his hospitality work. For Maugoust, renovation is not an exercise in erasure. Historic details can become active participants in a contemporary room, provided the dialogue between old and new is carefully controlled.
Cinema supplies another layer. “We are very much inspired by the world of cinema, so we approach an interior’s structure like a stage, to enhance its space,” he said. The analogy is especially apt in hotels, where guests encounter a sequence of scenes rather than a single room: arrival, reception, corridor, suite, bar and restaurant each form part of the experience.
Hôtel Bowmann in Paris demonstrates that sensitivity particularly well. Within a Haussmannian setting, Maugoust employed sophisticated proportions, refined materials and an atmosphere that feels unmistakably Parisian without slipping into pastiche. The same instinct appears in Hôtel Victor Hugo, where the existing architectural character informed a more intimate, residential interpretation of hospitality.
What interests Maugoust is less the reproduction of a period than the recreation of its spirit.
“The renovation of hotels is the result of a long process of revisiting time periods and eras to recreate their spirit as truthfully as possible,” he said. “Our design work is, in a way, handmade.”
That emphasis on craft extends naturally to French savoir-faire. Maugoust has consistently collaborated with specialist artisans and manufacturers, regarding their contribution as integral rather than decorative. Materials are selected not simply for visual impact, but for the tactile and emotional qualities they bring to the room.
“As a staunch defender of French savoir-faire, we strive to create strong and unique narratives, where objects and cutting-edge design pieces find their rightful place,” he said.
The idea has become particularly visible at Hôtel Westminster Paris. Located at 13 Rue de la Paix, between Place Vendôme and the Palais Garnier, the historic property recently emerged from an extensive renovation under Maugoust’s creative direction and has now achieved five-star status. Warwick Hotels describes the project as a careful reconciliation of heritage and modernity, with the hotel’s 102 rooms and suites retaining 19th-century moldings, marble fireplaces and parquet floors while introducing quieter contemporary tones, noble materials and bespoke work by French artisans.
The transformation is especially significant because the Westminster demanded restraint. Its identity rests on accumulated layers of Parisian and British influence, and the renovation needed to preserve that character rather than overwrite it. Contemporary accounts of the project note that the work extended over several years and was deliberately conceived to retain the building’s singular, almost timeless quality.
That approach echoes something Maugoust told ULM years before the Westminster was complete: “As more time goes by, the more we aim for durability and timelessness. The designer must know how to step aside so that the place can live.”
It is an unusually restrained philosophy in an era when hospitality interiors are often designed to announce themselves immediately on social media. Maugoust’s work tends to reveal itself more gradually. A mirror changes the apparent volume of a room; a historic molding establishes rhythm; a custom piece of furniture quietly anchors a space. The effect depends less on spectacle than on coherence.
His interests have also expanded beyond hotel interiors. Residential projects, particularly in the French Alps, have allowed the studio to explore a more private interpretation of luxury, while furniture development has opened another avenue for examining proportion, craftsmanship and material. Maugoust has spoken of an increasing interest in bio-sourced materials and in finding ways to reconcile traditional gestures of making with contemporary environmental considerations.
Yet hospitality remains an especially natural territory for him because it demands something residential design does not: the creation of intimacy for people the designer will never meet.
When asked what he ultimately wants a completed project to achieve, Maugoust did not speak about visual drama. Instead, he returned to fluidity. Success, he suggested, lies in bringing the needs of owners, operators, architects and guests into a single coherent whole until the finished space appears effortless.
That apparent effortlessness is perhaps the most French quality in his work.
The rooms may be carefully researched, technically complex and filled with pieces created by accomplished craftsmen, but none of that should become burdensome to the guest. The design should frame an experience rather than compete with it.
Years after our original conversation with Laurent Maugoust, the completion of the Westminster makes his earlier observations feel particularly prescient. The project is not a rejection of history, nor is it a nostalgic recreation of it. Instead, old Paris and contemporary Paris coexist within the same rooms, each making the other more legible.
For Maugoust, that is the essence of timelessness: not designing something that belongs to no era, but creating a place capable of carrying several eras gracefully at once.
