Airports are one of those things in life we kind of dread. Sure, they’re necessary if you want to travel the world because well, you first have to get through the airport before embarking on the actual plane. Yet the less time we spend strolling through those cold looking halls, the better. Too many people, too pricey food and too little to do. They’re like corridors of boredom and no one has got time for that. But what if airports could be little design gems, looking like the interior of your favorite fancy restaurant?
That’s exactly what happened to Terminal 2G at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Whereas Dorothée Meilichzon normally designs hotels and restaurants, this time she put her design skills towards a far less sexy concept: airport terminals. With her Studio Chzon, the interior architect tackled the subject in a never-before seen way. The objective was to surprise travelers and to immediately introduce them to Paris’ charms and she definitely succeeded. Moreover, she’s made us believe we stepped into a time travel machine, taking us straight back to the sixties.
People are waiting, so our mission was to welcome them, to trick their boredom, to surprise them, to charm them.
Dorothée Meilichzon
“We wanted to create a sense of intimacy by partitioning without closing off. We wanted to break perspectives, to steer away from the corridor feeling by creating multiple little spaces”, Dorothée Meilichzon tells Milk Decoration. In her design, there’s no room for cold, metal furnishings, created with the sole purpose of being ‘practical’. Instead, brace yourself for waving shapes, soft fabrics and a sense of otherworldliness. Yet in spite of that feeling, everything has been made in France, from the floor coverings to the cushions.
While observing the terminal, one cannot help but notice the clin d’oeils (allusion) towards France and Paris in particular. The green, metal chairs surrounding the water basin immediately take us back to the Jardins de Luxembourg on a beautiful spring day. The particular piping clearly was meant to be an ode to the Centre Pompidou and the terrazzo floors are nothing else than a modern version of those you can admire in every French bistro around the country. We’re not sure if the pastis will be waiting on your arrival, but the chess boards are already in place, making sure time will fly by while waiting for your plane.
