From Geneva, where she lives, to Menorca, Bandol and Warsaw, her projects for villas, fincas, chalets and yachts are defined by her own particular vision of minimalism and by her characteristically sensitive integration of architecture and environment.

‘What do we see and how do we see it?’ These are the questions with which Valerie Chomarat interrogates every aperture in the spaces she creates, reflecting the importance of ideas of perspective, threshold and connection in her work, as well as the influence of her childhood in the Ardèche, where she grew up in an indoor-outdoor home inspired by Japanese architecture.

Nature, geography, climate, history and purpose: for Valerie, preliminary studies and hand sketches are crucial for understanding each of these defining aspects of a project in the early stages of a design. It was under the mentorship of the British designer, John Pawson, that Valerie Chomarat learned the fundamentals that have driven the evolution of her own signature style - the primacy of proportion, space, surface, light and shadow. Whether on the sea or in the mountains, Valerie’s preference is always for authentic materials - for a palette that is as close to nature as possible. Each scheme is exhaustively designed and redesigned, to ensure simplicity and coherence throughout, whilst also refining the relationship between interior and exterior worlds. Staircases characteristically form key components in her immersive interior narratives, as carriers of the individual story of a design and poetic expressions of the idea of movement.

It is no coincidence that the design pieces she is instinctively drawn to - benches, stools and candlesticks - share a quietly contemplative quality and a sense of the value of silence. Showcased in recent projects - a family home in Bandol, an exceptional finca in Menorca and a commission for the Belgian design company, When Objects Work - each of these objects speaks powerfully of both the refined discipline and the storied, sensory richness of Valerie’s unique architectural language.