Sophie Dries Crafts a Coffee Shop For Paris’ Increasingly Creative 7th Arrondissement

Long a haven for the titled and affluent, Paris’ 7th Arrondissement has increasingly become a hub for the capital’s established creatives: Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, India Mahdavi, to name a few. Though home to major monuments and museums—the Eiffel Tower, Musée d’Orsay, and Musée Rodin—and just a few commercial stretches, the district is largely residential. Until now, there really wasn’t a place for this growing community of artists, architects, and designers to gather and exchange ideas, that most Parisian of traditions.

Another one of these talents is prolific, multifaceted architect Sophie Dries. In her myriad projects—high-profile interiors and format-defying furnishings—she always adheres to a Genius Loci (spirit of the place) approach: shaping nascent environments while considering the historical and contextual attributes already in place. And so it makes sense that she was called upon to outfit the new Quartz Café, a specialized coffee shop akin to those found throughout Italy. This new cohesively outfitted agora is meant to become “a place where shared values converge, where the protection of craftsmanship and the respect for each individual’s talent remains paramount.”

In a bid to, perhaps not so obviously, root the venue in its surroundings but also reference the inherent nature of brewing coffee—the processes and ingredients involved—Dries styled the space with “mineral-rich” furnishings and finishes. This strategy reflects her lifelong fascination with this suite of materials. As perhaps one treatment that underscores her diverse and often hard-to-define practice, this natural resource has cropped up in pyrite andirons, selenite fragrance diffusers, gypsum candleholders, and mica glass vessels.

At Quartz Café, this affinity is expressed in a corten steel floor and polished stainless steel and bronze welds. These deeply patinated surfaces—contrasting other highly reflective crystalline planes—are matched by comparably toned classically pleated curtains, treated with a bleach tie-dye process. Quartz-contained dolomite also features prominently throughout the coffee shop.

Dries was strategic in how she brought in pieces from other projects and collections. There are the roughly contoured Styx collection mirrors, shelves, pendants and wall lights produced by Atelier Moore. Project-specific accessories including cupping spoons, milk pitchers, trays, and Italian-style napkin dispensers (portatovagliolo) carry through this formal and material articulation. Outside, a red plywood bench with an aluminum base was pulled from her Songye collection. In its moody hues and textured materiality, Quartz Café nods to the measured opulence of the Vienna Secession movement but also the mystical science of alchemy.