Beyond a personalised approach to prevention, Zoī Vendôme is hopefully proof that good design can also be good for one’s health
Within the prestigious Place Vendôme of Paris, just a stone’s throw away from the Palais Garnier and Park Hyatt, is a captivating new space dedicated to the body and mind. Founded by entrepreneur Paul Dupuy to elevate the wellness experience, Zoī Vendôme trades the soulless medical facility for a true sanctuary of restoration that beckons your return. Beyond a personalised approach to prevention—a 360-degree look at your physiological, metabolic and biological health—Zoī Vendôme hopes to prove that good design can also be good for one’s health.
Designed by the Mexico-based Sala Hars, an eight-year-old architecture firm known for creating spaces that nurture the soul, it explains the flagship’s soothing symmetry and many uplifting details. Hidden behind a discreet black door in a Haussmannian building, patients are whisked through a 1,858-square-metre space that begins with a central white walkway framed by angled wood panels and diffuse lighting. There is nary a reception desk or waiting room in sight, only calm corridors, softly curved transitional spaces and 18 private examination suites designed as intimate rotundas; each centred around a bed, with medical equipment surfaced when needed.
This idea of elevating the medical facility is based on what the architects call, “neon-Baroque”, a new design language that distills Baroque theatricality through a contemporary lens. “What inspired us most from the Baroque was its unique condition of impossibility,” explained co-founder Juan Sala in an interview with Galerie Magazine. “We searched for those conditions in a contemporary way, hiding all thicknesses of materials, of assemblies, almost creating an impossible, plastic architecture—extremely immaterial and material at the same time.”
