For Paris Design Week 2026, Modern Metier introduces Tropic of Capricorn, its second edited collection and its first collaboration with French designer Rudy Guénaire. Presented at 21 rue Bonaparte in Paris, the collection brings together seven pieces shaped by Guénaire’s interest in modern architecture, travel and hand-drawn form.
The exhibition imagines an interior somewhere along the Tropic of Capricorn, using tropical references and organic materials to create a setting for the collection. The scenography frames the furniture and lighting within a fictional Southern Hemisphere refuge, linking the pieces through a shared visual language of curved silhouettes, polished surfaces and tactile materials.
Guénaire, founder of Studio NightFlight, developed the collection through forms influenced by the modern era, particularly the period’s optimism around travel and architecture. Airport terminals provide one of the clearest references. Their sweeping lines appear in the furniture through softened profiles and broad curves, while Brazilian and Californian urban architecture contributes another layer of influence. Tropical flora adds a more organic direction, visible in the collection’s rounded outlines and sculptural proportions.
The seven-piece series includes the Jet Set sofa and armchair, Avenue coffee table, Fleming chair, Monument wall light, Casca pendant lamp and Marimba mirror. Together, they establish a vocabulary that shifts between domestic comfort and architectural form.
The Jet Set seating pieces carry some of the collection’s strongest material contrasts. Deep wood veneers with cherry-toned hues create their structural presence, while mohair softens the surfaces and gives the forms a more enveloping character. The Avenue coffee table introduces a luminous milky lacquer, creating a smoother and more reflective counterpoint to the darker timber.
The Fleming chair approaches materiality through a different register. Its woven paper cord seat introduces a handmade texture, connecting the collection to traditional techniques while keeping the overall silhouette direct and contemporary. The Casca pendant lamp similarly draws on craft through fused glass, using the material’s irregularity and translucency to bring variation into the lighting pieces.
Polished nickel appears throughout the series as one of Guénaire’s recurring materials. Its industrial finish creates a sharper edge against mohair, paper cord, glass and wood, allowing the collection to move between mechanical precision and softer tactile surfaces.
This relationship between materials gives Tropic of Capricorn much of its identity. Natural and industrial finishes sit within the same pieces without losing their individual character. The collection relies on these contrasts to give relatively restrained forms greater visual depth.
Guénaire’s process also informs the result. He develops his projects through hand drawing, an approach that places emphasis on proportion, silhouette and direct formal decisions. That method is especially visible here, where the pieces feel conceived as complete shapes before being resolved through material.
For Modern Metier, the collaboration continues the platform’s focus on contemporary European design and independent production. Founded by Minh Ngo in 2021, the Paris-based maison d’édition launched its first collection, Solstice, with Léa Zeroil in 2024. Tropic of Capricorn extends that editorial model through a designer whose work combines furniture, interiors and architectural references.
Tropic of Capricorn will be on view during Paris Design Week from September 10 to 15, 2026, at 21 rue Bonaparte, Paris.
Source: https://www.archiscene.net
