Pierre Court

It all began with André Paccard, one of France's great Art Deco designers, known for having worked for Hassan II, formerly King of Morocco, and for having left to posterity a two-volume, 1,100-page work on Islamic art in architecture.  He would become a decorator and interior architect. 

The whole world would seek his expertise for large international projects and interior decoration. He worked in Irak for the OPEP conference. His commission was to build three palaces, including one for Saddam Hussein in Mossoul. They have all been destroyed since then! He stayed at the workshop at Annecy for three years until the Gulf War brought everything to a halt in 1990. 

He then spent a year working for François Zuretti on the interior design of a yacht called the Eco. ?I designed it with Leleu and Lalique in mind.? And much to the delight of this boat lover, he followed its construction every fortnight at one of the biggest shipyards in the world: Blohm + Voss in Hamburg. 

In early 1991, Décovar Orient called him to Bahrain to finish the royal palace. Pierre Court stayed there until 1995, and returned there. 

In 1995, he was living in Paris when he was approached by the State of Brunei to work on "colossal projects". But Pierre Court was restless. The timing was perfect, because the company's Chinese director gave him a new challenge: to refurbish the New York palace, just bought by the Sultanate, like the Belair in Beverly Hills, the Hotel Plaza Athénée and the Hotel Meurice in Paris. Pierre was living his dream at the age of 36. He ended up in New York and for 2 and a half years he set about redesigning the former Hemsley Hotel and its 1000-odd rooms on the corner of Madison and 50th Street. 

In 2001, he made a decision. He would strike out on his own and open his own company in New York. It was 9 September 2001 ? three days before the World Trade Center terrorist attack. 2002 and 2003 were difficult years. Then came a few projects in Manhattan: Torres chocolate shop, Milos Restaurant, private apartments overlooking Central Park or Battery Park, etc. 

In 2004, he returned to Bahrain to design a yacht. 

In 2007, he designed the Persian Gulf conference centre for Décovar Orient, and over the years has built up teams in New York, Paris and Bahrain. In 2007, he won the contract to completely refurbish the Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten, in Munich, a palace owned by the King of Thailand. Among his latest major international projects, Pierre Court headed the construction of the new 600-room hotel Yotel in Dubai.  

Art, haute couture, and nature

The idea of eliciting emotions is at the core of Pierre Court's work. It infuriates him to see the indifference of so many architects; architectural banality, with no architectural statement! 

Pierre Court listens to his clients before all of his projects. ?We draw sketches and develop room layouts to explore our customers' preferences, whether they lean towards classic or contemporary styles. Through extensive discussions, we arrive at a remarkably realistic perspective. Then we present them with materials and samples.

For each of his projects, Pierre likes to tell a story. In doing so, he crafts his projects within a realm of dreams, serving as a reference and evoking distinct periods or atmospheres.