Do we make a design that is alive?

aced with the climate emergency, many of us see no other option than to bury our heads in the sand or, at most, switch to recyclable or secondhand designs where we can. Not so French designer François Champsaur, who, in the past few years, has largely turned away from the big projects that made his name – such as the Hôtel Vernet in Paris and Le Bailli de Suffren on the Côte d’Azur – to move back to his native Marseilles and focus on smaller-scale designs, including his own ‘cabanas’ in Marseilles and Mallorca. He has narrowed down his list of clients, reduced his ecological footprint, and eschewed supermarkets in favour of local organic schemes. In, or degrowth: less income and a much simpler standard of living, in order to have the freedom to choose my projects – projects where ecology is taken into account,’ explains Champsaur.