Ode to Psychedelia

Take gigantic flowers, a sizeable dash of colour and the sticky-sweet joy of summer, and there you have it: the psychedelic world of Uchronia. Launched in 2019, the Paris design firm founded by French architect Julien Sebban has earned a reputation for its bold palette, contrasting patterns and jumble of styles, a signature aesthetic on full display in its new office.

Uchronia is located on a quiet street in the city’s 18th arrondissement, behind a deceptively modest tiled façade, a bright-orange sign toting the firm’s zany typeface being the only hint as to what lies within. It occupies four floors of a nondescript postwar building. The move was straightforward enough: Uchronia’s previous office is but a short walk away and, beyond some decorative and atmospheric interventions, little work was required to ready the space for use. ‘We focused on painting, textiles, custom rugs and curated artworks to shift the mood entirely,’ says Sebban. ‘It was about creating an immersive environment through colour, texture and form.’

Punctuating a haphazardly tiled façade on Rue Vincent Compoint in Paris’s 18th arrondissement is an orange sign, the sole indication of the colourful world within Château Uchronia’s playful office and showroom, occupying what was an industrial building

A 1970s-style supergraphic carpet woven for Uchronia by Galerie B covers the floor of the kitchen, where the studio’s own work intermingles with vintage pieces, including a shelving unit from Paul Bert Serpette in the Saint-Ouen flea market, which has followed owner Julien Sebban to all his offices over the years. It is topped with an ‘Astor’ lamp by Memphis Group designer Thomas Bley

After seven years in London and with an architecture qualification in hand, a 26-year-old Sebban moved to Paris in late 2019, just before the outbreak of Covid-19. Soon after, he launched Uchronia by designing two restaurants run by the star chef – and his BFF – Julien Sebbag. A slew of residential, hospitality and retail projects followed: cafés and restaurants whose interiors were characterised by vivid colours and curvilinear forms cropped up all over Paris; Sonia Rykiel stores across France boasted that typically Uchronian palette of bright orange and cobalt blue; runways from Jour/né to Nina Ricci were rendered in no less eye-searing shades. ‘Whether you like it or not, I developed a style with my own codes,’ reflects Sebban. Alongside Uchronia’s kaleidoscopic scheme, he adds, ‘materiality is central to our vocabulary – from lacquered wood and silk jacquards to velvet, resin and plaster’.

The winter garden’s glass roof is shrouded with loosely draped Prelle fabric, which serves to filter glaring light on the brightest of summer days. At other times, the zesty, energising orange of the walls – a colour created in collaboration with Chromatic – is, says Sebban, ‘a vibrant antidote to Parisian grey’. Ditto the metal outdoor chair, which is powder-coated in green glitter paint

A pulsating amethyst-coloured carpet brings a sense of movement to the meeting room and, says Sebban, ‘keeps thoughts flowing and inspiration coming’. Surrounded by a Saarinen ‘Tulip’ stool and chairs, the purple-and-pink table and integral shelving unit is another piece that was made for his ‘Hôtel Uchronia’ project at this year’s Maison & Objet in Paris, along with the fabric-covered figure

Those codes are crystal clear back at Château Uchronia, the Paris mothership, which is located between Montmartre and the Saint-Ouen flea market. One enters through a discreet blue door before turning right for the showroom, which is chock-full of all things Uchronia: a fabric collection for Prelle, which explores iridescence and tactile movement through layered silk threads and shifting colour effects; a wall display of fans created for Duvelleroy, fusing fantasy and savoir-faire; and a selection of the brand’s signature ‘Sunny’ armchairs alongside a scattering of flower-shaped marble-stucco tables. From here, a giant purple flower frames the door to the kitchen, echoing Sebban’s buzzy installation at Maison & Objet, which plunged visitors into a hallucinatory world of colour, texture and sound. No surface is left unadorned: Aboriginal artworks from Australia grace the walls, while flea-market finds sit alongside early versions of the brand’s ‘Flower’ bistro table, with its enamelled lava-stone top.

The sample room showcases a variety of prototypes, including, at right on the table, one for Uchronia’s ‘Grand Bouquet’ installation at the Coachella festival. Just behind it sits a macramé shade made by Passementerie Verrier for a past tie-up with the firm. Meanwhile, the foreground is dominated by a large piece of gradient resin designed for the door of a residential project in Florida

Up a flight of stairs you find the offices and sample room. Sebban refers to the latter as the studio’s ‘creative core’, covered as it is in swatches, finish tests and pigments. ‘It’s both a toolbox and a think tank where many projects begin, pivot or take shape,’ he adds. His own office is across the hall; his desk is a prototype of Uchronia’s ‘Peanut’ table, whose form echoes the shape of its namesake. On a wall, pride of place is given to a photograph of ‘Le Grand Bouquet’, a series of giant inflatable flowers installed at this year’s Coachella. Sebban will continue to paint the French capital in prismatic shades over the coming months. Alongside an installation at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Avenue Montaigne and an Ikea collaboration for Paris Design Week, Uchronia is working on another Sebbag project (Café Shin 2) and has been given carte blanche to reinvent the stalls at Saint-Ouen for this year’s Fête des Puces, which takes place in late September.

Asked about the thread that ties it all together, Sebban exclaims: ‘Joy! This is the first thing, always. We want to bring joy to people who come [here], clients at home, people coming to eat. ‘Joy,’ he says definitively, ‘comes with colour.’

For more about Uchronia, visit uchronia.fr

A version of this story appears in the October 2025 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers