Sophie Dries.
Paris / Milan
Sophie Dries is a Paris- and Milan-based architect and designer working across interior architecture, collectible design, furniture, scenography and material research. Her practice sits between French decorative-arts culture, Italian collectible design and a contemporary architectural interest in matter, place, craft and historical continuity.
Dries graduated from ENSA Paris-Malaquais and Aalto University in Helsinki, and also trained in contemporary art at École du Louvre. Before founding her own studio, she worked with Jean Nouvel, Pierre Yovanovitch and Christian Liaigre. She established her Paris studio in 2014 and opened a Milan address in 2017, giving the practice a dual base between decorative-arts heritage and contemporary design culture.
Her work has been presented at Salone del Mobile, PAD London, Collectible Brussels and The Salon Art + Design in New York, with numbered editions and gallery projects connected to Nilufar, Giustini/Stagetti and L'Éclaireur. Recent projects include Ceysson & Bénétière Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo, a 325-square-metre gallery conceived as the gallery's first Asian space, and private collector interiors in Paris.
Dries' public profile has grown through repeated AD100 recognition, inclusion in est living's Esteemed 10 in 2025, and the entry of her work into the permanent collections of the Mobilier National in France. In 2025 she created Octa Bar for the Mobilier National, a contemporary boudoir bar made for the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and developed with specialist houses and ateliers including Baccarat, Lemarié-Lognon, Rémy Garnier, Duvelleroy, Misia / Issé, Lison de Caunes and Mycoworks.
For Project Materia, Dries brings high craft, architectural precision and contemporary material research. Her work approaches material as cultural language: shaped by context, transformed by skilled hands, and held between heritage and experimentation.
Works for Materia 2026
Stria candleholders
Matek™ (turned)
Domestic totems turned from a composite of coffee husks and sawdust.
The Stria candleholders, conceived by Sophie Dries for Matek / Materia, explore the sculptural potential of a turned upcycled material. Crafted from a composite blending coffee husks sourced from coffee production with sawdust from the wood industry, they reveal an organic, living and deeply textured material. The turning process exposes inclusions, tonal variations and natural irregularities — like a geological cross-section in which each piece becomes unique.
Invited by Tableau as part of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, the candleholders are produced on a lathe through a process that alternates different shades of the composite, creating through superposition a pattern of stripes and strata visible throughout the material itself. These concentric lines evoke the marks of time.
Through this series, the designer juxtaposes the almost archaic rigor of monolithic forms with the spontaneity of a transformed and recycled material. The candleholders become domestic totems, balancing craftsmanship, experimentation and a raw aesthetic.
Following their presentation in Copenhagen, the Stria candleholders will be exhibited in Paris in September during Paris Design Week at Café Quartz, an experiential venue for the design community.