This Art-Filled Mexico City Apartment Used to Be a Gym

Shoko Wanger

Two years ago, after the Puebla earthquake devastated much of central Mexico and destroyed the Mexico City apartment she’d been living in, Clemence Seilles found herself inquiring about a new home in an unlikely location. “I went to look for a studio in the city center, where the markets are,” she recalls. “And I saw a sign for a place to rent on the outside of the gym.”

Clemence’s favorite area of the apartment? Her patterned-wood gallery wall, which showcases work by friends and collaborators. “Collaboration is in my studio’s DNA,” she says.

Shortly after, the French-born designer found herself the new tenant of the two-story space in the city’s bustling Centro Histórico district, using the lower floor as a workspace and transforming the top, complete with roof terrace, into a vibrant home that exhibits (almost) no trace of its fitness center past. “I chose yellow linoleum for the living room floor to show where there was once a boxing ring,” she says.

“The living room is a place for gathering,” Clemence says. “I’m a musician, and I sing and play sitar here also.”
“The living room is a place for gathering,” Clemence says. “I’m a musician, and I sing and play sitar here also.”
A discarded LCD screen element, picked up off the street, has become bedside art thanks to a friend’s painterly vision.
A discarded LCD screen element, picked up off the street, has become bedside art thanks to a friend’s painterly vision.

Though she arrived in the building with few belongings, Clemence—who moved to Mexico City in 2016—has since outfitted the space with furniture, artwork, lighting, and accessories in an array of electrifying colors. Many of the pieces are designs from her own multidisciplinary practice, Stromboli Associates, which produces everything from home furnishings to foam sunglasses in partnership with local craft workshops. “My home is really a reproduction of what’s going on in my studio,” she says. “I like to have everything around me. Materials, textures, objects—everything on display.”

Bright color has become a hallmark of Clemence’s work. “If I make something,” she says, “I want it to be noticed.”
Bright color has become a hallmark of Clemence’s work. “If I make something,” she says, “I want it to be noticed.”

The space is a showcase for personal mementos too. A gallery wall is filled with work from fellow artists and friends with whom Clemence has collaborated. “It’s a way for me to talk about them—who they are, what they do—when people come to visit,” she says. Overhead, papel picado, the paper banners traditionally used as decoration at Mexican celebrations, hangs from the ceiling, left over from a friend’s wedding party that took place in the space before Clemence moved in. “I kept it there because I thought it was great,” she says simply. “And it keeps the memory of the event alive.”

“This chair was one of the first designs I released in Mexico,” says Clemence. “The workshop I was partnering with had an electrical shortage one day, and we couldn’t proceed with the production because the machine didn’t work. I decided to use that as a creative brief, and the design of the chair ended up involving very little [manipulation] of the wood.”
A close-up of the gallery wall shows off some of Stromboli Associate’s terrazzo designs.
A close-up of the gallery wall shows off some of Stromboli Associate’s terrazzo designs.

Chosen by Clemence

Here, the designer shares her favorite places to shop and find inspiration.

Instagram feed to follow: @sayhito_

Destination for design inspo: Museo Nacional de Antropología, Parque México, Artículo 123

Dream addition to your space: A cinema room.

Favorite detail in your home: The art wall featuring all the artists I’ve collaborated with.

Biggest design inspirations: Fluxus, Situationist International, Superflux, the Memphis movement

Best thing about your neighborhood: The intensity.

Last thing you had delivered: Mita Mita terrazzo bowls by Fabien Cappello.

Bookshelves hold a hodgepodge of multicolored trinkets and treasures.
Bookshelves hold a hodgepodge of multicolored trinkets and treasures.
The designer’s sunny rooftop terrace is home to a Stromboli Associates painted-glass table and volcanic stone chair.
A pink curtain disguises a closet next to the designer’s bed.
A pink curtain disguises a closet next to the designer’s bed.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest