Multidisciplinary Design Studio Ezequiel Farca + Cristina Grappin
Specialize In Creating Connective, Contextually Sensitive Environments
Ezequiel Farca has come a long way since his 1995 debut in Mexico City. “My first office was initially focused on custom-made furniture design,” he says. “More than 20 years later, we do architecture, interior design, product design and furniture design.
” In 2016, his business and design partner Cristina Grappin joined Farca, helping him manage a wide range of projects from designing hospitality and residential spaces to yachts (one for luxury Italian brand Benetti).
With offices in Los Angeles, Milan and Mexico City, and a team of 30 employees, the names behind the multidisciplinary design studio Ezequiel Farca + Cristina Grappin see every project as “an opportunity to collaborate with different people and clients, to grow and improve.”
Drawing inspiration from their Mexican heritage, the duo works with artisans and always strive to design spaces in line with local culture and context, using natural materials to shape cozy atmospheres. “We consciously try to avoid trends, as we would rather our work be a reflection of our studio’s values: timelessness, universality, rigorous attention to detail and contextual integration,” says Grappin.
For Farca, “comfort, pleasure and enjoyment are very important concepts,” he notes. “I believe that high-quality craftsmanship is the most pervasive and unifying element in our work.”
Clean lines and geometric forms characterize the Ezequiel Farca + Cristina Grappin aesthetic visible through many of the studio’s residential projects, including a 4,843-square-foot Venice Beach townhouse designed to host the owners’ private collection of contemporary photography, along with the Barrancas House in Mexico City, a 7,750-square-foot residence with floor-to-ceiling windows that invite in natural light and frame exterior views.
In the hospitality sphere, there’s The Lot, a restaurant, cafe and bar in La Jolla, where Farca and Grappin captured the California lifestyle in a sophisticated way. Meanwhile, décor in Expendio Tradición, a mezcal bar in Oaxaca, Mexico, features traditional elements such as clay and cement tiles mixed with contemporary touches.
“We want to create vibrant refuges, places of social encounter and warm surroundings that generate harmony and vitality,” explain Farca and Grappin. Made-to-measure pieces of furniture, finishes and lighting are key components to complement the architecture and play with textures, colors, and shadows. “The added value of a space emerges when it reflects the same level of details in the furnishings as in the architecture,” Farca says. “The result is a work of architecture that improves people’s quality of life through design.”
Written By Karine Monié
Photographs Courtesy Of Roland Halbe (the Barrancas House, Mexico), Ezequiel Farca + Cristina Grappin (portrait & The Lot, La Jolla, Ca)
And Jaime Navarro (townhouse Venice Beach, La & Expendio Tradición, Oaxaca, Mexico)