Aurélia Bire is a French artist, designer, and entrepreneur. Born in Paris in 1974 , she grew up under the influence of her bigger-than-life grandfather, Pierre Deshays, president of Maison Jansen(1) during the seventies and her down-to-earth nature-loving grand-mother with whom, as a child, she spent endless summers in the family property, learning to appreciate the marvels of nature

After graduating from business school, she joined the Boston Consulting Group in Paris. She enjoyed four years of constant intellectual challenge, but felt her destiny lied elsewhere and decided to pursue a career in art and design.

After a foundation year at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, she joined Chelsea College of Art and Design. She started as an independent interior designer in London in 2004 before taking over the family business in 2008, JCT Haute Couture Interiors, an offshoot of Maison Jansen established by her father in 1979.

Since 2015, she has been signing personal pieces. Her designs, which are inspired by nature and landscapes, deal with universal themes, as well as simple gestures.

In 2017, Aurelia launched Via Aurelia, a new venture focussing on furniture, objects and spaces at the crossroad of art, design and interiors. From her diverse background, Aurelia has a unique holistic approach to projects. She likes to blur frontiers between usual categories, and reinvent the classical way things are done. She endlessly aims at a subtle balance between comfort and esthetics, function and poetry, universality and singularity, inventing a formal language which speaks to the soul.

The mother of a daughter with Down Syndrome, she is concerned with issues related to difference, language and education. An advocate of such values as uniqueness, simplicity and humanity, she supports the emergence of an inclusive society.

(1) The first global interior design company, working for head of states and great families.

SALON ART & DESIGN 2018