This Portuguese studio’s collaboration with a Korean designer elevates the humble showroom
A Porto showroom blends Portuguese craftsmanship and creativity with the deeply felt rigour of Korean designer Minjae Kim’s furniture pieces. Photographed by Paula Yubero and Ricardo Sousa Nunes
Creative collaboration lies at the heart of most design practitioners, but it’s particularly pertinent for Portugal-based partners in life and work Olivier Garcé and Clio Dimofski. Spending formative years at Parisian design studios—Garcé at Hamonic + Masson & Associés; Dimofski at Shigeru Ban Architects—their talents coalesced in New York City where they met while working at Pierre Yovanovitch’s studio. Since striking out in 2021, the duo has steadily built Garcé Dimofski into a thoughtfully curated, materially driven studio spanning residential and hospitality interiors, bespoke lighting and furniture collection, and collectible pieces.
Now based in Lisbon and Porto, the studio’s frequent collaborations with Portuguese artisans and artists have established an easy dialogue with the local creative community. But the latest partnership with South Korean-born, New York based designer Minjae Kim broadens that reach even further, placing it in a wider global context. For Garcé Dimofski, working with Kim, a trained architect, was a natural decision. “We had long admired Minjae’s work and his ability to reinterpret traditional Korean references through a contemporary lens,” they tell Vogue Living.
Highlighting Kim’s strong ties to his South Korean heritage, his appreciation for handmade processes and “remarkable ability to translate ancestral imagery into contemporary objects”, they equally admire the way his designs balance history with a modern sensibility. “There is a poetic quality to his work that creates an emotional connection beyond function,” they explain of his creations, which all bear a tactile and humanistic touch.
Placing Kim’s work in the context of Garcé Dimofski’s own studio was a surprisingly seamless process, developing “naturally through a shared interest in craftsmanship, cultural heritage, and the creation of objects that carry both memory and emotion,” says Garcé Dimofski. Describing their joint ambition “to create a place that functions simultaneously as a showroom, gallery, studio and gathering space” they were adamant the space would resemble less of a traditional commercial showroom than “an environment that feels residential, welcoming and lived-in”.
In response to this brief, Kim created a series of sculptural furniture pieces for the studio’s Porto showroom, including a daybed, a floor lamp, sconces, and chairs, which were produced by Garcé Dimofski’s studio alongside a number of Portuguese artisans and makers. “We are particularly excited to present the dialogue between Korean cultural references and Portuguese craftsmanship,” they share. “The project demonstrates how different traditions and ways of making can come together to create something entirely new.”
Beyond the pieces themselves, Garcé and Dimofski are hopeful that visitors will embrace the meticulously considered atmosphere, which is designed to present architecture, furniture, art, and craftsmanship in natural coexistence. “The showroom becomes a place that tells a story about cultural exchange, materiality, and contemporary living,” they explain. Even the architecture of the space is noteworthy. While designed to elicit a calm and understated environment, “the sequence of rooms, changing natural light and material palette create different atmospheres throughout the space, allowing visitors to discover the works gradually and understand them through use, scale, and emotion”.
Garcé, Dimofski and Kim were careful not to present objects in isolation, rather, they are placed alongside each other in a manner that is carefully curated, yet still warm, intimate and inviting—and indicative of the studio’s multidisciplinary approach. In many ways the showroom functions as a repository of Garcé Dimofski’s practice, blending architecture, collectible design, contemporary art and Portuguese craftsmanship into one beautifully articulate package.
