Caterina & Marc Aurel

Marc Aurel trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Marseille School of Architecture. From 1989 to 1994, he worked for Wilmotte & Associés in Paris, where he was responsible for urban design projects. In 1995, he founded the Aurel Design Urbain studio in Cassis, then in Paris in 2018. A full professor of art education, he was coordinator of design teaching at the Marseille School of Fine Arts (1996 to 2008), then at the Reunion Island School of Art (2001 to 2011).

 

Caterina Aurel has been associated with Studio Aurel Design Urbain since 2002, working on urban planning and the development of public spaces. Originally from the Tuscany region, she studied at the Florence School of Architecture, then at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, from which she graduated in 1994 with a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Project Management. She worked as an urban planner for SCET (Groupe Caisse des Dépôts) from 1994 to 2002, before joining the Aurel Design studio. From 2008 to 2020, she teaches urban analysis at the Marseille School of Architecture. In 2021, she trains in urban ecology at the Museum d’Histoire Naturel de Paris (master’s degree in urban planning and biodiversity).

Caterina & Marc Aurel have chosen to put their know-how at the service of as many people as possible, in public spaces, by approaching the city through reflections on: innovation in the use of natural materials (ceramics, wicker, etc.) in relation to craft skills, the relationship between city and nature, the use and enhancement of recycled materials, the quality of light in the city. In 2014, winner of the Dialogue prize from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, for their collection of ceramic furniture designed for the Souks of Beirut. In 2015 and 2018, the “Beirut and Onda” ceramic seats were added to the permanent collections of the Adrien Dubouché museums in Limoges and Sèvres.