'At the start of each project there is a story to be told, a dream to pursue, one full of sensitivity and poetry. The successful project is the one that maintains the purity of this original vision, answering the dream from which it was born. All our projects are marked by the concern with how humans will live and evolve in these spaces. They are characterized by this passion and this attention to detail. Architecture is an event in itself. Architecture is to be lived and inhabited. It is a generous act. I understood very early the responsibility, I would say the greatness of the profession of architecture, which can give happiness or overwhelm. When I speak of happiness, it is the happiness that generates energy. This is a very important element in the art of creating and building.' Rena Dumas - 2007
Read MoreRena Dumas embodied the values of her chosen profession. She discovered architecture as a teenager, when her brother was studying in Athens, and she decided to follow the same path, concentrating on interior architecture.
Rena graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d'Art in Paris, before continuing her education in Greece and the United States. New horizons opened to her on meeting the architect André Wogenscky in 1968. She took over the management of Robert Anxionnat's Paris practice, carrying out numerous projects, including the Time Life's Paris offices and boardroom.
In 1972 she opened her own studio, Rena Dumas Architecture Intérieure. Amongst her first clients were the Marine Midland Bank and Banco Urquijo, while the collaboration with Hermès, which continues today, began in 1976.
From 1983 until her death in 2009, Rena designed furniture and objects, exploring concepts of nomadism. Furniture that folded/unfolded enabled her to delve into the ideas behind structural articulations. With a vocabulary built on simplicity and the absence of embellishment, these pieces express the subtlety of touch.
