The brief went to Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty of Studio KO, the duo behind the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech and the renovation of the Château Marmont. The original 1897 two-storey structure could not carry the weight of new floors, so it came down, replaced by an eight-storey building with four additional floors below ground. “For us, contrast is not just a visual effect, but a way of making space feel more alive,” Fournier explains. A deep lacquered red, the colour of the old neon sign, threads through corridors and details as a leitmotif of the past. The musical metaphor is everywhere, from switches that recall vintage amplifiers to microperforated door handles patterned after microphone grilles.