David Raffoul and Nicolas Moussallem of five-year-old Beirut design studio David/Nicolas are two of the Middle East’s most buzzed-about talents, with projects that have spanned product, furniture, residential, and restaurant design. They describe their aesthetic as “retrofuturistic,” and it’s an approach they certainly took with one of their most recent endeavors, the complete overhaul of a 1992 Porsche Targa.
Car design was an out-of-the-box suggestion, even for two guys with such varied interests. But a local mogul and Porsche aficionado had seen and admired their mixed-materials work, in particular the duo’s satined copper and upholstered Alcantara textile Dualita chairs and their Circuit bookshelf, made of polished stainless steel, timber, and Guatemalan marble. “He said, what if you could do that with a car?” says Raffoul. “What if you could rethink it from inside to out? And I actually grew up wanting to design cars. So it was a dream for me.”
A David/Nicolas client's 1992 Porsche Targa in midst of a custom transformation.
The first thing they did was disassemble the entire car, down to the chassis. “We analyzed each piece to see what we could change,” says Raffoul. Then they began to sketch. They started with the interior details—redesigning buttons, reconfiguring the dash—introducing unexpected materials in unexpected pairings, like polished chrome and brass, leather and laminate, resin and carpet. Then they moved on to the body, replacing the single taillight with a double taillight and reimagining the color and paint job. “You can backdate a car by giving it an aspect of the past, which we like,” says Raffoul. The changes were to be striking but subtle, a difficult balance in such a concentrated space. “The point wasn’t to ‘pimp my ride,’” says Raffoul. “Having too many details destroys the concept. But when you’re in a car, everything is in your face, so it’s easy to be ‘too much.’”
A David/Nicolas design sketch.
Architects and interior designers have dabbled in auto interiors, but it’s not a common crossover, and Raffoul suggests why. For one thing, he says, “Nothing is flat; you have to think 360 degrees.” For another, the tighter space means having to stick more obsessively to a concept. Like with the bespoke Rolls-Royce Dawn L.A. designer Barclay Butera helped a client design in the nautical style of her South Florida residence: a dark navy and white body, navy headlights, a custom-wrapped navy steering wheel, and teak paneling.
The interior of a bespoke Rolls Royce Dawn designed by Barclay Butera.
In Boston, the architects at Elkus Manfredi had a bit more room to play with when refurbishing the 1947 Flexible Clipper motor coach that sits in front of their Verb Hotel in Boston, but the solid theme remained, with interiors redone in the spirit of a ‘60s rock-and-roll tour bus: knotty pine cabinetry; restored original gold Naugahyde upholstery; laminates in bright red, aqua, and cream; and a black-and-white-checked vinyl floor tile.
The refurbished 1947 Flexible Clipper motor coach that sits in front of Boston's Verb Hotel.
Raffoul and Moussallem began the Porsche project a year ago and estimate they’ve got a year yet to go. The exterior work, done in Lebanon, is nearly complete; next, the car will be shipped to Italy for the interior installations. “I never thought it would take so much time,” says Raffoul. “But would we do it again? Why not?”
