A bétyle is a sacred stone, a votive that was revered in ancient Greece and Rome. It is also the name of a new Marseille interior design practice founded in 2025 by Carla Romano and Nicolas Cazenave de la Roche. ‘In antiquity, these raw stones were raised as dwelling places for the divine; some were meteorites fallen from the sky. This mysterious matter says everything about our approach,’ explains Cazenave de la Roche. For the pair, each project is an enigma, where they slowly discover how it unfolds and find the perfect balance of subtlety and bold design choices.
In conversation with Betyle Studio
Long before the duo met, their paths had a lot of similarities. Both have Vietnamese roots on their fathers’ sides. Romano grew up in Marseille, with summers spent in Saint-Florent, while Cazenave de la Roche was between Paris and Corsica; they shared this connection to the city’s rushed rhythms and its contrast with time spent in nature.
They both studied at L’École Beuve in Paris, where their paths crossed. ‘Right after our studies, we decided to work together. Marseille, my hometown, naturally became our starting point: a city in transformation with everything still to invent,’ Romano tells Wallpaper*.
Their first project together wasn’t an interior, but instead, a podcast. ‘We recounted pivotal moments in the lives of Gio Ponti or Jean-Michel Frank,’ explains Cazenave de la Roche.’ We learned to dive into the material, to weave together story and research, and to create a dialogue between history and the contemporary.’ This provided the foundation for their practice.
The young studio begins each project with a close study of what is already there: a careful reading of the history of a building, its architectural details, and how light interacts with the space. ‘Every project begins with archives and historical research of the building itself, the trades that occupied it, and the neighbourhood,’ notes Romano.
This is evident in the studio’s Le Figuier project, the transformation of an 1820 agricultural outbuilding into a residence. The duo scoured through archival photographs to inform the choice of materials. Old feeding troughs became a metal washbasin, while farm hooks were transformed into flower holders.
This process is then bookended with references the studio returns to again and again: Pierre Chareau’s functionalism and the glass blocks of his Maison de Verre, the core furniture principle found in Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, Gae Aulenti’s Palazzo Pucci in Florence, or Frank Lloyd Wright’s wood-clad interiors.
‘Furniture is never decorative. It is a fragment of architecture’
Nicolas Cazenave de la Roche
Other recent works include Arcane 17, a restaurant in Paris, named after the star card of the Tarot de Marseille, and a new series of stores for leather goods and accessories brand Léo et Violette.
‘Every place is unique, and every place has its talisman, which we search for,’ says Romano. At Le Figuier, ‘there was a great fig tree in the garden, which gave the farmhouse its name. The star of the tarot [became a signature for] Arcane 17, and for Léo et Violette, it is the tuning fork, the house’s emblem, born of [brand co-founder Violette Sanchez’s] first love for opera singing. Once we have found the symbol, the whole project tunes itself to it.’
Furniture is another core pillar in their work. ‘We are as much interior architects as we are curators,’ says Cazenave de la Roche. ‘Furniture, whether custom-designed or carefully selected, is never decorative. It is a fragment of architecture. At Le Figuier, a structure of okoume wood and glass organises the entire space. At Arcane 17, a stainless-steel tube bar rises like a prow and turns the open kitchen into an arena.’
Since the studio’s conception, the duo have chosen to work with simple materials while exploring new ways to render them. As designers, they move away from a picture-perfect finish, and instead leave room for imperfection; the beautiful aftermath of artisanal craftsmanship. ‘We prefer character to perfection,’ they say.
‘Working with local artisans is not only an ecological and responsible commitment, but it is a way of reconnecting with traditional know-how’
Carla Romano and Nicolas Cazenave de la Roche
In a world where attention span is dwindling, and the desperate pursuit of uniqueness too often results in similitude, how does a new studio stay relevant? ‘By not chasing trends,’ say the duo. ‘Diving into the past of a building, a neighbourhood, or a craft is where our creative process begins. Working with local artisans is not only an ecological and responsible commitment, but a way of reconnecting with traditional know-how. We always start from function to define form. That is what makes things last.’