The Humbert & Poyet-designed deli and wine cellar at Monaco’s Yacht Club is a welcome update to a facility in a building designed by Sir Norman Foster. The establishment serves fine food, while the adjoining wine cellar is said to be among the best in Europe; Humbert & Poyet’s very refined interior could not have found a better place.

Emil Humbert and Christophe Poyet were design and fashion enthusiasts who decided to pool their skills to provide a full range of services from construction to interior design. They both studied in Paris, the former as a state-qualified architect (Paris-Belleville National School of Architecture graduate) and the latter as a CFAI interior designer (Académie Charpentier graduate).

In autumn of 2007, Parisian Emil Humbert opened his architecture firm, and Monegasque Christophe Poyet had just graduated. A year after they met, they founded their practice: “It was natural, I instantly knew we’d work together,” says Humbert.

Their projects focus on elegant and meticulous designs to create timeless spaces using premium materials such as stone, wood and bronze. Naturally, the most important thing is to reflect the client’s personality and respect the soul of the site. The Monaco concept store borrows from luxury merchandising for showcasing its premium products. The maritime metaphor is never far away with the choice of materials that are deliciously reminiscent of ferries’ low-key luxury in the 1930s.

The décor features opulent wood in a variety of natural, black and ash oak paved with bronze for a modern twist serving as a showcase for the 2,300 bottles displayed on the ground floor. (The grands crus are tucked away from prying eyes behind a glass and bronze door.) The space gives pride of place to Humbert and Poyet’s signature quality materials with black marble inlaid flooring, Versailles parquet and copper inserts.

Serious food lovers are invited onto the top deck to settle into a gentlemen’s club-style tasting area with burgundy leather banquettes to sample incredible products. A private lounge opens onto a lush terrace with eye-catching, colourful furniture and fabulous views of the yachts and Prince’s Palace.

From the time they got together as a design team, Humbert and Poyet put their stamp on public work sites with their expert choice of materials, lighting design or their ability to showcase a space and set the scene for the client to take center-stage. “We communicate constantly throughout a project. Our symbiosis forms the foundations of our projects and ensures the space that we’ve imagined works,” Poyet says. If proofs are ever necessary, the Monaco Yacht Club should do the job.

View more of the duo’s work at www.humbertpoyet.com.

This article was originally published in FORM Magazine.