Jean & Oliver Pelle

PELLE is an independent design studio that combines the practices of art and engineering to create expressive design objects. Integrating artistic exploration with architectural integrity, PELLE offers an original collection of hand-produced, professionally refined pieces.Co-founded by Jean and Oliver Pelle in 2011, PELLE’s studio is located in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. With collections ranging from lighting and furniture to objects, PELLE is continually expanding into new areas of design and materials.

Jean and Oliver Pelle met while pursuing their Masters in Architecture at Yale University.

Jean Pelle was born in South Korea in 1976. The daughter of a professional sculptor, she grew up drawing and painting and often assisted in her father’s sculpture studio. She earned her Bachelor of Art in Architecture from UC Berkeley in 1999, and worked for several years at EHDD Architecture in San Francisco. She then went on to earn her Master of Architecture from Yale University in 2005. Upon graduation, she worked for her professors at the renowned Manhattan architecture firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. In 2008, Jean left to establish her own studio to pursue a career that combined her lifelong passion of art and design.

Oliver Pelle was born in Germany in 1975. The son of a structural engineer, Oliver has always been fascinated by geometric principles and systemic structures. An avid admirer of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Oliver left Germany to begin his undergraduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the architecture school led by Mies Van der Rohe. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture with Highest Honors in 2000. His studies included a year abroad at The Bartlett School of Architecture in London and an internship in Switzerland where he worked for Mario Botta Architects. He earned his Master of Architecture from Yale University in 2004 and then went on to work for Yale’s dean, Robert A.M. Stern. In pursuit of establishing his own design practice, Oliver left the firm after seven years to start PELLE with Jean.

The PELLE studio is located in Red Hook Brooklyn NY, and is structured to support creative experimentation and active making. Driven by the exploration of new ideas, the intimate studio space currently includes a lighting fabrication studio, a research and prototyping studio, and a dedicated showroom to display finished pieces. The space is continually evolving to meet the needs of PELLE’s output, and is regularly restructured to accommodate new methods and materials. Led by Jean and Oliver, the small studio team handcrafts each of PELLE’s products to order.