Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 44
Occupation: Architect.
Instagram: @_ala_studio
Hometown: Los Angeles.
Studio location: New York City.
Describe what you make: I’m an architect and our studio designs interior architecture, from workplace, health and wellness, and hospitality to residential projects. We’ve also recently launched a contract furniture collection, the Bao pouf with HBF. We emphasize deep listening and hands-on collaboration with clients, treating each project as an opportunity to foster a client’s creativity and to create healthy, nurturing spaces and products.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: We recently designed Anna Jóna, a cafe, bar and cinema in Reykjavik. This was a passion project for the owner, built in honor of his late mother. The owner is an artist in his own right, which led to a tight-knit, creative collaboration. Reykjavik doesn’t get too much sunlight, so the cafe feels like a warm, glowing refuge in the heart of the city. This project is important to us because it allowed us to take our colorful, whimsical approach and apply it to a hospitality project with an arts and culture orientation.
Also important is that the whole space is built to be accessible to wheelchair users. For example, the bartending area is set at a level sunken from the rest of the space so that bar seats can be at a consistent table height for chairs or wheelchairs, allowing all patrons to maintain a casual conversation posture with servers. The project is a showcase for how accessible design can first-and-foremost be really beautiful.
Describe the problem your work solves: We aim to create a sense of community, to bring people closer, and to put people at ease in stressful situations. And of course, another layer of that problem solving is always balancing the client’s business goals for each project like budget and schedule.
Describe the project you are working on now: We’re just wrapping up work on the Americas headquarters for fashion brand Christian Louboutin in New York. As designers, it feels like a real privilege to be trusted to work on such an iconic brand. The project’s challenge was making the space serve its users—provide room for both work and relaxation, create serendipitous community moments—but also to make sure the vibe is 100 percent reflective of the brand. We worked hard to find the right balance.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: One of our really fun projects right now is NAAMA Studios, an established London-based tattoo removal concept, for whom we’re building a Flatiron location. It’s the kind of project we love—it gives us the opportunity to think about a unique user experience for a concept and use that’s new to us. What types of people are coming to get tattoos removed, what’s important to them, how do you welcome them and treat them in a way that feels completely safe but entirely non-medical? As designers, it’s up to us to give the space the right emotion that primes both clients and employees up to have a great experience.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: People to talk to, but also a quiet place to think and work.
What you do when you’re not working: I’ve got two young children, 4 and 6, who keep me busy when I’m not working (and are very good at making sure I’m NOT working!). So most of my free time is spent at the swimming pool, at playdates, and handing out snacks. When I have a little bit of alone time, I’m working out, planning our next family trip, or endlessly pulling weeds from our long gravel driveway.
Sources of creative envy: These are more just things that I love thinking about or studying, that inspire me—natural patterns and textures, knots, the ocean, and maps.
The distraction you want to eliminate: I’ve a great aversion to useless meetings. They’re a time suck! Our studio is pretty great at avoiding them.
Concrete or marble? Concrete.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Remember the important things. Forget the details.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Light, with small nooks of dark to escape to.
