Sneha Divias
Founder, Sneha Divias Atelier
The Portuguese-born, Dubai-based Sneha Divias views her projects with both space planning and aesthetics front of mind. “I combine technical expertise with innovative solutions to pursue original details,” says Divias, who also studied interior design at New York University. “Playing it safe is never on the table.”
Having launched her eponymous firm in 2017, Divias deftly applies this approach to her wide-ranging portfolio. Forays into child-focused spaces like museums and cafés have been particularly enjoyable as she strives to craft elevated environments that are equally exciting and educational.
Take White and the Bear in Dubai. The restrained children’s restaurant and retail shop eschews the bold colorways and over-the-top gestures typically found in kid-friendly spaces for a neutral palette of timber, white, and black paired with playful bear motifs. The two-story interactive play museum OliOli in Dubai, meanwhile, “reimagines antiquated playgrounds,” explains Divias. “It provides children with a fun-filled, challenging, creative, stimulating, and enriching alternative to play that nurtures their sense of curiosity in an exploratory setting.”
Ultimately, Divias says her goal is to “create spaces for people to inhabit and experience—those that bring out an emotional resonance in the user.”
The pared-back White and the Bear café in Dubai
Sergei Piterskii and Katerina Borodina
Cofounders, Miyao
Whether designing a boldly hued coffee shop or a minimalist Pilates studio, Miyao cofounders Sergei Piterskii and Katerina Borodina approach each project as a piece of art. “Designers and architects are artists,” says Borodina, the firm’s chief architect. “And their canvases are very big.”
It’s this perspective that keeps the two-year-old Moscow firm excited about the challenges presented by new commissions. “Each project begins by building a concept,” explains Piterskii, who also acts as the studio’s art director. “It’s a vehicle that helps us move between the need to solve tasks and the context in which they are set.”
Recent projects include Coffee Machine Bakery’s flagship location in Moscow’s historic district, where the duo designed a two-floor café that accommodates commuters popping in before heading to a nearby transit hub. Brass wall and ceiling panels accent the terrazzo counter and floor, while strokes of red and a neon sign add a playful touch.
Terrazzo and brass accents outfit Moscow’s Coffee Machine Bakery
Additionally, Gallery Gif, a multibrand showroom and event space in the seaside town of Vladivostok, features display stands of varying colors, sizes, and shapes to distinguish between vendors. When not in use, they double as art objects set against an interior clad in concrete, plaster, and metal. Piterskii says the “implementation of such a radical design is a risk and an experiment” for residents of this small city. “We love complex, multi-component projects where we can use an interdisciplinary approach to design,” he says. “It’s our passion.”
Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace
Cofounders, Friedmann & Versace
For Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace, cofounders of Paris-based firm Friedmann & Versace, an appreciation for design and craftsmanship came early. Friedmann, for instance, fondly recalls being drawn to beautiful objects, like her aunt’s bronze and rattan Gabriella Crespi-designed desk lamp, while Versace watched in awe as her father worked with wood in his carpentry studio.
Since joining forces in 2019, the duo has taken on a wide range of projects, all of which feature their signature mélange of luxe fabrics and materials layered with ceramics and artwork to create inviting, character-filled spaces with a bohemian spirit. “Each project is a new adventure,” says Versace, adding that their concepts take into account the history of the building and greater environment. “We like to blend styles and eras,” notes Friedmann, “and mix custom furniture with vintage and contemporary pieces.”
Consider the recently completed Ferona, an Argentinian restaurant near the famed Place de la Madeleine. The fashionable Parisian eatery features a blend of Neoclassical and Belle Époque styles, in addition to a trellis-covered ceiling, trumeau mirrors, and a handpainted glass archway leading to a bar adorned in moss green tile and marble. Velvet-covered banquette seating topped with throw pillows depicts a lush tropical scene that adds to the sense of intimacy. “Hospitality is a rich, creative universe that always requires you to start from scratch,” says Versace.
Moss green tiling adorns the bar at Paris’ Ferona eatery; the chic and contemporary La Rivieria restaurant in Paris
Photography by Natelee Cocks and Hervé Goluza
This article originally appeared in HD’s September 2020 issue.
