Five emerging design firms are poised to change the industry with projects that cultivate a culture of cool
Denisa Strmiskova
Prague
When the Long Story Short hostel opened in 2017, Denisa Strmiskova knew she had something special. It garnered a lot of attention as a restoration of a former 17th-century military fort in Olomouc, Czech Republic into a pared-down, yet modern space. Her teachers at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where she studied scenography, often told her that her work was too “design-ish,” and the success of the hostel reaffirmed to her that the artificial stylings of the theater and movie sets weren’t enough. “I felt I needed to work with real materials and build spaces for real people.” She honed her skills at a design firm in Prague for four years before going out on her own in 2015. Her recent spate of restaurant work has expanded on her philosophy to “always think about the human in the space and the story I want to tell.” For instance, at Brasileiro, a popular restaurant in Old Town Square in Prague, Strmiskova took cues from green Brazilian forests and the history of the 15th-century building. Also in the works in Prague is the new garden section of Eska restaurant, a facelift to Italian eatery Pasta Fresca, and a redo of the historic Café Savoy, among others. Her style can be described as retro chic-meets-vintage revival, while her determination comes from trusting her instincts. “You need to listen to yourself and [design] how you feel,” she says. “That’s the best you can do.”
Denisa Strmiskova in the elegant interior for the Prague offices of art dealer Pro Arte
Ishka Designs
Brooklyn, New York
While working in finance in New York, Anishka Clarke was at a crossroads. She was simultaneously redesigning her own clothes and taking up decorating jobs on the side. Her apartment became a showcase for her talents. “While chatting with a friend, I had an ‘aha moment.’ I realized that my love of design far exceeded my interest in finance, so the next day, I applied to design school, and the rest is history,” she says. The British-born Niya Bascom also cycled through a few iterations of his career, working as a photographer and in the film industry on multiple aspects of set design. A mutual friend introduced the pair and a working relationship evolved organically. “Before I knew it, we had started Ishka Designs,” he says.
After setting up shop in 2007, a slew of projects followed, including a handful of design-driven residences, as well as interiors for the playful Discovery PitStop daycare, which opened in 2017—each rooted in the firm’s “efficiently beautiful” ethos. Informed by their shared Jamaican and Guyanese heritage, their thoughtful approach “strives for mindful, minimal, simplistic, and timeless design,” says Clarke. For instance, a recently completed vacation property in Jamaica—home to four one-bedroom cottages and one six-bedroom main villa—displays the firm’s evolution and the duo’s connection to the area, allowing them to design much of the furniture and all of the millwork themselves. “We embody nonconformity and aim to reflect that through our decisions,” adds Bascom. “We celebrate longevity over trends and look for the art and uniqueness in each project, which we then translate into design.”
Anishka Clarke and Niya Bascom
IvyStudio
Montreal
Architects Gabrielle Rousseau and Philip Staszewski first started Montreal workshop Obiekt in 2015 as a hobby while working at two different architecture firms. They spent their free time designing bespoke furniture and objects, including a range of visually captivating clocks. In fact, it wasn’t until then that the pair “understood to what extent we enjoyed the design process,” Rousseau says. Three years later, they launched IvyStudio and cultivated a clientele that covets their hands-on approach. The pair translated their characteristically playful yet streamlined aesthetic into a handful of noteworthy local projects, including Crisp barbershop, decked out in white oak furniture and bare concrete floors, and the petite peach-infused stationary store Baltic Club. “Our design approach is an ongoing experiment of new forms and materials that tries to redefine the relationship between a space and its user,” she says. In contrast, the gritty JackRose restaurant, also in Montreal, recalls its former home as an autobody shop with pink lime plaster walls and plenty of greenery. “It is very important for us to nurture different aspects of our creativity,” Staszewski adds. “We enjoy diving into our different clients’ worlds [and] trying to figure out how design can help their practices.”
Philip Staszewski and Gabrielle Rousseau
Sella Concept
London
Hired separately to bring the concept store for Clerkenwell London to life, the now-married Gayle Noonan and Tatjana von Stein spent many sleepless nights curating the 13,000-square-foot space. “The dynamic of working together on a daily basis was an aspect I loved as much as our shared sensibilities for design,” says Noonan. “It quickly became apparent that we had complementary approaches.” The opportunity to continue working together was a natural next step. Enter Sella Concept, their one-stop, homegrown studio that launched in 2016 and has now expanded to their own warehouse in London, with Von Stein leading the interiors and architecture and Noonan directing the brand application and experience.
The pair’s conceptual solutions are tailored “with behavior and emotion in mind,” von Stein says. Consider Latin American tapas restaurant Piraña in South London where “we pushed ourselves to work outside of our normal color scheme,” she says, with retro red and blue contrasting strong geometric elements. “Omar’s Place, an independent restaurant in [London neighborhood] Pimlico, was an extremely exciting step for our business and careers,” she notes, pointing to its warm Mediterranean-inspired interiors and graphic identity. Still, it’s the variety of projects that “fuels our creativity and inspires our approach,” she says, including a global retail brand’s flagship in Tokyo, the duo’s first hotel in Berlin, and an installation for the London Design Festival in September on the boards.
Gayle Noonan and Tatjana von Stein in De Beauvoir coworking space in London
H2R Design
Dubai
Known for their highly visual, open spaces, Dubai-based H2R Design is at the forefront of cutting-edge interior spaces and product branding. Founded by brothers Husain and Hasan Roomi, along with their design partner Jacqui Shaddock, the firm creates a conceptual dialogue through timeless trends and modern upgrades on the essentials through color, form, and function. “At a very young age, we were always driven to create an impact on society,” says Husain Roomi. “We have a deep-rooted love for design that led us to dive into the interior architecture world.” To date, one of their most notable projects was the renovation of the iconic Al Alamein Hotel on Egypt’s northern coast. Operating for nearly 50 years, the 190-room hotel had a sense of history the designers wanted to retain while also celebrating its location near the bay. “The intensity of the project allowed us to push the boundaries of our abilities under such a tight time frame,” says Roomi, who from start to finish completed the renovation in just 10 months. “Our design direction aimed to pay subtle tribute to the glory days of when the resort first opened. Using clean lines and layered textures, we brought a contemporary, midcentury experience and comfortable twist to the mesmerizing vistas.”
Hasan and Husain Roomi, and Jacqui Shaddock
