Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia, founders of San Francisco–based mostly Studio Forward, wish to fill a perceived void within the market. “San Francisco tends to go for both critically conventional design or the type of spare, trendy look that appeals to the tech crowd, with not a lot in between,” explains Rajai, who grew up within the Bay Space because the son of Iranian mother and father. “For all the metropolis’s forward-thinking liberal tradition, design in San Francisco stays pretty conservative and Eurocentric. We wished to rejoice interiors with a extra layered, multicultural texture, tapping into the unimaginable group of fabricators who work on this a part of the nation,” provides Dendiberia, a local of Samara, Russia, who alighted on the West Coast eight years in the past. Studio Forward’s roster of initiatives speaks to the elasticity of the companions’ imaginative and prescient. They’re presently engaged on a house closely influenced by the Solarpunk motion, a penthouse that represents a up to date interpretation of traditional Artwork Deco, and a high-concept, quasi-industrial meditation/hangout room for a San Francisco advertising and marketing agency. Along with interiors, Rajai and Dendiberia (photographed at a Bay Space job website) have developed a signature assortment of biomorphic furnishings, in addition to a web-based journal spotlighting intriguing Northern California artists and artisans. Says Rajai, “The extra voices and viewpoints you may add to a dialog, the extra thrilling it turns into.” studioahead.com — Mayer Rus
Picture: Stephen Pagano
LK Studio
Hudson, New York
“I need areas to really feel private, properly balanced, not too embellished,” displays Lily Dierkes—areas, in different phrases, that look “like they’ve at all times been that approach.” And as this designer is exhibiting, she’s obtained a knack for it. Two years in the past, in a pandemic way of life transfer, Dierkes relocated from L.A. to Hudson, New York, the place she launched her personal agency, LK Studio. On the time, she had been working for the AD100 titan David Netto, below whom she honed her eye for colour and sample, contributing to initiatives just like the beachy Bahamian abode that just lately graced the pages of AD. (He praised her within the Could 2022 article, noting, “All initiatives have their heroes.”) Right this moment she’s placing her personal spin on traditional Americana, in initiatives that vary from a pre-war house on Manhattan’s Higher West Facet (pictured) to a Georgian-style manse in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Wall stenciling, painted flooring, and punchy patterns harken to people artwork, whereas palettes take inspiration from Shaker villages. Dierkes, who studied movie and beforehand labored as a manufacturing designer on music movies and commercials, will get a particular thrill from designing second properties. “You should utilize issues in a rustic home you may not use in a metropolis house,” she notes. “It’s enjoyable to do one thing slightly theme-y.” lilydierkesdesign.com —H.M.
