su11 architecture+design was co-founded by Ferda Kolatan and Erich Schoenenberger in New York City in 1999. They have received the Swiss National Culture Award for Art and Design and the ICFF Editors Award for ‘Best New Designer’. In 2006 they were nominated for the prestigious Chernikhov Price and in 2008 they were chosen finalists for the MoMA/PS1 YAP competition. Their work has been published nationally and internationally including Archilab’s Futurehouse, Space, Monitor, L’Arca, Arch+, New New York, PreFAb Modern, Digital Real, The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture, AD, Dwell, Le Monde, NY Times, LA Times and the Washington Post. Projects by su11 were exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Pasadena Art Center College of Design, Vitra Design Museum, Archilab Orleans, Documenta X, Art Basel and Carnegie Museum of Art.

Recently su11 architecture+design completed the New York K_Residence, Dwell Magazine’s featured cover story in March 2011.  The design partners chose DuChateau Floors Vernal Collection in San Tropez for this project.

Erich Schoenenberger and Ferda Kolatan (Photographer: Ty Cole)

Tell us about your first job in the design field.
Our first architecture job was to design a vacation home for a friend in Vermont.  We had a limited budget and needed to use the existing foundations of the older house. Fortunately, our client was very interested in the field of design and encouraged us to seek unconventional design solutions, which in turn led to a very satisfactory process and result. I believe that our client still enjoys his home very much.

K_Residence, Dwell Magazine

How would you describe the style of your own home?
I live in an old loft building, which was originally built as a knitting factory. As I value continuous space more than the number of individual bedrooms, my home is rather open and flowing both programmatically as well as spatially. Stylistically I kept the loft authentic in feel to its industrial history and only added a few contemporary elements and furniture pieces. (FK)

Vernal Collection in San Tropez (Photographer: Ty Cole)

What inspires you today?
We are inspired by many things of different kinds. Complex forms and structures of nature are one of them. Interesting contemporary and historical architecture is another as is fashion, car, and industrial design. What inspires us is usually driven by a combination of clever solution and beautiful expression.

Vernal Collection in San Tropez (Photographer: Ty Cole)

What is your most memorable travel destination?
The desert. I love any kind of moving ground.

 Vernal Collection in San Tropez (Photographer: Ty Cole)

What is your favorite book/magazine on design? Favorite website?
Darwin’s “Origin of Species” is my favorite design book. (FK)

 Vernal Collection in San Tropez (Photographer: Ty Cole)

What projects are you working on now?
We are working on a number of residential and commercial projects as well as on speculative research-oriented designs.

What’s left on your wish list of design projects?
Our wish list is an ever-evolving one. We welcome every design opportunity, small and large, as long as it challenges our imagination.

Thanks Ferda and Erich!

MusaDesign recently completed Far 4, an avant-garde shop/art gallery in Seattle with fine porcelain from all over the world, ‘ZAW, an artisan-inspired, bake-at-home pizza chain, and the MusaDesign studio in a historical Art Deco building under the monorail on 5^th Ave.

In all three projects the designers utilized DuChateau Floors as an integral part of the design. The designers featured Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch in Far 4 and Musa’s studio to associate with the historic presence of the spaces, and Terra Collection in Zimbabwe within the ‘ZAW pizza space, bringing the burned or fired feel to the concept of the store.

‘ZAW – Terra Collection in Zimbabwe

Tell us about your first job in the design field.
The Pepsi Cola office in Sankt-Petersburg in 1993.  This was a Neoclassical building with an enfilade of rooms so that we couldn’t build any partitions, and were dealing with enormous high ceilings and big rooms.  I was working with the architects responsible for the art selection and historical preservation.

‘ZAW – Terra Collection in Zimbabwe

How would you describe the style of your own home?
Raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, I grew up amidst the art and architecture of a city planned and built by charismatic Russian tsars who patronized the most innovative architects of their time.  I would say that was always a strong flight for my visual inspirations and can be seen in my modern steel and concrete loft lots of historical references, especially in use of materials and patterns, such as a double high shelf made from reclaimed redwood wine barrels or an 18th century “Rococo” mirror in a sleek powder room.

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

What inspires you today?
Same thing that inspired me yesterday – it is just my perspective getting deeper and an understanding of materials I use, getting to the point that I have to see and feel the energy of the pieces I am selecting.  Any historical references or reclaimed materials, as well as precise craftsmanship with the use of technology are endless.

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

What is your most memorable travel destination?
Any new destinations are memorable; I like to have purpose when I am traveling.  Korea and beautiful Namhae on the south end of the country was memorable because I was meeting the best architects in the country and participated in building the summer vacation villa for the family of well-known cello player.

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

What is your favorite book/magazine on design? Favorite website?
Mark magazine, Wallpaper magazine

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

What projects are you working on now?
One residential project in Anacortes with the best view over Puget Sound.  There I am going to use DuChateau Floors Terra collection in Tanzania; it is going to well blend with the nature outside the big windows.  Another project in Antibes South France, residential as well.

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

What’s left on your wish list of design projects?
Good question – I feel like I am after the client with a big interest towards art and philanthropy.  There we could build him a residence to showcase his art collection using technology and precise selection of lighting and materials that in the future can be used as learning environment for bursting the creativity of children.

Far4 – Chateau Collection in Olde Dutch

POLINA ZAIKA DESIGN
“MusaDesign”

MUSE
1. A guiding spirit.
2. A source of inspiration.
MusaDesign offers combined experience in the areas of design, creative direction and project management for affluent clientele worldwide. Founded in 2002, the firm delivers each project by taking a multisensory approach that draws on rich international inspiration.

Principals
Polina Zaika Owner and Principal Designer

Address
234 Dexter Ave North
Seattle WA 98109
www.musadesign.net

Contact
Polina Zaika
ph.: 425-246-3063
polina@musadesign.net

Awards
* Best of Home 2008: Interior Designers: “Seattle’s Sensational Seven Interior Designers with Northwest Flair,” 2008 (Seattle Magazine)
* Best Environmentally Responsible Design, 2007 (Northwest Design Awards, Seattle Design Center)
* Gold Award for Commercial Lighting, 2005 (Guth Awards, International Interior Design Association)
* Best of Sustainable Commercial Projects, 2005 (IIDA Green Conference)
* Best of Sustainable Commercial Projects, 2005 (NeoCon World’s Trade Fair for Interior Design)

Publications
* LUXE, LUXE Homes at Escala, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2010, US
* Evening Magazine, Decorating like a Pro, King5 News, US
* LUXE, Power Play SEATTLE, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2009, US
* Homespa , Middle Eastern Muse, winter-spring 2009, US
* GAFENCU , A Seattle Synthesis, November 2008, Hong Kong
* DLIST MAGAZINE, MUSADESIGN, November 2008, US
* Kitchen and Bath ideas, MEDITERRANEAN MODERN, March/ April 2008, US
* Seattle Homes Lifestyles, FIT FOR A DREAM, September 2007, US
* Dream Baths, Just Relax, May 2007, US
* AEC + Interior Design Directory, MUSADESIGN, 2006-2007, Hong Kong
* Seattle Homes Lifestyles, in the MIX, August 2006, US
* Northwest Home+Gardern, French Forward, Nov/Dec 2005, US
* HGTV “What You Get for the Money”, September 2006, US
* METROPOLIS, Surprise Fillings, August/ September 2005, US
* 空間’s Dining out, Café Darclée, 2005, Hong Kong

Thanks Polina!

This is the second interview in a new series of Designer Profiles.  Let’s get to know the designers and architects who are specifying DuChateau Floors in their projects. 

Formed in 1995, Lacina Heitler is a full service design firm offering expertise in architecture, interior design, space planning, and project management.  Through an interactive design process, Lacina Heitler creates personalized human experiences within the corporate, residential, and retail projects they design.  Principal Josh Heitler, AIA, filled us in on what’s new with his firm.

Lacina Heitler recently completed several locations for Drybar, a successful “blow dry bar”, and continues to design the company’s upcoming locations, including New York, Dallas and Atlanta.  All nine current drybar locations feature the DuChateau Vernal Collection in San Tropez.

Photography: Clark Dugger / Photos courtesy of Drybar and Lacina Heitler Architects

Tell us about your first job in the design field.
I started like many young architects, doing summer internships with a couple of small design firms.  But I feel like my design experience actually began before that when I did some construction labor and interior finishing work.  Seeing and understanding how things are built in the field has always helped me think about design.

How would you describe the style of your own home?
I would say our home is “natural modern.”  The lines and details are generally clean and minimal but the materials tend to be warm and natural woods, stones, corks, etc.  For me this is the best of both worlds – clean lines and the beauty and character of natural materials.

What inspires you today?
I’ve always been a design generalist so I am interested and constantly looking at all types of design – from cars to toothbrushes.  In general, I am most inspired by designs that subtly innovate and improve on a long standing design problem.  Good furniture design often does this – tables and chairs have been around forever and yet, every once and a while, someone finds a new way.  Apple is another good example – they weren’t the first to make a tablet or smartphone, they just did it better.

What is your most memorable travel destination?
I know it is a bit of cliché for an architect but I really value the semester I spent living in Florence, Italy.  Being there for 6 months, we really got to know the City and I can still remember and see in my mind some of my favorite walks through the streets and Piazzas.  While there was plenty of famous historical architecture, the Italian architects have also come up with many ways to do modern architecture in an historical context.  Not to mention the really great food.

What is your favorite book/magazine on design? Favorite website?
We get a lot of magazines at the office and I try to keep up as much as I can.  Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect and many of the new, sustainable building focused publications are great sources of inspiration and current ideas.

What projects are you working on now?
Besides the many Drybars in development, we are finishing up a large law firm in lower Manhattan, working on some major residential renovations in Connecticut and Newport Beach, and a few new retail concepts including a make-up lounge called Blushington.  We’re also really excited to start a 53-unit supportive senior housing project in Brooklyn with the local community Developer Cypress Hills.  The project will be our first large scale modular construction project.

What’s left on your wish list of design projects?
An art museum is one of those rare opportunities that architects covet.  I am also a great food fan (and wannabe chef) so a restaurant would be an exciting project to tackle.  We’ve also started two major hotel/condo projects in Las Vegas that were stopped or cancelled – so finishing something on that scale would also be satisfying.

Thanks Josh!

This is the first interview in a new series of Designer Profiles.  Let’s get to know the designers and architects who are specifying DuChateau Floors in their projects. 

Founded in 1997, Kenneth Brown Design is one of Los Angeles’ most sought-after design firms, retained to design multimillion-dollar celebrity homes and various commercial projects.  Trend-setting interior designer Kenneth Brown blends the warmth of Southern hospitality with clean Southern California lines.  His unique creations reflect his belief that comfort holds the key to successful design.  After appearing on television shows on Fine Living, TLC, and HGTV, he was named to the Top 100 designers by House Beautiful and Western Interiors.

Last year Kenneth and his design team opened a retail space in Los Angeles.  DuChateau Floors Vernal Collection in San Tropez is featured in the cozy shop.

Photography: Bethany Nauert via AT 

Tell us about your first job in the design field.  My first job was working for a large hospitality design firm doing Vegas hotels.  It was quite an eye opener for a kid straight out of the countryside in Louisiana.

How would you describe the style of your own home?  My home is a warm modern palette with high contrast in black and white with polished nickel accents.

What inspires you today?  I’m always inspired by travel.  It opens your eyes to many other points of view.

What is your most memorable travel destination?  I lived in Rome briefly and loved to watch how fashionable the local people were set against such historic buildings.  The two together were so inspirational.

What is your favorite book/magazine on design? Favorite website?  I’m a huge fan of every design magazine I get my hands on.

What projects are you working on now?  We’re doing a large private residence from the ground up in Tucson AZ, an ad agency in Huntington Beach CA, and Executive Offices for Warner Brothers.

What’s left on your wish list of design projects?  I’d like to do some projects in Southern Louisiana – I recently finished building my second home down there to be close to family.  There’s some beautiful architecture I’d like to get my hands on.

Thanks Kenneth!