In the fifth of the series of Sofa Chats, top interior designer Kate Stirling talks about architecture, how it impacts her use of Minotti furniture, and why she loves working with us.
Kate has worked internationally in the field of architecture for over twenty years. After a stint in Hong Kong in the 1990s, she moved to New York to work for Richard Meier and after that Charles Gwathmey.
She returned to London and worked at Norman Foster’s riverside studio for nearly a decade. She is currently heading up the new London office of the New York-based architectural interior company Meyer Davis.
Hit the play button below to watch the full conversation, or read the full transcript below:
Anke Summerhill: Hi. I’m Anke Summerhill from Minotti, London, and today for our Minotti mini sofa chat, I have the lovely Kate Stirling here from Meyer Davis, which is of course a well known interior design company.
Kate, I think has design in her genes. Her father, of course, was the well known James Stirling, in whose memory the Stirling Prize was created. And Kate, I think you grew up surrounded by designers and architects. Your mother, in fact, is a furniture designer as well. So I think from a young age, you were surrounded by beautiful things.
Kate Stirling: Yes, I was very lucky. I was very lucky to be involved in that circle of people.
Anke: Minotti has a bit of an architectural background, because Alberto Minotti studied architecture. The head of design, Rodolfo Dordoni, who’s been working with Minotti for well over 20 years, also is an architect. Do you feel that reflects a little bit in the Minotti designs at all?
Kate: I think they’re very strong. They’ve got some very strong architectural forms to them, a number of them.
Anke: Yeah. I also think that’s a really big connection, obviously, between the exterior and interior of a building. I think the interior should complement the exterior, which agree with that in your projects, because Meyer Davis has a lot of international projects. Obviously, you take the architecture of the building into consideration.
Kate: That’s very true, and we love working with artists. In fact, there’s a building in Sydney called One Barangaroo. Chris Wilkinson, WilkinsonEyre London based architects designed, which is a stunning building. And we did all the interiors, the hospitality, all the way up to the penthouse.
And it was very, very important for us to kind of take on this extraordinary twisted tower and the architecture of the tower, and to bring it inside to the interior to the building, so that they would complement each other. And that’s been an incredibly successful project.
And on the back of that, we have a number of different projects with the same client, the Crown.
Anke: It sounds very exciting.
Kate: The Crown.
Anke: Okay. And it is quite funny, because as you know, Minotti now is working with different designers. Each yeah, they’re adding a new design or a few new designers to their list, as it were.
And we’ve been working with Marcio Kogan as well, who also has an architectural background. And I think this reflects in some of the designs he has made for Minotti. In fact, you mentioned earlier that you really like the Daiki Chair.
Kate: That’s right, yes.
Anke: Which is designed by Marcio Kogan.
Kate: Oh, that’s lovely. Yeah, that’s a great chair.
Anke: Exactly, yeah.
Kate: It’s fantastic. We have just finished a residential in Miami for a wonderful client of ours. And we have used the Mills Chair from Minotti with great success. They look fantastic. I saw the installation last week.
Anke: Yeah, I know, because I think you’re quite regularly use Minotti pieces as sort of a key element. Maybe not a key element, but as a signature piece maybe, in some of the interiors you do.
Kate: Yeah. Most of our interiors, we do use design classics and a number of luxury brands to kind of elevate the project to a different level. And so yes, we’ve used Minotti a number of times.
Anke: We haven’t seen each other for a while, and it was just so nice to see you come into the showroom and-
Kate: Of course.
Anke: … talk to you face to face. Obviously Zoom and all that is very, very useful.
Kate: And sit on these lovely sofas.
Anke: I know. Feel the comfort in real life. You just mentioned when we were having a walk around, how much you like the Connery Sofa. What is it about the Connery Sofa that you like?
Kate: What I like about the Connery Sofa is it’s a very clean defining line that makes it look like it’s floating. It’s a very strong, modern object.
Anke: Yeah. It’s a very strong feature of the sofa.
Kate: I find it very crisp and very elegant.
Anke: Yeah. I must say, it’s on the 2020 collection.
Kate: Is it?
Anke: And it has been, I think, a very-
Kate: It’s very successful.
Anke: It’s very, very popular. Very, very successful.
Kate: It’s eye catching.
Anke: Yes, it is.
Kate: It’s a kind of iconic type of…
Anke: And it’s got…
Kate: It’s also very large in scale. It’s eye-catching.
Anke: Yeah. Well, the thing is, of course, like most of the seating systems from Minotti, it’s very modular, so you can make it as big or small as you like. For example, the Freeman Sofa we’re sitting on, we had this in the showroom before. It’s rather large configuration, and here we are having adapted it to such a small space.
Kate: Yeah, much more intimate.
Anke: I think this is the strength of Minotti, that it is so adaptable.
Kate: And that just beautifully designed objects, I must say.
Anke: Exactly. Okay. Well Kate, it was lovely having you here in the showroom. Really appreciate it.
Kate: It’s lovely being back.
Anke: I know, I know.
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