PHILIA MAGAZINE

Merijn Degraeve is a Belgian interior architect based in Antwerp, known for creating highly atmospheric interiors defined by materiality, reflection, and spatial emotion. Educated at the Bijloke Academy in Ghent, his work balances bold architectural gestures with tactile softness, resulting in spaces that feel both dramatic and intimate.

Working across bespoke residential projects, Degraeve approaches each interior through a close dialogue with the client, shaping spaces that respond intuitively to lifestyle, light, and context. His aesthetic draws inspiration from 1970s architecture, contemporary art, travel, fashion, and nature, often combining raw structural elements with refined materials and layered atmospheres.

Rather than treating interiors as static compositions, Merijn Degraeve creates environments that evolve through reflection, texture, and lived experience. His projects are recognized for their quiet intensity, sculptural presence, and the seamless relationship between architecture, interiors, and landscape.

Katty Schiebeck is a Barcelona-based interior architect and designer of Uruguayan origin, and the creative director of her eponymous studio, which she leads alongside partner and co-founder Rubén Ortiz. Working internationally across interior architecture, spatial design, and bespoke furniture, the studio has developed a refined and deeply considered approach to contemporary luxury, one defined not by excess but by balance, proportion, atmosphere, and material sensitivity.

Known for her meticulous attention to detail and instinctive understanding of atmosphere, Schiebeck creates interiors where warmth and restraint coexist naturally. Her work combines sculptural clarity with layered textures, muted palettes, and carefully curated materials, shaping spaces that feel calm, timeless, and quietly expressive.

Rather than imposing a fixed signature style, the studio approaches each project as a dialogue between architecture, context, and client. Influenced by artistic references, spatial harmony, and a sensitivity to light, Schiebeck’s interiors reveal their elegance gradually through subtlety, coherence, and refinement.

Stem is a design studio founded by Aman and Sugandhi, rooted in a shared sensitivity toward nature, materiality, and the emotional resonance of objects. Emerging from a deeply personal and intuitive process, the studio explores how everyday forms can carry memory, feeling, and quiet meaning within domestic spaces.

Working across lighting, sculpture, and functional objects, Stem approaches design as a slow and thoughtful practice shaped by instinct, craftsmanship, and storytelling. Using materials such as clay, paper, and found elements, each piece is developed through an emotional dialogue between form, texture, and atmosphere.

Defined by restraint and intentionality, Stem creates objects that are meant to endure both physically and emotionally. Their work reflects a belief that design should not only serve a function, but also accompany the rhythms of life with warmth, presence, and lasting significance.

Maria Loram is a ceramic artist based in California whose practice explores the space between the organic and the cosmic through sculptural and functional ceramic works. Born in Russia and shaped by a multidisciplinary background spanning science, linguistics, yoga, and visual art, her work is deeply informed by Eastern philosophies, wabi-sabi aesthetics, and an ongoing fascination with material transformation.

Working with clay, paper, and experimental glaze techniques, Loram creates textured forms that evoke weathered landscapes, celestial surfaces, and artifacts shaped by time. Her process combines wheel throwing, handbuilding, glaze research, and painterly surface experimentation, resulting in pieces that feel both minimal and emotionally resonant.

Since returning to ceramics in 2022, Loram’s work has been exhibited internationally and featured through galleries and collections across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Alongside her studio practice, she has participated in artist residencies, taught workshops focused on glazes and textures, and continues to explore ceramics as a language of touch, impermanence, and quiet contemplation.

Fan Beilei is the founding partner and principal of genarchitects, a Shanghai-based architecture practice established in 2013. A China First Class Registered Architect, RIBA Chartered Architect, and International Associate of the AIA, she holds a Master of Urban Design from Technische Universität Berlin and a Master of Architecture from Tongji University. Her work explores architecture as a calm and thoughtful response to site, material, and contemporary living.

Led alongside KONG Rui and XUE Zhe, genarchitects works across educational, cultural, commercial, and residential projects. The practice has received numerous international distinctions, including the WA Chinese Architecture Award, the World Architecture Festival Award, the Brick in Architecture Awards, and THE PLAN Award. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and Harvard University, and widely published in journals and monographs by publishers such as Thames & Hudson and Birkhäuser.

Alykhan Velji is the Creative Director of Alykhan Velji Designs, the Calgary-based interior design studio he founded nearly two decades ago. Known for interiors that are layered, architectural, and deeply personal, Velji has developed a distinctive design language that balances heritage influences with contemporary sensibilities.

Working across residential and commercial projects, his approach explores the relationship between craftsmanship, materiality, and storytelling. Through bold compositions, rich textures, and carefully considered details, Velji creates spaces that feel immersive, collected, and enduring.

Beyond interiors, his creative practice extends into furniture, textile, and product collaborations, including partnerships with SILVA, Moblia, Urban Barn, Roll Out, and AFERA. His work has been featured in publications such as Architectural Digest, Dezeen, Domino, Livingetc, House & Home, and Western Living. In 2025, Alykhan Velji Designs was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Design Firms by House & Home.

Louise Liljencrantz is a Swedish designer and co-founder of Veermakers. Her work explores the relationship between sculptural form and functionality, with a particular sensitivity toward materiality, craftsmanship, and proportion.

Working between Stockholm and Paris, she develops collectible furniture and interiors defined by a refined balance between Nordic restraint and contemporary expression. Through Veermakers, Liljencrantz approaches design with a strong attention to detail, creating pieces that feel both timeless and tactile.

Veermakers recently opened its first showroom in Le Marais, Paris, further expanding the studio’s presence within the contemporary collectible design scene.

Sausset Leou is an architecture practice founded by Kim and Rémy, born from a shared affinity for a poetic, vernacular, and radical approach to spatial design. The duo first began collaborating during their architectural studies at ENSA Paris Val de Seine, developing alternative design projects through shared studio workshops.

Defined by a rigorous sensibility and a precise form of poetry, Sausset Leou combines formal discipline with narrative freedom, rejecting hierarchies between architectural typologies. Each project is conceived as a sensitive reinterpretation of the histories of places and people, with the ambition of making beauty accessible to all without distinction.

Marjan van Aubel is a Dutch designer whose pioneering practice explores the intersection of sustainability, technology, and design through the lens of solar energy. Based in Amsterdam, she has developed a distinctive approach that transforms sunlight into both a functional and aesthetic medium, integrating solar technology into everyday objects such as furniture, lighting, and architectural elements.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, van Aubel has collaborated with scientists and institutions to create works that challenge conventional perceptions of renewable energy, positioning it as a poetic and experiential force. Her projects, exhibited internationally and held in major museum collections, aim to redefine our relationship with energy by embedding it seamlessly into daily life, advocating for a future where sustainability and beauty are intrinsically connected.

Lim Shing Hui is the founder and principal architect of L Architects, a Singapore-based practice she established in 2016. Born, raised, and educated in Singapore, her work is grounded in a sensitive and intuitive approach to space, with a particular interest in how architecture can foster emotional connection and a sense of intimacy in everyday environments.

Before founding her own practice, she gained experience working in established local firms, shaping a foundation that combines technical precision with a more exploratory, human-centred perspective. Through L Architects, she has developed a body of work that is both restrained and expressive, often characterised by a careful attention to materiality, light, and spatial narrative.

Her projects have received both local and international recognition. In 2022, she was awarded the SIA Design of the Year, becoming the youngest recipient to date. In 2024, L Architects was selected by Wallpaper* as one of 20 emerging practices worldwide to join its Architects Directory. More recently, the studio’s “In a Park” project received the Small Residential Interior of the Year award at the Dezeen Awards 2025, marking a significant milestone for a Singaporean architectural practice on the global stage.

Ido Yoshimoto is a California-based artist whose practice is deeply shaped by the forests and landscapes of West Marin. After more than two decades working as an arborist, he turned to art, bringing with him an intimate understanding of trees, their structures, and their natural life cycles. Working primarily with salvaged and locally sourced wood, Yoshimoto creates sculptural and functional pieces that preserve the character and history of their material while introducing deliberate geometric interventions.

Through an intuitive and material-led approach, Yoshimoto explores the dialogue between natural growth and human intention, allowing the irregularities, textures, and forms of the wood to guide each work. Balancing raw organic expression with precise craftsmanship, his practice reflects on transformation, impermanence, and the passage of time, revealing new possibilities within materials that might otherwise be overlooked.

Beatriz Bolibar is a Barcelona-based interior designer and ceramic artist, and the founder of Cuit Studio. Trained in Interior Design at BAU and later completing a master’s degree in Hospitality Design at Elisava, she developed her early career working across high-end kitchens, as well as bars and restaurants in Amsterdam. While her professional path initially unfolded within hospitality, her focus gradually shifted toward the home — intimate, lived-in spaces shaped by light, material, and everyday rituals.

Working with ceramics since the beginning of her career, Bolibar developed a parallel practice that has become central to her work. What began as an intuitive and personal exploration evolved into a tactile extension of her spatial thinking, allowing her to move between scale, from architecture to object.

Through Cuit Studio, she brings together interior architecture and hand-built stoneware pieces — often conceived as lighting, vessels, or quiet sculptural forms that inhabit domestic environments. Her work is guided by a slow, material-driven process rooted in craftsmanship, where texture, weight, and imperfection are embraced as essential qualities.

Balancing structure with sensitivity, her practice reflects a contemporary approach to living — one that values restraint, atmosphere, and emotional resonance over spectacle. Each project and object is conceived as part of a broader narrative of the home, where design is not only seen, but lived with over time.

Specht Novak is an Austin-based architecture and design studio known for its thoughtful approach to contemporary living. Founded by Scott Specht and led alongside partner Jakeb Novak, the practice creates work defined by clarity of form, material sensitivity, and a strong connection to place.

Rooted in a philosophy of elegant and timeless design, the studio shapes environments that balance rigor and warmth, responding to both context and the people who inhabit them. Over the past decades, their work has gained international recognition through award-winning and widely published projects.

Danielle Colding is a New York–based interior designer whose work is defined by a deeply personal and intuitive approach to space. Through her studio, she develops environments that balance elegance with ease, layering texture, art, and collected objects to create interiors that feel both considered and lived-in.

Rooted in a sensitivity to how people inhabit their surroundings, her practice moves fluidly between architectural clarity and expressive detail. Each project is approached as a narrative — shaped by the client’s identity, yet elevated through a distinct and confident design language.

Her work has gained international recognition and has been brought to a wider audience through television, where she emerged as a singular voice within contemporary American design. Today, she continues to explore the intersection of comfort and composition, creating spaces that are at once refined, soulful, and enduring.

Mateus Dutra is a Brazilian-born designer based in New York and the founder of Atelier Dutré, a practice situated at the intersection of sculpture and function. Drawing from an international background spanning fashion, photography, and interior design, his work is informed by time spent between New York, Paris, and Scandinavia.

Working primarily with stone, Dutra approaches marble as a material of both physical presence and emotional resonance. His practice explores form, proportion, and surface, creating sculptural objects that balance weight with restraint and permanence with a sense of movement.

Rooted in a family lineage connected to stone extraction and craftsmanship, his work reflects an ongoing dialogue between inherited knowledge and contemporary experimentation. Through furniture and spatial objects, Dutra reinterprets traditional materials for a contemporary context, seeking to create pieces that are both grounded and enduring.

Studio Chacha, founded by Cha Shin-sil, is a Seoul-based design studio working primarily with glass. Her practice explores the delicate balance between control and unpredictability inherent in the material, embracing the transformative qualities of heat, light, and transparency.

Through experimental processes, Cha reinterprets familiar forms into sculptural objects that blur the boundary between function and art. By layering colors, altering geometric structures, and manipulating glass through lampworking techniques, her work creates optical depth and shifting visual effects that invite closer observation.

Positioned between collectible design and material exploration, Studio Chacha produces objects and furniture that emphasize the expressive potential of glass, where subtle variations in color, texture, and form transform everyday typologies into unexpected visual experiences.

Drew Lang is the founding principal of Lang Architecture, a New York–based practice recognized for its thoughtful approach to spatial design and material expression. He holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and is a licensed architect in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana.

At the helm of the studio, Lang defines the conceptual direction of each project, working closely with collaborators and clients to create spaces that are both grounded and enduring. His work reflects a sensitivity to context, where architecture becomes a medium to shape lived experience through light, material, and form.

Born in New Orleans, Lang’s early connection to place continues to inform his practice, particularly in the way natural and built environments intersect in everyday life. Beyond his architectural work, he founded the Faubourg St. Roch Project, a non-profit initiative dedicated to the revitalization of one of New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods, reinforcing his ongoing engagement with community and cultural continuity.

Nicholas Bijan Pourfard is a Southern California-based designer whose work moves between furniture and collectible design, shaped by an early foundation in luthiery. After crafting over 400 bespoke guitars under his label Prisma Guitars, he transitioned toward furniture as a means to expand his exploration of form, material, and expression.

His practice is driven by a dialogue between structure and movement, where materials are not only shaped but activated, giving rise to objects that feel both dynamic and grounded. Through a process rooted in making, Pourfard develops a sculptural language that balances tension and fluidity, precision and intuition.

Blending traditional craftsmanship with a contemporary sensibility, his work reflects a deeply personal approach to design — one where each piece becomes an extension of identity, narrative, and transformation.

Hyungshin Hwang is a Seoul-based designer whose work explores memory, materiality, and structure through furniture and objects. Trained in woodworking and furniture design at Hongik University, where he earned both his BFA and MFA, Hwang develops a restrained visual language that translates everyday experiences and emotional narratives into carefully crafted forms.

Central to his practice is the ongoing Layered Series, first introduced at the Korea International Art Fair in 2007. Through modular construction and layered surfaces, the series reflects the accumulation of time, memory, and lived experience. Hwang’s work has been exhibited internationally at Milan Design Week, DMY Berlin, Design Days Dubai, and Art Beijing, and presented at institutions including La Triennale di Milano and the Korea Craft & Design Foundation.