We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Zarysy Jan Sekuła about their original and creative Residential Interior design work. Zarysy Jan Sekuła is an award-winning architectural designer, that makes our world a better place with their original residential interior works.
Zarysy Jan Sekuła ("ZJS") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Top of The Lake Residential Interior. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
ZJS : There is a very popular trend in modern interior architecture to reuse unique places such as a factory loft, an old barn, a stone hut, an abandoned church or many others. Those are unquestionably marvelous, but in my opinion far more challenging is to design the random plain interior.. Most of us won’t be able to afford or find such a unique place, which needs only a restoration and highlighting of the original roof. One valuable piece of furniture or an original artwork is usually all that's needed to create a “wow” effect in these spaces. The interior design of standard apartments or catalog houses is the complete opposite and ironically this is where most of the population lives. Bringing this unusual, wow design to everyday people, living in everyday houses – this is what my design is all about. Every home has the potential to become a unique, surprising, and exciting story. Just like a painter uses spots of colors to create a perfect composition, I’m using different finishes of walls, floors and fixed furniture pieces to reshape the interior. I’m not building spaces based on a single famous furniture piece – instead, I’m creating my own furniture to fit the story I’m telling.
ZJS : Top Of The Lake is a perfect example of my design philosophy and values. The interior is shaped by a really strong composition of perfectly intersecting blocks, structures, textiles and colors. Dark tones greatly contrast with wood veneers giving a super cozy vibe. While the trends promote bright and white dominated interiors, I’m showing that dark toned spaces can be wonderfully soft and cozy and build an outstanding atmosphere. The proximity of a lake, super-thin frame windows and a rich palette of materials created a bond between the house and nature outside. All of this in a very modern and fresh form with mid-century references giving a bit of twist. The essence of the design are the dividers, not solid walls, but floor, wall and ceiling shapes - they separate spaces, but at the same time connect them to create one consistent design. This connection between shapes is extremely important. Its details deserve a really close look. This type of design – which highlights the consistency between all the surfaces of the house – demands an unusual precision in both design and build execution. The connection between furniture, steel, floors etc. is just like an art piece. Especially if we consider the scale of the house and the fact that sometimes one piece of furniture goes through several spaces. It’s not an easy, straightforward design. It deserves a close up look, focus on details, inter-piece connections and references. It’s like a big piece of complicated furniture itself.
ZJS : I think its purpose has been fulfilled, it houses a happy family. For me as a designer it will be a beautiful sample of my skills and style.
ZJS : It was about two months to design this house interior, then another 1,5 months to convert the 3d concept to construction plans.
ZJS : Well whenever you have to deal with a private investor the most important thing is to satisfy their needs. Usually my concept needs to fit investors' vision. In this instance I have a huge luck to meet people who have a tremendous trust in my taste and gave me free rein. There are always a lot of inspirations moving around in my head and they just pop-up in the design process. Usually I avoid one leading theme to be dominant because the mix of the ideas and styles is the most satisfying for me.
ZJS : Well this question rather doesn't fit the “interior design” category, but not necessarily. My designs usually rely heavily on custom designed furniture. Although built in pieces are interior dependent, there are also a lot of free standing furniture being designed to fit a particular project. Those are dining tables, coffee tables, cupboards, side tables, beds, desks, lightning pieces and sometimes sofas. Those are, for now, project dependent and can be built only based on interior design construction plans, but in the long term I don't dismiss the idea of starting my own furniture brand.
ZJS : Well I feel that interior design is the perfect middle point between art and engineering, and this really fits my personal skills. Art itself is way too indefinite and architecture is filled with bureaucracy. Hence the interior design is a perfect compromise between those two.
ZJS : Yes, many of them, but I’m not into any particular one. For me it’s usually hard to find anyone whose works continuously fit my taste. Portals like Pinterest are most inspirational for me, there I can find works of so many designers from all over the world and gather just a bunch of single pictures which contains the whole “feeling” I’m looking for. This is how my design got influenced.
ZJS : Well I would say that everyone. This may sound like a cheap comercial, but if you need a modern, unique and cozy home I can help! As I mentioned before - the quality of life is highly dependent on the quality of our surroundings, in the post-covid era of the home office our homes become an even more important factor in our well being. In my pure belief, every place can be a design marvel, it’s just a matter of will.
ZJS : First of all - the attention to details. Second - the design methodology. Third - the warmth. Many modern interior designers focus on particular parts of the space, this wall or that wall or this or that view. Interior is a 3d space so we shouldn't look at it like in 2d space. Its 3d properties gives us, the designers, huge opportunities to build, reshape and recreate the space in a new shape. This lets us fix the space issues, highlight the most important parts and hide the less desired ones. This is exactly my workflow. I'm using colors, textures and fabrics to reshape the house, fix its downsides and reveal the beauty side of it. The detailing job in between connections of materials, finishes and elements is crucial, I’m putting a lot of energy to make every connection and conversion seamless and smooth. Just like perfectly fitted elements in a car dashboard. Last but not least is the personal style, warm and cozy, yet intriguing and eye-catching. I want to create spaces which are like artworks, functional but also perfectly designed and crafted. I think the combination of those three sets my design aparts from the rest.
ZJS : Top of the lake - this one is really simple - the house is built on the small hill over the lake. The title also resembles the one from a TV show - so everyone can find their own interpretation.
ZJS : I begin with measurements of the house, then I’m using Autodesk Autocad to build a plan and design the interior layout. Layout then got imported to Autodesk 3d Studio Max, where all the designing took place. After finishing the concept I’m rendering using Corona Renderer. Renderings let the investor fully understand the concept, so they are in my opinion very important. After approval the 3d model is recreated in Autocad as a construction plan.
ZJS : I think it’s a personal style. Also I’m a computer graphic hobbyist, so the presentation of the projects are top notch. This and the above mentioned personal style helped me to get where I am now. Regarding the style - it's in some sense minimalistic, but not empty and cold but rather warm and inviting. I love the colors so every project has its leading tones. Also I’m a huge fan of mixing the styles, our architectural heritage is enormous and so we should draw as much as we can.
ZJS : Yes, there are people responsible for MEP and HVAC, construction workers, the architect, but the most important one is carpenter, he is responsible for fixed and free standing furniture including steel and fabric elements. Most of the decisions and details have to be talked through with the carpenter team. They are also responsible for some technical solutions which are crucial for design.
ZJS : I think it’s huge, mainly to build it. From the measurements, through 3d modeling, rendering, preparing construction plans to building it using CNC machines and other techniques. It’s all based on technology, without it we won't be able to make it possible.
ZJS : No, not at all. The only research needed for this design is technical research including stuff like hanging stairs or a hanging tree house in the child room. Or more detailed stuff as research on TV hiding equipment, leds or HVAC solutions.
ZJS : House layout wasn’t perfect, so I made some functional and aesthetic corrections. Most of the changes focus on bringing more air, making rooms more spacious or e.g.. to showcase the staircase. The entrance hall is like a house introduction. It should be exciting and welcoming, but also simple enough to be instantly familiar. The excitement was guaranteed with exposed stairs and a glass door showing the boutique style garage. The redesigned layout gives me wide opportunities, but it also brings a challenge – how to avoid chaos and harmonize the space. Garage finished in dark tones has a perfect separation from the hall, the low key tone also enhances the custom lighting on the ceiling. The stairs as the main focal point were also highlighted by the terrazzo floor. Their construction has been a unique task – the multiplicity of solid oak poles arrayed in mathematical perfection create a smooth, minimal design with a solid and steady construction. The house has a really small and crowded kitchen and dining area. Both spaces have to be rotated by 90 degrees. Rearranged space for kitchen and dining created a small coffee lounge, a deep green plank ceiling highlights this whole area. While the ceiling integrates spaces, the floor distinguishes them by function. Zigzag shaped textile louvers between kitchen and dining hides construction pillar, yet with rotating abilities they serve as open/close divider. Daughter room is quite spacious, but the downside was the main window sill of 120cm height which is way too high for a child. Properties of this space have been an inspiration to create a three level structure like a tree house. Ground level serves as study, second floor with storage nooks under poufs serves as a playground. Finally on the third floor we have a little bedroom with a night sky ceiling. The intention was to create an unusual environment to match children's creativity and accommodate a 3 year old kid as well as 18 y.o. teenager. Construction has also been challenging - the stairs have been built but extremely talented craftsmen, they are completely floating design, nothing touches the ground. Daughters' hanging bed in tree house style was also very demanding in terms of construction. I want it to be thin and optically light which only makes the task harder. We figured out that the small ladder could serve as a construction element with the help of roof beams and thick walls behind it. We make it possible. Near the coffee corner in the kitchen we have a liquor glass case with curved glass. This one was also a headache, mostly because it’s really hard to find glassworks which can make elements this small in size.
ZJS : Well, this was one of my favorite projects, when it was built and I saw how much work the inversors put in to make it look exactly like the renderings I knew I had to find a top notch photographer and take a photoshoot. I really think this interior deserves some attention, I hope competitions like this one can greatly help to access a world wide audience.
ZJS : This design was quite bold, the huge green ceiling, futuristic garage and sculptured daughter room are some of many daring decisions I made during the design process. It was exciting but also scary, because in the end the investor could say yes but also this could be a big no. Fortunately their answer was a huge yes and every project like this, where you push your boundaries and get approval gives you more and more confidence to design even more unique and surprising things.
ZJS : Yup - let’s all try to switch to reusable energy, recycle our trash, be kind and make the world a better place. Design was created just for this reason - to make the world a better place. No matter if you are a designer or not, you can and should try to fulfill this mission. Peace out!
