tastemakers – ilse crawford
interview by Bethan Ryder
Londoner Ilse Crawford established her interior design consultancy Studioilse in 2002. Prior to that she launched and edited the UK’s influential ELLE Decoration magazine. A purveyor of “modern and emotional design”, Ilse is author of several books, teaches at the highly regarded Eindhoven Design Academy in Holland and has been responsible for UK projects such as Babington House in Somerset, Soho House in London’s Greek Street, the Electric Cinema in Brixton and Chiswick’s High Road House. Studioilse is currently working on projects in Kranzbach, Stockholm and Miami.
What do you love about living in London?
It’s a fabulously mixed-up city with a bubbling mix of people. I was born in Powis Square (near Westbourne Grove). Now I live in Southwark, which historically had fairly smelly industries; prostitutes and criminals hung out there and that reputation is partly why it didn’t get dolled up. It’s ancient, but also very vibrant with new architecture. It feels very dynamic.
What inspired you to become an interior designer?
My mum was an artist, my dad was an economist and journalist and my grandmother lived in modern spaces, which I grew up with. First I wanted to be an architect; I started out on The Architects’ Journal. ELLE Decoration was my way of promoting the idea of modern and emotional design. I designed the sets and set the style; doing it three-dimensionally is no different – it’s the same commissioning process and vision.
How would you describe your work?
Modern and emotional. It’s cool head, warm heart, it’s how we live, it’s making spaces that are modern but feel really great to be in.
Why do you think the Soho House brand has been so successful?
We developed the style for a bohemian media crowd who like their fun. It’s about making a world for them to inhabit and enjoy. For example, the bedrooms are very practical spaces. We thought that guests would like to have their partners in bed and hold meetings, so we enabled them to separate the space quickly with an electric velvet curtain
Tell us about your latest project the Grand Hôtel Stockholm?
We’ve created two restaurants for a young Michelin-starred chef, Mathias Dahlgren. One is for fast food and one slow food. The fast food can be smelt, heard and felt; [that restaurant] has hard surfaces and a quick feeling to it. The dining room is a slower, more sensual experience; more like a domestic dining room. For the bar we’ve commissioned a narrative screen by Job Smeets of Studio Job – a story of Vikings and cooks.
What do you like about Stockholm?
The vintage shops are great, but my favourite place is Djurgärden’s Rosendal Garden, an amazing park with a bio-dynamic café, flowers that you can cut and pay for by the gram and tables under the apple trees.
What object couldn’t you live without?
In reality my mobile phone, in practical terms that makes life possible. So far I don’t have a Blackberry, I prefer to talk to people.
What’s your dream project?
We’re working on our dream projects right now: Miami’s Soho Beach House, Stockholm’s Grand Hôtel, a clubroom for London’s Wellcome Trust plus we’re creative directors of Notting Hill Housing Trust. Man and wellbeing is something we’re interested in, we work on glamorous projects, but also things of social content and that balance is very important to me.
Which product or building do you wish you’d designed?
Hans Wegner’s Ch 25 chair, it’s tactile and human but very modern and light also. Also, Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass House in São Paulo, which is filled with tubular steel chairs and Brazilian baroque. It’s a beauty.
What’s your philosophy for life?
The most important moment is now, don’t put things off for later. If you’re not doing the things you feel you should then you have to make things the way you want them now, because later tends not to happen.
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