DESIGN NOTES
REFLECTIONS ON ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND AUTHENTICITY
before we begin sharing our thoughts on art, architecture, and authenticity here in the future, we would first like to do something else: introduce ourselves. not as a brand, but as people – with our stories, contradictions, and our way of thinking and designing.
for more than three decades we have been in conversation – first as neighbors, then as friends, and eventually as partners. we listen to the same records, love art, collect catalogues and books, compare color samples and wood finishes, run our hands over every façade. we take a walk, sketch, place samples side by side, and let the strongest idea take the lead.
we are two voices who prefer to design rather than talk about ourselves. that’s why it took a friend to ask us the right questions: andrea camic, herself a creative and part of the design duo rukom, which creates urban-minimalist, vegan bags, wanted to know how we, as such different personalities, work together. what emerged was a conversation about design, rituals, and the search for the extraordinary.
(reading time: 7 min.)
how did you become designers?
leila: i think i’ve always been a designer (laughs). when i was ten, my favorite place was the construction site of our weekend house. at the same time, i learned how to draw floor plans and designed hundreds of houses on graph paper. my first “real” projects – cassette covers, posters, small illustrations, and drawings – later helped me earn pocket money.
still, i was searching for something and first took a completely different path: i had just completed my training as a pianist and piano teacher, but quickly realized it wasn’t enough for me. so i turned to cultural studies, literature, art history, and philosophy. i earned my doctorate and did research, driven by the question of how meaning is created. language was my tool, theory my space.
yet the visual never let go of me: i exhibited my prints and collages, designed the first kitchens for friends, and helped shape their apartments. and then there was that one magical moment when everything that had long existed side by side suddenly came together as if on its own. design became my language – one that incorporates many different stories. in it, i found what i had felt for so long but could never fully grasp. only after completing my later design training did i truly realize how valuable my research-driven, cultural studies perspective – as well as my artistic and musical background – is for the entire creative process. today i also work as a university lecturer and notice how scientific thinking and constant exchange continue to shape my design practice.
vladimir: my path was more straightforward. my father was a professor of architecture, so spatial thinking and building were always an important part of my life. after studying architecture at tu vienna, i spent years planning and implementing large-scale projects. function and form were at the center – spaces had to carry, be practical and logical. and yet, there was always the demand that a space must also touch you. when i met leila again, other dimensions came into play: color, light, sensuality – the beauty that doesn’t need explanation. she showed me that between lines and forms lies a language that can be deeply felt. today i know: good architecture is the body of a space – but interior design is its heart and soul.
when does a project begin for you – with the first plan or with an idea?
leila: for me, it usually starts with an image in my head. or an impulse, a feeling. it can be a light atmosphere, or a material that triggers something in me. sometimes it’s a place we experienced together while traveling – a glance, a shadow, a surface. i then put that feeling on the table, quite literally.
vladimir: for me, it usually begins with a brief pause – often in conversation with leila, in the middle of everyday life. i ask myself: what is this place missing? what would make it relevant? then comes the moment when we begin to wrestle with it – but that initial friction is something we need. from it often emerges something that neither of us could have imagined alone.
IN CONVERSATION WITH STUDIO VILS
you work as a duo. what does each of you bring to the table?
vladimir: i like to see things in their physical reality – materials, constructions, how something feels in the hand or how it ages, that’s what interests me. i come from construction, i want everything to always function – and at the same time tell a story.
leila: i approach things more through atmosphere, through stories. or theory! (laughs) my background is in cultural studies – for me, it’s about what visions spaces should make visible. i am always thinking about how spaces shape us and what emotions they evoke. i ask questions that open up room for different ways of thinking. our conversations are very direct, but always respectful. together, we balance intuition and knowledge.
vladimir: i believe our work lives from the fact that we are constantly translating – leila more emotionally, me more spatially-structurally. in the end, something emerges that holds both together.
what are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of working as a couple?
leila: even if it might sound unbelievable: for me, there are no disadvantages, because we complement each other perfectly. many years ago, we already enjoyed learning and sketching together. besides, my work has never been “work” for me (at least not in the sense the word carried in middle high german – “torment, hardship, pain, something burdensome”), but rather something beautiful and inspiring! working together gives me energy instead of draining it.
vladimir: advantage: you know each other. disadvantage: you know each other. (both laugh)
are there rituals that guide you through the design process?
leila: not for me – i’m not a person for rituals. regularity feels like restriction to me. i need the open, the unplanned, the surprising. i read a lot, especially architecture magazines, but also professional books from different disciplines – partly because i am always searching for something new, and partly because my work as a university lecturer requires me to stay scientifically up to date. what also fits my need for variety: i keep changing my workplace – from desk to sofa to the meeting table. sometimes i go to a café or a co-working space. the city, with its contrasts, courtyards, and quiet places amidst the hustle and bustle, is like a third conversation partner for both of us.
vladimir: if you consider talking as a ritual, then that’s ours. we talk a lot. then we fall silent again. at some point, you sense: now there’s something in the air. i think better in motion. many decisions i make while walking – or when traveling. new settings, other people, a shift in perspective on one’s own. it’s important to step away from everyday life again and again in order to see clearly. but if we speak of classic rituals, then there really is one: freshly brewed mocha coffee in the morning. when i prepare mocha on the stove in the morning, it’s like a small meditation, a gentle, unhurried start to the day.
what does trust mean in your work?
leila: our clients often come to us with little time, but with a very clear desire for authenticity. they give us the freedom not just to create something “beautiful,” but something that truly fits them – even if they cannot put it into words themselves.
vladimir: it means that we are allowed to do our work – in the best sense. that someone says: “i don’t know exactly what i want, but i trust you to understand it.” and then we look very closely. the moment when, in the end, a space evokes something that the client could not have expressed themselves – that is the goal. and it is never coincidence.
what does a typical project process look like for you?
leila: we always start with an in-depth conversation, and for companies also with one- to two-day workshops. with us, there is no questionnaire, no fixed scheme. we want to understand the people and their lives.
vladimir: only then does the idea emerge. we work very closely with the place, the budget, and the real conditions – but also with a clear standard. we plan, prepare tenders, accompany the implementation, and are involved down to the last detail. what we build should still feel coherent in two decades.
what do you want to leave behind with your spaces?
leila: above all, spaces that are not interchangeable, that are extraordinary and elicit a “wow” from everyone. we want a sense of authenticity – something that doesn’t feel artificial or staged, but genuine and unmistakable. our designs should touch people, be exciting, surprising, evoke enthusiasm, and show depth. they often tell more about our clients than they themselves had imagined.
vladimir: a space should not increase the complexity of life, but rather simplify and order it – imperceptibly, almost casually. it must not impose, but relieve. good design structures thought, influences feeling, guides movement without being visible. if a person feels intuitively at ease in a space – then we have done our job well.
finally, i am curious – and surely your readers are too: which voices from design, art, and architecture move you or have served as role models?
vladimir: in my own designs, i am very much a child of classical modernism: the good old bauhaus, where functionality takes center stage and aesthetic forms automatically arise from it. otherwise, i have been inspired by amir vuk, an architect from my homeland, who in a very special way translated all the values of traditional bosnian architecture into the modern era. for the theoretical approach and my way of engaging with each architectural work, i owe eternal gratitude to my professor kari jormakka from tu vienna, who sadly passed away far too early. in art, it is quite different for me: i love basquiat and the unordered, the wild, the free – far from clear structures and straight lines.
leila: oh, that’s the most difficult question of all! as a child, i was fascinated by the organic buildings of javier senosiain aguilar, frank lloyd wright, and louis sullivan, later also by zaha hadid. since then, there have been so many whose work i deeply admire. but let’s start with art: i love cy twombly, sean scully, and mark rothko (there will be an essay about this on the blog soon), large-format works by amela rasi and small collages by katrin adler. furniture by konstantin grcic and mihail kurnosov excites me, jewelry by saskia diez and fabrics by hella jongerius i find outstanding. in architecture, i lose myself in the designs of sep ruf, sigurd larsen, snøhetta, classic bauhaus, and the architecture studios from vorarlberg that keep the spirit of the vorarlberg school alive. and i also love brutalist buildings immensely. the surface and structure of concrete, especially in combination with other materials, has something irresistible for me.
i thank you both for sharing so openly about your lives! even though we’ve known each other for many years, i feel like i’ve just gotten to know you in a completely new way.
leila: we thank you, dear andrea, for your willingness to talk with us. without your support, our “about us” page would probably still be empty! (both laugh)
vladimir: and you’re about to taste the best coffee of your life, because i’m just about to put the water on – and then we’ll finally talk about your new showroom!
