Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Name: Noa Santos
Occupation: Architect + Interior Designer
Instagram: @noasantos
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii
Studio Location: New York City, Los Angeles, Barcelona
Describe what you make: NAINOA creates heirlooms. We approach places holistically, bringing landscape, architecture, interiors, and custom furniture together under a single vision. I think of it almost like a symphony, tuning each discipline to the right volume so the final piece really sings. We may very well not be the best soloists in the world, but I think we create the best symphonies.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: My team and studio. We’re in over 15 countries with projects all over the globe, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work we’re doing and the spaces we’re creating together.
Describe the problem your work solves: I think we’re as interested in designing the experience of creating a home as we are the home itself. We listen to our clients with intent and look at every project in its entirety, across architecture, landscape, interiors and everything in between. Creating something truly personal can take years. We believe those years should be part of the fun. The experience is a huge part of the product.
Share the project you are working on now: An estate in Aspen, which began with the renovation of an existing guest house. We wanted to preserve much of its character while introducing a more contemporary, artful sensibility. That became the client’s home while we began rebuilding the main residence, which we’ve now been working on for several years. It’s been fun.
I love the dialogue with the clients. They’re incredibly engaged in the details because they want the house to genuinely reflect how they live. That kind of involvement makes the work richer and much more specific.
It also speaks to something broader about our practice. We’re currently working on over 50 homes across 19 countries, and I’m much less interested in developing a recognizable aesthetic than in making each project feel inevitable to its client and its place. A house in Aspen should have very little in common with a villa in Bali or Egypt beyond the rigor and thought behind it.
What you absolutely have to have in your studio: Stone. Our color palette always begins with stone selections for each room, even if it’s simply a placeholder for a piece of furniture. The feature stone drives the color direction of each environment.
What you do when you’re not working: Sleep.
Sources of creative envy (dead or alive): Frank Lloyd Wright, Christian Liaigre, John Lautner, Peter Müller.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Recessed can lighting.
Concrete or marble? Marble
High-Rise Or Townhouse? Townhouse
Remember or Forget? Remember
Aliens or Ghosts? Aliens
Dark Or Light? Light
