Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Occupation: Interior Design
Instagram: @studio_santos__
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Studio Location: Miami, Florida
Describe what you make: Worlds with a point of view. At Studio Santos, that means homes that unfold like stories. At S. Lab, it means immersive hospitality with atmosphere, intention, and a little theater.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: A sense of trust. Everything else is just its physical form.
Describe the problem your work solves: We design the part of a room you cannot photograph: the ease, the rhythm, and the sense of belonging that you can achieve in a well-considered space.
Describe the project you are working on now: At Studio Santos, we are restoring a 100-year-old Miami property by August Geiger, a defining early Miami architect who helped shape Carl Fisher’s Miami Beach. The house comes from a Miami before central air and domestic refrigeration, when architecture had to negotiate with climate rather than conquer it. It has extraordinary original detailing, a 1920s contemporary spirit, and Mediterranean flair. We are modernizing it without making it forget what it knows.
At S. Lab, we are developing a private hospitality world in the South of France, built around conversation, dining, late nights, and quiet moments of discovery. The goal is for people to leave with the sense that they were inside something, not just invited to something.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: There’s an experiment of ours unfolding in 2026, but it’s better experienced than explained. I’m learning to let the work announce itself.
What you absolutely have to have in your studio: A fully stocked Martie snack bar, my medicine-ball desk chair, too many USB-C chargers, and our dog, Mia, treating the floor like a tasting menu.
What you do when you’re not working: The work leaks into everything. Doomscrolling 1stdibs, walking the neighborhood with Juan and Mia, and planning the next escape. We’ll be taking advantage and take some time off after working in Cannes, of course!
Sources of creative envy (dead or alive): The quiet genius of Maison Royère as they re-edition Jean Royère’s archive; the artisans at Lesage and their incredible embroidery; and Frank Gehry, for believing that acoustics deserve defiance.
The distraction you want to eliminate: The urge for perfection, and email.
Concrete or marble? Marble, especially when it feels like it’s still becoming something else.
High-rise or townhouse? High-rise. I like thinking in the clouds.
Remember or forget? Remember selectively.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens. They’ve made some great designs on Earth so far!
Dark or light? Indirect lighting at all times, arguably too dim. Does that mean dark or does that mean light?
