Firm/Studio Name
Studio Flamingo
How did you come up with the name of your studio?
A plausible inspiration for the legend of the Phoenix, the exquisite flamingo emanates functionality by standing on one leg, making it a symbol of beauty and balance. Late November marks the return of the unique bird to Bombay each year. It is impacted by various cultures and experiences from the world over but retains its original style. Taking a cue from this remarkable bird, we named our company Studio Flamingo. The brand Flamingo interacts with the world surrounding it and explores innovative ideas to create a lifestyle that fits you. A seed of thought lends an idea that helps a space or product come alive. It seeps into your subconscious and transforms your experience within it. The outcome helps us portray the inward significance of things, rather than restrict its effect to outward appearances.
What determined your passion for design? Tell us about the moment when you decided this is the way to go.
Both partners, Esha Pandya Choksi and Aashni Pandya Kumar had a back door entry into the world of interior design. While both had a keen interest in the subject of design since childhood, they pursued degrees in business studies initially until the inner calling took over and hence began their journey, both education and practice, on the creative side.
What kind of projects were you doing when you first started as a designer?
We started with smaller residential interior design projects, after which we were fortunate enough to explore larger residential interior design projects including holiday homes as well as commercial interior design projects for corporate offices, retail stores and restaurant design.
What field of design are you most interested in?
We are interested in any kind of spatial design, and all the elements it encompasses. Hence right from designing an interesting piece of furniture to typical interior design projects to collaborating on the architectural vision for a design project, any and all aspects of spatial design interest us!
What is your favourite book/magazine on design? How about your favourite site?
Letters to a Young Architect by Christopher Benninger.
What is your Signature Style?
Our signature style is to deliver design solutions of high functional and aesthetically value while creating an unmistakable harmony in the space. We achieve this by paying close attention to how we plan and organise our design, by incorporating and carefully working out design details that are beautiful yet minimalistic, and by incorporating the technique of repeating a set of closely curated materials throughout the space. This technique of repetition blended with a detailed yet minimalistic approach to our design brings about a sense of calm to space, creating an oasis for our clients.
What inspires you to thrive in this industry? Which piece of architecture inspires you the most.
We believe that efficient and creative interior design has the ability to transform or enhance someone’s mood, improve quality of life in a home, improve performance in a workspace, solidify the image of a brand via its physical presence in a retail store, etc. It is this thought that excites us, and also reminds us of our responsibility of the job that we undertake, which in turn helps us thrive in the industry.
Tadao Ando’s Church of Light is a piece of architecture that inspires us most. The form, function, symbolism and ideology that space is built on is a poetic expression of architecture embodied in a structure.
From your point of view, is design an art or a science?
By definition, to design means to find a solution. We believe that if the solution is engineered well, and is aesthetically uplifting, the creator and user experience are at their highest. Keeping this in mind, design is both, an art and a science.
If you had no limits (money, resources), what would you create?
If we had no limits, we would participate and use our design skills to improve our immediate city surroundings by the means of conscious design – making an effort towards improving various factors that can contribute to a super living experience in the city – ranging from footpath design, public parks to public sanitation design.
What advice do you have for young designers or architects reading this interview?
We would advise young designers that it is imperative to stay invested in the continued education of the craft. Very often when one starts practising, one gets caught up in the humdrum of everyday work and forgets to stop to educate oneself.