Q+A #010: Hollie Bowden [Interior Designer + Creative Director]

🇲🇽 Honest Materials in Mexico City 🦫 Timothy Humbert Ceramic Wombat ◼️ ◾️ Graciously Proportioned rooms 🍄 Terunobu Fujimori Treehouses 🧿 Jacques Grange Eclecticism 🔍 Not ‘capital D Designed'

‘Storied Spaces’ is the RIALTO newsletter featuring ‘Q+A’, a bi-weekly column that features guest curators from the community, whom we invite to share inspiration from their home library. In each edit, you will hear from creatives we admire about the analogue inspirations that inform their work and vision.

Hollie Bowden is a London-based interior designer and the Creative Director of her studio. The studio has established itself over the past decade, working on luxury residential and commercial projects that combine a love of natural materials with eccentric and rarely seen pieces, within a rigorously detailed interior architectural frame.

Instagram: @holliebowden
Website: hollie-bowden.com
Email: info@holliebowden.com

Q+A

[001] What is your favourite interior you’ve come across and why?
This is such a hard question because each great interior is about a specific place, and I’m constantly amazed by new places I go, so it’s sort of always changing. One I would pick though, that has been a constant for me since I first saw it, and is in my favourite place, Mexico City, is the home of the writer, curator and truly one of the most knowledgeable people on design I know, Su Wu, and her husband, the incredible American artist Alma Allen.

Their collection of objects and artworks feels like it has been amassed over a lifetime, from friends and Su and Alma’s own pieces. It is incredibly warm, and I love that the colour comes from the objects, but the house is more neutral, with the interest coming from beautiful natural materials. What I find refreshing about the house is that the materials are honest and not necessarily expensive, but that a large gold sculpture of Alma’s, placed beautifully, lends the space an incredible richness.

It’s the effortlessness of the whole thing and how it doesn’t feel ‘capital D Designed’ - everything is so personal and carefully considered. Effortless isn’t the right word, actually; it’s more about the ease of the space, of life, like art should just naturally be a part of it. Su is one of those people with natural elegance and authority; it suffuses every level of her life, what she wears, and how she thinks. You can’t just imitate it. I think it’s the only house in the world I could move straight into without a single object of my own.

[002] What is your favourite piece in your collection?
I have so many pieces that I’ve collected over the years, and if something is really right for a project I’ll occasionally place it with a client. There was a piece I bought for a recent project which I was struggling to let go of, but in the end the client changed their mind so I was over the moon I got to keep it. It’s an animal sculpture that looks a bit like a wombat, but I’m not sure what it is. The sculpture is a ceramic by artist Timothy Humbert.

[003] Describe your dream interior or set if you had no budget restraints.
I think a Renaissance palazzo in Tuscany would be my dream. There is something incredible about Florence and the countryside surrounding it - it’s really elegant and so chilled out. These buildings are full of history, but materially they’re so interesting, with a great mix of ancient terracotta tile floors, heavy, figural, stone fire surrounds, intricate woodwork, and graciously proportioned rooms. I love houses that were designed to be social, like these were - it gets my imagination firing when I think of how you’d have a party in that kind of house. The houses tend to be an earthy yellow, pink or red on the exterior, which sits in the landscape so beautifully.

My dream for furnishing it would be to contrast the historic building envelope with a mix of antiques, 20th-century pieces, and some wild contemporary collectable design. An incredibly well curated mix of art would be essential too - maybe a big Rothko if I can be really greedy.


[004] Who other than yourself would you trust to decorate your home?
This is another very hard question because I love a lot of designers, but I think I would find it difficult to commit to living in a house with any one of them.

There are so many influences around, but it’s hard to find anyone who sums it all up. The one designer who does hit all things I love is Jacques Grange, because he doesn’t have a particularly rigid style, and he seems to be able to work in almost any architectural style. His work embodies something really important for me about interior design which is an eclecticism that spans many different periods, styles, new/old, high/low, but is ultimately about the deep knowledge and love he has for design.

I admire that there’s a thread that runs through all his projects but whether the project is more contemporary or classical, it never feels bland. I totally rate how he puts pieces together

[005] What has piqued your interest lately?
I came across a very unique Japanese architect, Terunobu Fujimori, who specialises in a vernacular, folk style that is very playful, like when you had a treehouse when you were younger.

What makes them really special is how amazingly well-crafted they are. The style is reminiscent of DIY, but in a way that’s resolved. I can imagine plonking all my bits into one of his incredible spaces and living very happily.

One thing I really like about Japanese architecture is how connected to nature it is, both materially and in terms of siting, views, and the way the border between the built environment and natural world is part of the conversation.

I. ‘Christo’ 1991, Rizzoli

Christo’s work is something that really inspires me. His work is a great reminder to never forget the poetic nature of space. We tend to see rooms, buildings, the outdoors with habitual eyes, and I love that his interventions make you see something that was always there totally anew.

II. ‘Stay Wild: Cabins, Rural Getaways, and Sublime Solitude’

I got this book during the lockdown when I was doing up a little summerhouse at my parents’ place in Gloucestershire. I love this kind of DIY aesthetic that throws off the shackles of being big and impressive and conventional.

These buildings all respond to their sense of place using clever craft and materials in the most intriguing way, especially materials that have been lying around for ages, which is incredibly ecological. There’s something about this kind of building that feels way more immediate and alive, which is so refreshing to me, because so many building projects can take bloody years to deliver results!

III. ‘Samras Album’, Lucas Samras/Whitney Museum, 1971

What I love about Samaras Album is its graphic intensity. The dot-laden cover, the warped self-portraits, the obsessive visual language — it all has this raw, physical power that sits somewhere between design and performance art. It’s provocative without being crude, graphic without losing elegance. It’s a reminder that books can be objects of pure visual impact.

IG Accounts to follow?

– @semble_studio
– @yaz_____xl
– @okolo_architecture
– @ton.magazine
– @beau_traps