Scope of Work
FF&E Procurement
Desk systems, reception counter, lounge seating, meeting table, pendant lighting, shelving units and storage. A single consolidated specification across residential and contract manufacturers.
Bespoke Elements
The reception counter — marble top, natural-timber base, brass detail — was produced by a local craftsman to a custom specification. The accent-wall plasterwork was executed by a specialist decorator, with the pigment mix developed across three rounds of samples.
Materials & Finishes
The green decorative plaster for the accent wall required sourcing a specialist applicator and developing a custom pigment mix. Brass fixtures and fittings were specified across multiple suppliers to hold a consistent tone throughout.
Coordination
Full coordination with the fit-out contractor, electrician and decorator to sequence wall plaster, built-in shelving and furniture within one uninterrupted site programme.
The Approach
The skylights changed everything. Natural light from above — the kind that falls vertically and shifts through the day — gave the space a quality most offices never achieve. The design decision was to protect it: keep surfaces pale, keep furniture low, keep the perimeter wall clear.
The accent wall was the exception — and it became the project’s defining element. Running the full length of the studio, finished in a deep-toned plaster that reads like compressed moss, it anchors the space without darkening it. Against it, the natural-timber shelving and marble reception counter read as warmth rather than weight. Brass details were introduced sparingly, as punctuation rather than pattern.
The storage strategy was resolved through floor-to-ceiling shelving along the main wall: open enough to display the studio’s reference material, structured enough to contain it. No additional decoration was needed — the objects themselves become the interior.
The meeting zone at the rear was treated as a separate register: a large oval table, generous upholstered chairs, a single statement pendant. A space that signals attention.
Challenges
The green wall
Decoratively plastered walls are common. A specific shade of green — one that reads like natural stone and shifts between grey and deep olive depending on the light — is not. Three sample rounds, two pigment suppliers, one specialist applicator. The result is unrepeatable, which is exactly the point.
The sequencing
The accent-wall plaster had to be applied before the shelving was installed; the shelving before the furniture was delivered; the furniture before the client’s opening. This kind of dependency chain requires the entire programme mapped from the end date backwards — which we do as a matter of course, but which too many procurement processes ignore until it becomes a problem.
The skylights and the leather
Direct overhead sun on a leather sofa in a top-floor Zurich studio is a problem waiting to happen. The lounge zone was positioned to sit outside the skylight’s fall zone — a detail that required the furniture layout to be confirmed before the fit-out began, not after.
A studio that works like a studio and feels like nowhere else. The green wall became the thing every client mentions first. The shelving does what shelving should: it disappears into the space while holding everything together.
In Numbers
Client Note
The brief was difficult — a lot of storage, strong atmosphere, nothing excessive. They understood immediately what that meant and didn’t need us to explain it twice. The wall alone was worth the project.
Design Studio Director, Zurich