How did the three of you come up with the idea
of starting a home couture brand?
Growing up in an environment surrounded by art and design, designing
furniture came naturally to all three of us. Our education from Rhode Island
School of Design and our experience heading a 30+ year old architectural
practice all nurtured our creative instinct. As practicing architects, we were
always looking for pieces of furniture when designing interiors of homes,
but found a lack of furniture in the Pakistani market that appealed to our
sensibilities. In the beginning, the pieces we designed were tailored to our
project. As our pieces gained appreciation and the demand grew, our
innate passion for designing was further fuelled! That mixed with the fact
that we were very particular about what we wanted for our interiors, it
seemed like the most natural progression then to vertically integrate our
practice into a complete design house. Our objective was that a client can
come to us and get a complete solution; the architecture of their house, its
interior and furniture, down to the napkin ring. It works well because we
can absolutely exercise our aesthetic.
Style is a statement and contrary to popular belief it is not effortless-it comes
with tedious observation and meticulous attention to detail. That is something we have learnt by observing our fathers and we have incorporated
those habits in our practice. Also simple principles like quality over quantity
and absolutely no compromise on quality are all lessons we have learnt
and are ingrained in our design principles.
YOC’A is a very unique name, what does it mean
and why did you choose it as the name that
represents your brand?
YOC’A stands for Young Collective Artists. It extends beyond just Zayd, Ahsan and myself. YOC’A embodies the synergies between different artists,
artisans, designers and philosophers to create combinations of inspirational
creativity .The idea behind YOC’A stems from our educational background,
we are well versed in ideas resulting from creative interface between differing talents. You are usually left with something enriched and exciting. We
are so fortunate at YOC’A to be immersed in a think tank of people who
eat, breathe and live design; whose varying ideologies manifest in the wonderful diverse furniture, fabric and tidbits we produce. Our think tank is so
inspiring we like to think of it as our own little treasure box.
What are some of the challenges you face or have
faced in the past with different clients?
Initially we faced different challenges with some of our clients, gladly these
issues have faded away with time and experience. Now, our clients understand our design sensibilities and vice versa.
What is a normal day at YOC’A like for the three
of you?
With an early start in the day, our mornings are generally set aside for design reviews and other meetings. As YOC’A is mostly about designing furniture pieces, fabrics and interiors, it is important we take the time to review all
the designs thoroughly. Because we fluctuate between YOC’A and NBCL
(our architecture practice) our day depends really if it is a site visit day, a
client meeting, a design charette or a factory visit, sometimes all three can
happen in a single day! It helps that it’s all in a single building as we interact
many times over the course of the day, for creative dialogue or detailing a
project or just inspiration. Each of us manage our studios independently but
usually design together. So it’s a lot of shuffling between studios! Each day is
really quite exciting as one day we could be designing a detail of a chair or
choosing colour threads for a fabric and the other day a multistory building.
Hence each day we look forward to going into work.
Has your work been influenced by the legacy
left behind by the Najmi Bilgrami Collaborative
Ltd (NBCL)?
Najmi Bilgrami has a rich architectural history spanning thirty plus years.
We are very conscious about the weight that kind of portfolio holds. It is
something we treasure- as it not only defines our heritage but it clearly dictates our aesthetic language. In this merger we have a grave responsibility
to uphold those design paradigms set before us by our fathers and their
respective practices. We constantly strive to create innovative and inspiring
designs.
We belong to two very distinguished design houses and all our work, be
it designing architecture, interior or a piece of furniture is reflective of that.
How difficult is it for you to live up to NBCL’s
legacy because you have big shoes to fill in?
We must live up to their design values when taking on any project. Both
of our fathers have shown distinguished aesthetics that have been refined
over the years. They have always had good work ethics, and have been
very principled in their practice. We believe that these qualities have
passed down to all three of us. We take the core values of our fathers, and
apply them to today’s world. You can definitely see a relationship between
the two generations, however at the same time we are very different in
our designs.
How would you define the Pakistani taste in
home décor and architecture?
We are extremely excited to see that today’s clientele appreciates diversity
in aesthetics and more people are aware of the need for design guidance.
Pakistani people are definitely home proud and they are re-defining their
lifestyle constantly with the guidance of interiors. We have helped a lot of
clients redefine their spaces entirely, ranging from bridal suites to chic lofts
and large exotic homes. People approach designers with preconceived notions of design sometimes but it is the designer’s responsibility to guide them.
We bring our extensive research and adapt it to each client’s lifestyle! We
take care to educate our client to a YOC’A aesthetic, which is an understated elegance. It takes a lot of editing and manipulation to achieve that clean
crisp aesthetic with the right amount of glamour! At YOC’A we indulge in
this exercise every single day and it never gets less invigorating! Because
when Style is akin to your lifestyle … that is our mantra.
What are some of the most glaring mistakes that
you interior gurus have come across while
working in Pakistan?
One of the gravest mistakes that we have noticed that sometimes, interior
designers demolish structure without consulting an architect or structural
engineer. One should be extremely cautious when altering a structure,
especially in a place where original digs are scarce.
Other mistakes are easily redeemable – one being the misuse of colour and
maybe trying to have too much in a single space with disregard to tonality,
textures and the fact it is a home and not a studio. We believe colour has
to be respected and used intelligently without overkilling it. When someone
creates a Spanish villa with a Zen feature! That is another lifestyle faux
pas! These are two very different sensibilities, which should be developed
independently.
Who are the artists, internationally or
domestically that aspire your work?
Internationally our work is aspired by Philip Starck, Toshiko Mori, Tadao
Ando, Calatrava, while domestically we like like Zahoor UlIkhlaq, Shahid
Sajjad & Rashid Rana.
2013
PAPERAZZI MAGAZINE
45