HOW TO DESCRIBE ROBERTA, AKA MAKEYOURHOME?
Roberta Borrelli is a volcano: sunny and calm, but with a universe of creativity, knowledge and expertise ready to explode that is immediately apparent from the very first words exchanged with us.
A degree in architecture, European experiences in which she got to know diversity and new cultures which she treasured. Hence the intuition to combine storytelling and architecture as no one had ever done before: in 2012 “Makeyourhome” was born, a platform where Roberta tells about herself and her projects, from the first steps to the finished work. An intimate and original account of a great passion, ranging from the description of the materials to the comfortable mood of houses she has created with love. And we can see the “poetics of living”, as she defines it, in the interview she gave us, immediately after choosing her Freya, with its soft, delicate tones, elegant only as the new owner knows how to be.
WHERE WILL YOU USE THE NEW FREYA?
I will use it next to my desk. In my studio there is a large work table, the kind an architect uses with trestles that lift up, so it would not be suitable for this solution. I also have a small desk where I like to take refuge: it’s the corner where I do my writing projects, so Freya is definitely more suitable for that context. So it will be in the studio, not at home.
What do you think is the essential characteristic that leads you to choose a chair when designing a space?
I don’t really think there is an indispensable feature, because every home has its own world of needs and style. There are innumerable chairs, and in innumerable ways they match the needs of each client. Probably, as I was saying before, the characteristic of having a smonococque chair is requested by many people who ask me for design advice, so it is a possibility that can be recreated in many domestic scenarios.
What do you think is the most visible trend change when designing a place, an environment, public or private?
Nowadays there are so many changes… I have just finished a workshop called ‘The houses we will be’.
However, I don’t believe so much in the change of the house: the collective imagination thinks that the houses of tomorrow will be larger in size, while I suppose that the houses of today will be exactly like those of tomorrow.
Rather, I think we will start designing multifunctional environments, because the big change we have had in recent years (from the 1970s to today, not recently) is that the spaces have shrunk, but the functions we perform inside the home have actually increased.
It is therefore essential to recreate furnishings that allow us to perform these new functions, which previously did not exist, in a smaller space.
Once upon a time we would never have found a desk in a bedroom, whereas today many people have a study in their room. I’ve seen a lot of projects here at Fuorisalone, for example the pedestal to hold your mobile phone, useful for looking at recipes while cooking, for example. So we are starting to design elements for functions that we once didn’t even imagine.
I think we will always have a house with a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom, I hope and believe that this will never change, but rather I think the elements within a house that help us relate to the functions we perform in the house will change.
Describe Supersalone 2021 in one word (architecture or design related, if you wish)?
I know that there are some schools of thought in design that want to take us in a direction, which is that of product durability, which I don’t believe in very much; however, I see that design is actually exploring this possibility.
I don’t believe it, because I was born with the generation of change, and if they want to convince us that design is sustainable only with the durability of the object they have to give us, the nomadic generation, time to change our habits; only in this way will we begin to understand the usefulness of an object that resists the passing of the years.
Durability and sustainability are the two terms on which design is pushing, or rather, sustainability in terms of durability, but I have little faith in these terms.
Instead, I think we need to find a balance; I like to think that the house has a percentage of elements that play 50% on cost, 30% on Italian design and a 20% recovery from the world of vintage (recovering a product from the past is just as sustainable!).
I much prefer to buy lots of small products, such as a teapot handmade especially for me by an artisan; a product that has fostered sustainable Italian craftsmanship, not mass-produced, and mine alone. Another example could be a blanket made by a woolen mill in Calabria, but also useful objects that I put in my bag, so unique. Let’s say that the handmade piece is the one that excites me the most, maybe I evaluate it in terms of design in a smaller dimension.
To follow all of Roberta’s projects (or to ask her for advice on your interior design project!), discover her innate delicacy and passion through images and words that represent her, you can find her here:
Blog: www.makeyourhomestudio.com/
Instagram: @make_your_home
Pinterest: www.pinterest.it/robertaborrelli/_created/
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