The female powerhouse behind The Times photoshoot with female powerhouse ; Dara Huang , Mariya Dykalo , Lisa King , Jeannine Birch and Marie-Julie Gheysens.
“Mariya Dykalo (the creative director of Aspinal, the luxury accessory brand worn by Gigi Hadid and Jennifer Lopez) has designed “Blooming in the Darkness” silk scarves adorned with an abstract sunflower design (a symbol of Ukrainian national identity), which have been transformed into cushions on the bed in the principal suite. Proceeds from the sale of the scarf will be donated to The Olena Pinchuk Foundation, which fights HIV/Aids in Ukraine.”- said Dara Huang.
Friday July 19 2024, 12.01am, The Times
Dara Huang is an American architect and the head judge on Channel 4’s Big Interiors Battle
AZIZ KHAN
As part of Dara Huang suit, celebrating female empowerment, inequity and creativity, the esteemed art designer. Mariya Dykalo has transformed Aspinal of London silk scarf into the bespoke cushions featuring her artwork”Blooming in the darkness” , adding a touch of luxury and sophistication to the apartment’s interiors.
“Blooming in the darkness” artwork was created for Olena Pinchuk foundation, aims to support children born with HIV in Ukraine.
READ FULL INTERVIEW BELOW OR IN THE LINK
Dara Huang, the high priestess of penthouses — who is afraid of heights.
The architect and interior designer on her new London show home, walking naked around the home and collaborating with female artists.
Dara Huang has been busy. Between designing for A-listers (most recently her “perfect client” Margot Robbie, star of Barbie), the American architect has been filming for her television series (appearing as the head judge on Channel 4’s Big Interiors Battle). For good measure, she is also building her recently launched furniture business, Dara Maison, as well as navigating life as a single mother.
When we meet on the 17th floor of The Arc, the £1.8 million show home near Old Street in east London that she has kitted out, she at least doesn’t have her son in tow, having found eight-year-old Christopher (“Wolfie”) a playdate. Wolfie’s father (Huang’s ex-fiancé) is the property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who married Princess Beatrice in 2020. It’s hard to know how Huang fits it all in.
A Florida-born Harvard graduate and daughter of a Nasa rocket scientist, Huang set up her London and Hong Kong-based architecture and interiors firm Design Haus Liberty in 2013. Since then, she has earned the unofficial title of high priestess of penthouses, frequently designing and dressing top-end homes in some of the most exclusive developments across the globe, including a £30 million penthouse on the 41st floor of the Southbank Tower in London.
“We do a lot of penthouses, which is funny because I’m afraid of heights,” Huang says. “Why do I always get the penthouse? I think it’s because [developers] want the wow effect, the money shot.”
And she knows just what these potential buyers want; helping them to revel in being the highest person for miles around — which naturally, she says, means they’ll want to walk around with no clothes on.
Huang and Gheysens’ collaboration is a natural fit; the pair met at Mipim (a property networking conference) and hit it off. “It’s very synergistic,” Huang says. “I’m always in awe of her. [Gheysens] is such a little badass. She’s really cracking the whip across these huge construction teams.”
The two-bedroom apartment, almost 1,000 sq ft, is an ode to female collaboration, displaying the designs of three other female artists.
Mariya Dykalo (the creative director of Aspinal, the luxury accessory brand worn by Gigi Hadid and Jennifer Lopez) has designed “Blooming in the Darkness” silk scarves adorned with an abstract sunflower design (a symbol of Ukrainian national identity), which have been transformed into cushions on the bed in the principal suite. Proceeds from the sale of the scarf will be donated to The Olena Pinchuk Foundation, which fights HIV/Aids in Ukraine. Textured rugs from Jeannine Birch’s brand, Coral & Hive, are handwoven by a creative collective of South African women while the east London textile designer Lisa King (who worked with Kylie Minogue’s creative director) has created the floral cushions scattered on the sinuous bouclé-covered sofa in the open-plan lounge/dining rooms/kitchen.
King grew up in Thailand and started her brand 12 years ago with a line of scarfs. She met Huang on a dancefloor during Milan Design Week. “I used to live on Columbia Road [in east London],” King says. “I’d lost my mother, and as part of dealing with the grief, I used to photograph flowers every Sunday [at the weekly flower market]. I created a process where I would shoot the flowers on a flat surface from above, then print them onto the silks.”
“I thought this was a great way to celebrate all of us coming together, with Marie-Julie leading the way,” Huang says. Gheysens adds: “Dara has a fantastic vision but is also very inclusive. We are all female, like-minded persons who really want to champion each other.”
As women in property — a traditionally male-heavy environment — the pair have not let misogyny get the better of them. Huang says: “I started my company when I was Marie-Julie’s age. Back then, you would sit at a 20-person all-male board table. All bald men with bellies — serious property people — and I always thought, how cool is this? I’m a young woman at the head of the table. I always took it to my advantage; you have their attention. A lot of women struggle with taking the bull by the horns. You have to be thrown into a pool; when someone gives you that responsibility then you feel like, OK, I have a platform, a voice.”
Designed by the architects behind the Saatchi Gallery — Allford Hall Monaghan Harris — The Arc plucks cool cues from New York City’s Meatpacking District (where Gheysens used to live). Second World War-era hospital pillars have been incorporated into the design and it has a futuristic lobby with curved walls and an industrial feel, thanks to red bricks cladding its art moderne façade.
Gheysens notes that it has been one of London’s fastest-selling developments. Prices began at £728,000 for a studio flat, sold off-plan. Three quarters of the units have sold and she estimates that the rest will be snapped up by the end of August. “In the UK there’s the prime market, super-prime market and new-build homes. When I arrived in the UK, I struggled a little bit with this; that there needed to be different looks for different types of prices or customers. It’s almost like, if it’s below one million, let’s do a less design-aesthetic look because it needs to be more for bulk. I thought, let’s inject this mixed-use hospitality look.”
The development has the usual luxury facilities — including a gym, yoga studio, golf simulator and 13-seat private cinema room — but its big selling point is that these are eco-homes, not the usual resource-guzzling properties typically seen in high-rises.
“Each apartment has its own air source heat pump system [a big upfront cost for a development] and underfloor cooling and heating,” Huang says. “For us, it’s really important to create the best products out there. In this building, the air is cleaner when you close the windows; it has carbon filters in the ceiling. For me, the UK is quite behind in regards to its sustainability. In fact, I don’t like the word. We need something more technical for it. Sustainability sounds like fluff to me.”
Huang lives in a six-storey building in west London, which is also a show home for her businesses. “I love my place. It is where I live with my son. We do joint venture events with different brands — a commercial space without being commercial. I thought, well, wouldn’t it be cool if people could come into my home and experience the design rather than just see pictures of it. We partner with young designers and artists like Kristen Giorgi, a single mum from Atlanta, Georgia. I did a show for her here [at home]. I’ve been following her for years — we were buying her art for our clients.
“My son designed his own room; it’s all Minecraftthemed. He’s a great designer. I’m like, don’t go into property, because both his dad and I are in property.”
She keeps mementos from previous projects as art. “I find inspiration in my clients. Throughout my career, I always worked with really great visionaries. I always kept a sketch that they did; I frame them and stick them around the house. My first was probably Herzog de Meuron, the Pritzker prizewinning architects. They did the Tate and the Beijing Olympics. Then I did Manolo Blahnik’s stores worldwide. I sat with Manolo and he would sketch. And Miuccia Prada.
“Artwork that you frame is your story. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be a receipt, or your first sale. My client framed his report card because he flunked every subject, but he’s a billionaire. The point was that you don’t need to excel in school to be successful.”
Besides working with developers like Ghelamco, “we are doing a lot of homes and hotels all around the world”, Huang says. “We have Monogram boutique hotel coming up in Paris, which used to be an old Louis Vuitton trunk store, and another hotel in Indonesia off the coast of Bali, called Nihi. It’s always a ride. Never a boring day at work, right?”
Huang turns to Gheysens. “We’re very ambitious people,” she says. “We’re not OK with the status quo. We want to disrupt — we’re not complacent women.”
