d e z i g n by Andrea Di Orio

I was born and raised in London, where, in 1996, I earned my Bachelors degree in Interior Design from Middlesex University. During the early stages of my career, I was fortunate to have worked for several dynamic, influential, and progressive European interior design & architectural firms. Within the borders of the amazing city of London, architecture and history surround you. Design is everywhere. From the beautiful china tea-cup that you sip from, to the fascinating buildings that you pass each day, it cannot be escaped. As a student of art, you realize that it envelops you and is a part of who you become.

I believe as a designer, one is greatly influenced by the environment that they are immersed in. As designers, with the right tools and inspiration we feed off of our creativity and surroundings. Then, by the application of our training and education in the principles of Interior Design, we can create the most beautiful environments: calming or exciting, clean and soft, or extravagant and pulsing. The amount of inspiration that surrounds us each and every day is literally immeasurable, and therefore, by definition, there are no limits to what we can create for our clients.

Having later chosen to reside in Cyprus in 1996, a Greek Island in the Eastern Mediterranean, there could not have been a sharper contrast to the sprawling city of London, along with its personality & influences. The old village stone houses, the cobbled stone walkways, the ancient ruins of the Kourion Amphitheater fused transparently together with Cyprus?s natural beauty.

With this aesthetic stimulation, one cannot help but be enticed, and wander into a very different world of architecture and design: One of preserving the old, but finding a way to also incorporate the new. These two distinctly different worlds definitely inspired me in a very dramatic way, and ultimately shaped me into the designer that I am today: I am not a pure modernist, although my designs do favor clean white lines and the simplicity of form and function.

I love to juxtapose materials, man-made with natural, stainless steel with wood, inside spaces with the outside and incorporating the old with the new. But that is who I am.

We are all so different, which brings me to a vital point about our profession as designers: We should never impose our styles and preferences on to our clients. Instead we should see them for who they are individually, and help them find the path to express their individuality and personal style, first and foremost, through the art of listening.

“The dialogue between client and architect is about as intimate as any conversation you can have, because when you are talking about building a house, you are talking about dreams.” Robert A M Stern