Interview with Argyro Vlachou from the United Kingdom

I lived and grew in a nurtured environment where my parents were both creative and open to my desires. There was always a messy big table to draw, make crafts and explore our own creativity. I had a really strong sense of home in those early years, a soulful environment that gave me confidence, calmness, openness and freedom.

Bringing this sense to my projects was the main reason I became a designer. I also wanted to bring people together, to design places where they feel they belong.

I am the founder of Studio Cord, where is based in Surrey, UK.

Empathy through design is our mission. We see places as active sources of emotion and sensation. We explore memory, atmosphere, topos, light, materials, forms, sounds as key elements of the environment we create.

The way we treat our place, the way it feels is a reflection of who we are. Our space is a vessel of life. We focus on Residential and Commercial projects but we also organise Workshops and Retreats about the meaning of “home” and how it affects our life and wellbeing.

For us, design is a process where it is really important to bring people together, to create places from our heart. We believe that through the contents and the details of people’s lives, the most memorable spaces emerge.

The one that uplifts your energy, enhances beauty, embraces imperfections and stimulates all your senses. The places you feel you belong.

Good design is design with empathy. We need to find the "Why" behind our choices that is rooted to our values, our beliefs and desires. Then we create design with a purpose, we create a unique story.

“Without foreknowledge of her doom, she must have said to herself, Just one seed, and then tasted it, and then another, until she had consumed all seven, the juice staining her lips crimson.”

Jill Bialosky-

We started creating the Fyome story having that poem in mind. A strong sense of taste, something that will create a sweet memory. We aimed to create a curated collection of unique products. Gourmet nuts, dry fruits, chocolates, pastries and desserts.

People can walk around, smell, touch and choose whatever they desire. They will enter a place where timeless design is combined with timeless quality and craftsmanship.

The arch in the middle of the two parts of the shop where we connected the retail with the seating area. The curves brought gentleness and comfort, inviting you to seat, relax and enjoy your treats.

Yes, of course. Greece has such a rich cultural history that definitely impacted my design process. Great architects and philosophers embraced simplicity, harmony, human nature, hospitality and togetherness. Light and shadow, topos, raw materials are some of the subjects we study for each project.

It is an honour to win this award. But it is also a reminder that working hard, having a clear vision and mission in everything you do pays off. This is an award for my clients and my team who worked enormously hard to achieve this result. Their dedication to excellence brought us so far.

This is also a message for the design industry that I serve now for more than 20 years. My mission is to create human-centered emotional places, not just spaces. My aim is to connect people to a space, make them feel good and carry that feeling with them and most importantly in them.

A great concept with a strong character and clear vision. It combines 5 different elements, chocolates, nuts, pastries, sweets and wines. People can walk around, smell, touch and choose whatever they desire. The seating area is where they can enjoy their treats as they watch people move, taste, smell and offer the delicacies to all customers. All the products are presented like being in a gallery, where everything is unique, with rich value and attention to excellence.

The planning permission took more time than we thought so we needed to open the shop with the current shopfront. When we got the permission we closed the shop for a few days to complete the work and installation.

This award will give me more courage, resilience and passion to follow my design career and influence more people to follow a more humanistic approach in the design industry.

1) Through design I connected more with myself, my true needs, values and desires. Exploring those elements with my clients, finding what makes them truly happy and content is my goal.

2) Each project is a unique story. There is never a same concept or idea. This is what makes design beautiful to me.

3) Through design and the way we live, we improve our wellbeing.

Design needs to be close to human nature. Needs to focus on our wellbeing and how we can create environments that enhance and express humanity.

Find your purpose. Find your "why". I found mine when I moved from Greece to UK where I lost my sense of home. I had to go back to my childhood and find what were the places, the people, the tastes, the sounds, the smells that gave me that sense of home.

Finding my own way was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I found so much meaning through my choices, I found me and a new genuine way of living. If you want to create genuine design, you need to find a purpose, a reason that drives you to create meaningful environments.

Travel, read books from philosophy to design, architecture and poetry, visit art galleries, sketch, walk to nature, draw and paint.

I will write a book about "the art of making a home".

Many people inspired me through my life journey. Firstly my parents, my husband and my two kids. But also may friends and people that live their life with courage, generosity, authenticity, resilience, passion, love, kindness and true purpose.

"None belongs here more than you."

-B. Brown-