Moderated by Jess Miles, Editor of SPACE, the panel featured Alan McVitty, Studio Practice Leader at ROAM Interior Design; Una Barac, Founder of Atellior; Joanna Knight, Managing Director of JK Interiors; and Sarah Roche, Specification Sales Consultant at Majestic London. Their conversation ranged from the practicalities of prototyping and procurement to the philosophy of storytelling through design — along with the occasional truck of mattresses chasing a ship down the coast of Sicily!
The decision to go bespoke is rarely a purely aesthetic one. For Joanna Knight, whose studio works extensively on luxury trains and barges, it’s often simply unavoidable. “One hundred percent of the items we design, specify, and procure are bespoke,” she explained, “literally because they have special constraints — whether it’s space, whether it’s weight – if you’re producing an interior on a moving product, you’ve got to think about shaking, you’ve got to think about things cracking.” She recalled a tiled coffee table that looked beautiful on a barge until the vibration of the boat sent tiles skidding across the floor within a week.
For Alan McVitty, the motivation is often narrative. Much of ROAM’s work is “story-driven,” he said, meaning the selection of suppliers and materials is shaped by the creative vision from the outset. Una Barac added another dimension: authenticity and ESG responsibility. “We try and engage locally, or regionally, as much as we can,” she said, “because it really layers the story and roots it into its locality.” In practical terms, this also means easier replacements and repairs — shipping a damaged bespoke item halfway around the world is a very different problem to calling a local craftsperson.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Hotel Designs.
