New Studio & New Direction for Sydney Interior Designer Yasmine Ghoniem.

After seven illustrious years, Amber Road – co-founded in 2013 by Yasmine Ghoniem and landscape architect Katy Svalbe as a multi-disciplinary studio offering interior design and urban landscaping services – will officially dissolve in February 2020. Launching simultaneously under new company titles, Yasmine’s solo practice, YSG studio (the initials of her name, Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem), will focus upon interior design initiatives, while Katy’s Svalbe & co. will straddle both public and private landscape design.

Having resided on the upper floor of a multi-level studio on Liverpool Street in Darlinghurst for the past three years, Yasmine swooped at the chance to re-locate into a nearby space once housed by a boutique hair salon. With changes in place for the company, she needed more room to accommodate a growing team, including a newly appointed Associate and Senior Interior Designer, Jaime Bligh.

Grafting Yasmine’s design trademarks, YSG studio interior mixes high and low octane colours, discordant textures and patterns into visually enticing arrangements to seize every possible millimetre afforded by its existing footprint.

The studio’s façade comprises a curved sweep of glass which was retained, allowing inquisitive passers-by to engage with staff and vice versa. For this reason, the circular meeting/communal work and entertaining table floats centre stage directly within the entrance threshold to capitalise on social interaction and natural sunlight.

All internal walls and the bulkheads were removed to expose the original concrete ceiling which was coated in a soothing pistachio green, in turn maximising the two ceiling heights. The core body of the 90sqm rectangular footprint is a bunker set down several newly clad terrazzo stairs from the entry. This ‘underground’ element was accentuated by creating a tactile environment of moody hues. One wall is clad entirely with a 14 metre run of pitted coffee bean brown Portuguese cork to provide an extensive canvas for studio presentation preparation documents and, more importantly, visual inspiration.

The team worked closely with key suppliers and their artisan fabricators to furnish the studio and customise the spatial cribbing elements, acknowledging the practice’s master alchemy of small spaces.

[Images courtesy of YSG Studio. Photography by Prue Ruscoe.]