How would you describe your design philosophy or style in a few sentences?  PILAR PROFFITT: My main goal is to strike a chord of both the familiar and the new. A sense of comfort, but a fresh new experience. I don’t want to be bound by convention, sameness, or social media trends. I feel my real strength is to create, to find the new, to be awkward and wrong, so I can find newness and right. I recently said to someone, “We design minimalist buildings with warm, eclectic interiors,” and I think that is pretty much stylistically true.

What inspires your work (art, history, travel, materials, etc.)?  PP: All the above. But I also feel motivated by logic, numbers, regularity, color, instinct, quiet, letters, words, paint, and my mind’s eye. I also feel like I’m a child of many cultures, having grown up in both Puerto Rico and New York. I can be flexible, which is a big plus when designing, as I can relate to a variety of desires, situations, and locations.

How do you collaborate with clients?  PP: When clients approach us, they might have a piece of land, a building, or a hotel project in mind that they’d like us to work on. Initially, I conduct a survey to help identify their specific needs. This phase often involves a lot of back-and-forth communication, but we eventually arrive at a common ground through sketching, mock-ups, and creating models. I find that I need to establish a guiding concept that serves as a compass, helping me steer the project towards a desired outcome.

Do you have a signature style or hallmark elements that often appear in your work?  PP: I see my work as playful and experimental. I truly enjoy designing homes because they give the owners a sense of newness and excitement; hotels, because they provide a great chance to explore creatively. In each project, I aim to test various colors, materials, shapes, and emotions. I enjoy integrating local elements, climate, and atmosphere into my designs. I like the boundaries of materials, the environmental opportunities, and the hope to make this world a better place. Nonetheless, my architecture background keeps me disciplined, ensuring that my work remains grounded and based on thoughtful, informed choices. As far as elements that always appear: rich color, real materials used in new ways.   

Share a bit more about your background in furniture design. How has it influenced your interior design/architecture practice?  PP: Our first project was to design a store in Brooklyn, where we designed everything from displays to light fixtures. During our internship years, when we didn’t have our own projects, we designed furniture and took it to a store called Troy. I called them little architectures. It started with a chunk table that Rob and I had designed together. A wrap desk, a vine table, a catapult table, and a host of other pieces that eventually landed at the Ralph Pucci showroom.  Fast-forward: we find that designing all the pieces and parts supports the whole. Rob likes to call it our “kunstwerk,” that is, to conceive the whole as a total artwork.  Similar to a painting composed of strokes, interior design is composed of furnishings and art, fully created for the greater project.