Colour, character and craftsmanship – that’s sort of my slogan,” says Gert Voorjans over our first cup of coffee.
The Antwerp-based designer was in town for a meeting regarding one of the city’s most loved rooftop bars – some renovation work, he says – following a trip to Bangkok, where he’s currently working on a residential project with developer Sansiri. It’s early in the morning at the Mandarin Oriental’s Clipper Lounge, and the caffeine didn’t seem requisite for his energy – Voorjans the designer, I was quickly learning, is as fervent and animated as his work.
Bold, colourful, and fearless in their mingling of patterns, textures and palettes, Voorjans‘s interiors are masterpieces of detail and drama. His most public work can be found in Dries van Noten stores worldwide – Voorjans has worked with the fellow Belgian designer for more than 20 years now, following nearly a decade under the wing of legendary interior designer Alex Vervoordt – while his book, Daily Life (2016) offers a glimpse into the homes he has designed for clients.
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Having helmed a life seeped in interiors and art – he grew up with parents who sold furniture and art works, went on to study interior design in Belgium, then continued to study art history, first in Italy, and then in London – Voorjans reflects on design, going for a third coffee as I keep up, still sipping from my first. Read on for more from the prolific designer’s mind.
I’ve always liked the artisans – I am very much attracted to all elements and traditions, and how people lived, but I don’t want to be in nostalgia, I don’t want to be in the past. I think you have to read about it and be knowledgeable about it, but I think it’s very important that we live in today.
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When a house is finally finished, the best compliment I get, and that I get often, is Oh, you didn’t do a lot here!” – like we found it like that. It’s a compliment because it feels very natural. You think the kitchen was just repainted, but everything has been redone.
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On committing to interiors
I always work with make-to-measure. When I see my client, I listen very well, but I also ask them to answer my questions very well – because I’m not going to live there, you are going to live there! So you better reply, because you have to be really sure of it.
It’s different from a dress, which you can hang on a hook. Not so much your interiors, which is more of a commitment for a longer time. What I propose is to try to do something personal for yourself that at least makes you feel like you’re not in a showroom or a five-star hotel.
Synthetics have become extremely sophisticated, because there will not be enough cotton, wool and marble for the world – those will only be for the top, because our resources have become limited. We have to be creative in recycling, because there will be an overkill of plastic. I think that’s the biggest challenge for new designers.
I don’t think we realise today how it will be with 3D printing and what we can do in 20 years, not to mention 50 years. We live in a life-changing era. We took all the time warming up the earth, and these are the results we have to work with.
But I’m very optimistic. I’m not afraid of the future because I think modernity is necessary.
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My home is also my office. I’ve never had a client come there before because they see this madness – but I don’t want to make a showroom with solutions A, B or C. Maybe it’s because I’m much more of a virtuoso in what I do – like a musician, I can look at the notes and see the symphony already.
But for the person that’s not involved, they’ll think this is craziness – they’ll want to go home because it makes them mad. I can see the structure in it, because it’s not my job, it’s my life, it’s day and night, so I am in it continuously. I love the chaos, I love the chairs not going with the tables. So it goes with all projects and in different ways – I can see sense in all those. Of course, after a while you need to draw the line and make it work.
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I’m against all kinds of perfection, of look how well we do it.” I really want to shock a bit. I’m not too keen on just decorating a wall, for me it’s a bit boring.
I see beauty in a kind of folly, in a twist that you do a little bit. It’s like music – I need the soul, I need the personality. It reflects life. Put five flowers next to one another and they’re all a little bit different. We are all human, and we are all different, and that’s what makes things so beautiful and personal and individual.
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