IN CONVERSATION WITH IRIA DEGEN
Tres Hermanas is Iria Degen’s dream home that can properly be described as her own work, since she defined everything in it. This ‘living experience’ – which of course includes beds by Elite – is a living show home, available for rentals.
An outstanding career After studying law, Iria Degen went on to become an indoor architect, creating atmospheres and furniture alike. Her unusual career has met with international success. Here’s a profile based on five questions.
Tell us about your roots and the bedroom you had as a child ! I come from a family of intellectuals where design was not the foremost concern. In my bedroom as a child in Zürich, I was always moving the furniture around, seeing what I could do with the space. Later, rather than going to fashion stores, I would visit antiques fairs. When I was a student my bedroom looked onto a cabinetmaker’s workshop, and one day I ordered a made-to-measure desk from him. That was how it all began, but it had obviously been in my blood all along. How did your career really start ? I married a photographer; we settled in Paris, where my qualifications in Swiss law were not much use. I began by designing the layout of his studio, and realised I enjoyed it. I suddenly found out who I was, and summoned up the courage to go into interior design. I wanted to experience the job first-hand before embarking on four years of study; a friend who
was a design architect advised me to aim for the top and get in touch with Andrée Putman. I called… and I got an appointment. When I arrived at the agency, before I’d even met anybody I knew that I’d found my world; it was my calling.e. So after Paris in 2000 you came to Zürich in 2003; why did you choose Switzerland ? After my time with Andrée Putman and my studies at the Camondo design school in Paris, we decided to start a family and return to Switzerland. It’s our country, after all! Thanks to my Parisian experience, I’d developed an open-minded approach that was a real asset in connecting with customers from all types of background: understanding the other person without judging them is vital to avoid any cultural misunderstandings. That’s been really helpful in my job. You have a boy and a girl; how do you balance family life with an international career ?
My son is 18; my daughter is 13. It’s never been a problem for me to reconcile work and family life. I followed my own mother’s example; as a doctor, she brought up four children as well as working in her surgery every day. It’s a question of organisation. What’s more, I’m lucky enough to live and work under the same roof. My wider family lives just down the road from us, too: we’re quite a tribe! Is there a particular project you’d love to work on ? I’d like to outfit a boat or a plane; the related constraints would be highly stimulating, as I found out by doing work for a caravan, where every centimetre and every gramme count. I’m interested in the world of travel, too; it’s fascinating. Alternatively, there are huge worksites like the Aarau canton hospital and the 145- room hotel in Luxembourg that we’re currently working on.
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