EXPRESSING FANTASIES, FULL-ON
Paris, April 2024
HARRY NURIEV’s penchant for imagining spaces started at a very young age, with the Russian creative coming up with the idea for one of his projects – the baby blue apartment – at just 10 years old. The child-like sense of curiosity has been a vital part of his architecture and design practice, Crosby Studios, established back in 2014. Through his immersive interiors and radical designs, Nuriev works on repurposing objects and materials that surround him, and adapting them to a new sensory reality – from sofas created out of clothing deadstock or trash bags to rooms filled with furniture upholstered in denim. We caught up with Nuriev to talk about his “Transformist” approach, living in his laboratory of ideas, and spaces that greatly impacted him growing up.
Hi Harry! I read that when you first started Crosby Studios in 2014, you would work and live in the same space, and treat it as a form of a laboratory of ideas. Is that still the case?
Yes, I still live and work in the same place. I like to experiment with ideas and test them in a real environment.
You used to say that operating in this way felt like living in an art installation. Do you feel like that today?
Yeah. I dedicate my life to art and everything that I do is art. So essentially, my space is art too. And, you know, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, I experience it in a very truthful way.
You define yourself as a “Transformist”. What stands at the basis of the transformations you create with your spaces and designs?
Transformism is something that I have been working on for the last 10 years, but I only found the word to describe it last year. In my practice, I’m trying to work with repurposing things that surround me every day. It’s a mission of looking at the inventory of things that are already done in many different mediums and then finding a way to adapt or twist them to a new sensory reality we’re living in right now, without losing their function. It’s something I’m still defining. It’s an ever-evolving concept.
You imagined one of your concepts – the baby blue apartment – at the very young age of 10. When did you first start to consider that the job you have now was a possibility for you?
That’s an interesting question. I would always pay attention to my professional orientation – I had this tendency in life to feel like I was in the wrong field. That’s why I started to try different things, from graphic design to landscape and art installations. But it’s true that in the very beginning, my curiosity and my spontaneous ideas were always about the space that I lived in.
I studied architecture and went to art school, so I had plenty of different opportunities and I was lucky to work with incredible people. But I just figured out that the only things that I could do well were objects and spaces. And I knew that I didn’t want to join any camps. I was very determined by the idea that I needed to find my own language and build my own alphabet of design.
What were the first spaces or sources of inspiration that made a huge impact on you growing up?
I was born and raised in an environment with no internet, so magazines were my only windows into the design world – and what I could find was pretty limited and not very conceptual. So I had to use my imagination a lot. Nothing really excited me, so I had to build my own world which, looking back, I’m super happy about. I don’t know how people can really use their imagination nowadays when they have access to every single thing.
When it comes to physical spaces, Le Corbusier’s buildings were very impressive to me – they blew my mind. I was always into vintage architecture – I have this feeling of nostalgia for periods before I was born, like the 1940s and 1950s. Also, cities really have an impact on me – for example, New York had a big influence. Cities are very interesting organisms; it’s not just the buildings, it’s the whole system. Paris has polished my referencing and knowledge when it comes to history and the way that people used to live and get together around the squares and streets. Urban design has always been big for me. At one point, I was thinking of becoming an urban designer, but then I figured out that nobody really builds cities nowadays. And it felt pointless to me to just do “paper architecture”. So I decided to do something crafty and work on projects where I can really see the result in my lifetime. I don’t have the patience to wait for decades.
You prefer to work on projects that are more likely to happen.
Yeah, because even in architecture, you need to have patience to wait for 10 years for the building to be finished. And in 10 years, we don’t even know what our surroundings will be like. 15 years ago, we just got an iPhone and that has completely changed our way of living and spending free time. So I didn’t think that architecture was something that could truly entertain me, and interior design was.
Actually, it was quite controversial for me to go into interior design after architecture school because, within the community, it’s believed that a “true” architect never does the interiors. So it was seen more as a failure than a statement. But for me, it was an intentional choice. You can spend an entire day in the city but eventually, you will judge the city and its buildings by their interiors: corridors, elevators, cafes, restaurants, toilets. And you won’t really care about their facades. This realisation was something that broke my heart a little – I thought that everyone really cared about it – but once I realised that’s not the case, I decided to do what I do now.
Your practice is often rooted within the fashion realm. What draws you towards working with that industry?
I have always admired the speed of fashion – it’s as if we’re riding bicycles and they’re driving fast cars. I never really had the desire to be a fashion designer or work in fashion. But I think that because I have been so into this world as a customer, as a guy who likes fashion a lot, that led me to work with the industry – right now, most of my clients are fashion people.
This year marks a decade since you first launched Crosby Studios. Where do you see it evolve in the next 10 years? Is there a sphere you haven’t explored yet but want to?
I’d love to do a movie – I think it’s an interesting area to work in because that’s where you can express fantasies full-on. Also, a set design for an opera would be a great thing to do. But generally, I want to do what I do now, but on a bigger scale. And if someone asks me to do a socially important building, I would love to work on a project like that too.
Interview by Martin Onufrowicz
Photography by Freddy Persson
Fashion by Ana Tess
Production by William Sneig at Paramour Production
Hair by Bastien Zorzetto
Make-Up by Ruby Mazuel
Director of Photography Joshua Steen
Stylist’s assistants Olga Kalcheva and Charles-Henri Wright
Production assistant Laura Delataille
All clothes Saint Laurent By Anthony Vaccarello