Interviews with SOIA Design

I'm an expirienced Architect and Interior Designer. Despite my education covers landscape architecture, my passion to create complex visions charted my path in Interior and Architecture itself. For more than 10 years I create high-end residences and hospitality projects under my own studio SOIA Design.

Passion and love to the beauty. I want to be the part of beauty creation in this world.

It is my choice.

High-end residences and restaurants. I like both.

Growing designer reputation is a slow process. Be patient and don't give up.

Great designer will cause emotion by creativity that stuck in your head forever.

The atmosphere and emotion.

In general it leveling up you lifestyle, wealth and mental health as well. Because design you like helps to create a mood that can heel your health, relashionships, business and every aspect of your life.

Design my own development projects. Thats my goal for today.

My own high-end residence.

Let's secrets stay secrets.

My first inspiration was T.R.O.P. landscape architects.

I like where nature becomes a continuation of the interior projects.

Mamuli restaurant as now. Recognized by many institutions.

My partner - Ekaterina Baklan.

High-end residences in Los Angeles and Miami.

Design my own residences.

High-end residences in Los Angeles and Miami.

Me in 13 y.o.

I like it!

Start your day without the phone in your hands. Take a contrast shower, cardio at least 1 hour. Positive narratives to yourself. And you are ready.

I have always been attracted to visual culture, architecture, art, and the way environments influence people. Design became a natural language for me, a way to combine creativity with something very tangible and human. I did not necessarily have a single moment when I decided to become a designer; it was more of a gradual realization that creating spaces and imagining how people would live in them was what truly interested me.

SOIA Design is a Los Angeles-based luxury interior and architectural design studio founded and led by Anton Baklan and Ekaterina Baklan. We work primarily on high-end residential and hospitality projects, creating interiors that combine architecture, atmosphere, functionality, and a strong visual identity.

Our approach is very personal. We are not interested in applying one recognizable style to every project. Instead, we try to understand the character of the client, the architecture, and the location, and then create a complete environment around them.

For me, design is a part of life. It is not only about how something looks, but about how it makes people feel and how it affects their mental state. A successful space can change your mood, your behavior, your perception of time, and even the way you interact with other people.

I particularly enjoy luxury residential homes and high-end hospitality projects. They offer an opportunity to create an entire world rather than simply decorate a room. With residential projects, we design around someone's lifestyle; with hospitality, we create an experience that can be shared by hundreds or thousands of people.

One of my favorite projects is Mamuli Restaurant. It was a particularly interesting challenge because we wanted to interpret Georgian cultural heritage without turning the interior into a literal historical reference.

We created a contemporary environment where traditional influences, materials, textures, and modern architectural language coexist. The project became a kind of cultural narrative, something you can feel rather than simply recognize.

The first major project I designed professionally was a residential home through my own company. It was an important experience because it taught me how to transform a creative vision into a complete, buildable environment and, most importantly, how design decisions affect real life.

3D rendering is probably my favorite design tool. I don't see it simply as a way to present a finished idea. I use it to create scenarios of life — imagining the light, movement, atmosphere, furniture, people, and daily rituals — and then seeing that scenario eventually become real is incredibly rewarding.

When I am relaxed and calm. Creativity requires concentration, and concentration is difficult when the mind is constantly reacting to external noise. When I have enough mental space, ideas begin to connect much more naturally.

First, atmosphere. Then ergonomics and functionality, and finally beauty, although I don't really separate the last two. For me, beautiful design cannot be fundamentally non-ergonomic. A space should look effortless because everything inside it has a reason to be there.

Excitement. It feels like a new scenario of life is being born. In the beginning, it exists only in your imagination, and gradually you give it form, material, light, and scale.

There is a very specific feeling when something that existed only as an image or idea becomes physical. I feel a combination of satisfaction, excitement, and sometimes even surprise, because reality adds qualities that you cannot completely predict from a drawing or rendering.

We know that secret — yes. But I probably shouldn't reveal it.

More seriously, I think successful design is when aesthetics, functionality, atmosphere, and the identity of the client become one coherent experience. When you stop noticing individual design decisions and simply feel that the space is right, that is success.

I first ask myself what the space makes me feel. Then I look at whether the design has logic, proportion, functionality, and a clear idea behind it. Beauty without an idea is decoration; functionality without atmosphere is simply engineering. Good design needs both.

A designer has a responsibility not to create unnecessary things simply because they are possible. We influence how people consume materials, energy, space, and visual information. I believe the future of design should be more conscious, durable, practical, and focused on quality rather than excess.

I think design is moving toward a more practical and ergonomic approach. For a long time, there was a tendency to add more — more decoration, more objects, more visual information. I believe we are moving toward removing what is unnecessary and making spaces more intelligent, comfortable, and intentional.

Technology will accelerate this process, but I don't think technology will replace the human part of design. Understanding how people actually live will remain essential.

We primarily exhibit our work online and, most importantly, through the built projects themselves. For us, a completed interior is the real exhibition. You can experience it at full scale, with real materials, light, sound, and people.

Ultimately, from the love of beauty itself. I also find inspiration in architecture, art, travel, nature, fashion, and different cultures. Traveling is especially important to me because it allows me to absorb completely different approaches to space and lifestyle.

I would describe our approach as contemporary luxury with a strong emphasis on atmosphere, proportion, and timelessness. We are interested in creating spaces that feel sophisticated without becoming overly dependent on trends.

Our approach is always project-specific. We begin with the architecture, the location, and the people who will use the space, and then build the aesthetic language from there.

I was born and raised in Sochi, Russia, and later moved to Los Angeles. Now our primary focus on Los Angeles, Orange County and Miami, we serve that areas. I also travel extensively, so I have had the opportunity to absorb many different cultural and architectural approaches.

I think all of these experiences become part of your visual language, even subconsciously. Moving between cultures is valuable because it prevents you from seeing design through only one cultural lens.

We prefer to work as creative partners rather than simply as external designers. We first try to understand the company's goals, identity, audience, and expectations. Then we develop a design language that supports those objectives while still giving the project a distinctive character.

Don't choose a designer only because you like their portfolio. Choose someone whose way of thinking aligns with your vision.

A good designer should be able to listen, challenge ideas when necessary, understand practical limitations, and still protect the creative integrity of the project. The best collaborations happen when there is trust on both sides.

We usually begin with understanding the project itself — the architecture, location, client, lifestyle, goals, and constraints. From there we develop the concept and atmosphere, establish the spatial planning and ergonomics, and gradually move into materials, furniture, lighting, details, and visualization.

We use 3D visualization extensively because it allows us to test the entire scenario before it is built. The final goal is always to translate the digital vision into a physical experience.

I tend to value objects that have both aesthetic and emotional significance. For me, the most interesting interiors are not showrooms. They contain things that tell you something about the person who lives there.

My days are usually divided between design work, meetings, project coordination, creative development, and communication with clients and our team.

But I try to leave some space without a specific task. Sometimes the best ideas come when you are not actively trying to produce them.

Learn to observe before you learn to create.

Develop your taste. Study architecture, art, fashion, history, materials, psycology and human behavior. And most importantly, learn how things are actually built. A designer becomes much stronger when imagination and technical understanding develop together.

The biggest positive is that you can literally create environments that did not exist before and then see people experience them. Be responsible for making this world little bit better. That covers all negative moments and make them minor.

If something doesn't improve the experience, question why it is there.

Taste, observation, spatial thinking, personal energy, communication, curiosity, and the ability to understand people. Technical knowledge is equally important because a great idea is only valuable if you can translate it into reality.

Our toolbox combines traditional design thinking with digital technology. We work extensively with architectural and 3D modeling software, rendering, drawing and documentation tools, AI, material libraries, and visual research.

But the most important tools are still the eye, the brain, and the ability to observe. Software can help you execute an idea; it cannot tell you whether the idea is meaningful.

I try to separate creative work from administrative work as much as possible. Creative tasks require uninterrupted concentration, while meetings and communication can be structured around them.

I also believe that prioritization is more important than simply working longer. Not every decision deserves the same amount of time.

It completely depends on the scope. We usually take on large and ambitious projects, so the design process can take several months. Complex luxury residential and hospitality projects require a significant amount of development because there are hundreds of interconnected decisions behind the final result.

Probably: "How did you come up with this idea?"

And the honest answer is usually that it is not one idea. It is the result of hundreds of observations, references, conversations, and decisions that eventually become one coherent concept.

Building SOIA Design itself has probably been the most important professional experience. Creating a studio, developing its identity, working with increasingly ambitious clients, and seeing our projects built has taught me much more than any individual project could.

Our clients include entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, politicians, celebrities, and private clients from different backgrounds. What connects many of them is that they are looking for something highly personalized rather than a generic luxury interior.

Large-scale residential and hospitality projects. I enjoy projects where we can work with the architecture as a whole and create a complete experience — from the first impression of entering the space to the smallest material and lighting detail.

We are increasingly interested in the intersection of design, architecture, and development. One of our next goals is to move further into building luxury residential homes, where we can control the process from the architectural concept through the interior and ultimately to the completed property.

SOIA Design is a team led by myself, Anton Baklan, and Ekaterina Baklan. We believe that strong projects come from collaboration. Different perspectives make the design stronger, while a clear creative direction keeps the project coherent.

We are currently working on the design of Adapt or Die Café in Los Angeles. It is an exciting project because it allows us to explore hospitality design within the context of Los Angeles and develop a strong spatial identity around the concept of the café.

The best way to reach us is through the SOIA Design website or our social media channels. We are always interested in discussing ambitious residential, hospitality, and architectural projects.

I would add that I don't think luxury design should be confused with simply using expensive materials or putting expensive objects into a room.

For us, luxury is ultimately about the quality of the experience — proportion, comfort, privacy, craftsmanship, atmosphere, and the feeling that everything belongs exactly where it is. That is the direction in which we want to continue developing SOIA Design.