It’s no coincidence that Australian Nikolai Kotlarczyk has ended up in the design world. As a child, he observed his father making and building things, including their family home, while his artist mother also worked for a local boutique and travelled to India and Vietnam every year, returning with handcrafted items.
Kotlarczyk studied interior design at Queensland College of Art, with a strong focus on product design. His first love, however, was architecture, particularly the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Antoni Gaudí. ‘Both were very structured and engineered, but also expressive,’ Kotlarczyk says. ‘Today, I’m probably more inspired by the work of interior designers, and I definitely think of the spatial relevance of my work.’ His influences, like his work, span continents. ‘I like YSG Studio and Flack Studio…
