By Design, a talk series at Sir John Soane’s Museum, in partnership with Luke Irwin, is back for its third season. Internationally renowned designers are invited to discuss their practice through a single object from the Museum. In this talk, Will Gompertz talks to interior designer Martin Brudnizki.

Listen in the Player below.

About the speakers

Martin Brudnizki is the founder and principal of Martin Brudnizki Design Studio (MBDS). Born in Stockholm, Martin’s love for design started from a young age. His mother was a stylist and his father a structural engineer; the combination of these elements embedded a deep understanding of aesthetics alongside a grounding in functionality. Having gained a degree in Economics at the University of Stockholm, Martin enrolled at The American University in London to study Interior Architecture where he was deeply inspired by architects and designers Carlo Scarpa, Paul Dupree-Lafon and Dorothy Draper. Following a number of successful positions at renowned interior design firms, Martin established his eponymous Studio in London in 2000 and a New York Studio in 2012. 

MBDS is now an internationally acclaimed interior architecture and design practice with a team composed of over 70 interior designers, architects, lighting designers and product designers and experience creating hotels, restaurants, bars, private members’ clubs; alongside residential developments and helping a select number of people design their dream homes. The Studio works across the world with notable clients including: Four Seasons, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Six Senses Luxury Resorts, Soho House Group, The Birley Group, Caprice Holdings, Sydell Group, Beaumarly Group, The Surf Club, Andrew Carmellini, Royal Academy of Arts, Nobu Matsuhisa and Daniel Boulud. In 2015 Martin established And Objects, a separate product design studio built on his experience in interior design. Recent collaborations include collections with George Smith, Porta Romana, Christopher Farr Cloth, Drummonds and The Urban Electric Co. 

Martin is listed within AD 100, Who’s Who, House and Garden’s Top 100 Leading Interior Designers, London Evening Standard’s Progress 1000, Debrett’s 500 Most Influential People in the UK, Elle Décor’s A-List, Architectural Digest France’s Les 100 Décorateurs du Moment and Wallpaper* Magazine’s Power 200, with the latter describing him as ‘one of the best restaurant and hotel designers of his generation’.

Interior Designer Martin Brudnizki, smiling during his talk at the Soane. Will Gompertz sits to the right of Martin Brudnizki, both smiling.

Will Gompertz has led the Barbican Centre’s artistic direction and wide-raging education programmes since June 2021. Immediately before joining the Barbican, Will was the BBC's first ever Arts Editor, a senior journalistic and broadcasting role he started in 2009. Will reported extensively on the arts across the globe, interviewed countless artists, actors, writers, musicians, and directors. He also wrote and presented documentaries for BBC One and BBC Two, and hosted shows on Radio 2, Radio 4, and BBC 5-Live. Prior to joining the BBC, Will spent 7 years as a Director of the Tate Galleries where he was responsible for its BAFTA-winning website, creative direction, and the launching of the UK's first Performance Art festival. 

Will has written two internationally best-selling non-fiction books (published by Penguin in the UK). What Are You Looking At? (2012) – a history of modern art and Think Like an Artist (2015) about creativity. Both books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Will was voted one of the World's Top 50 Creative Thinkers by New York's Creativity magazine and is a Supernumerary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University.

Photos: Sam Churchill

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