Focus on Dries Otten

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Manon - courtesy photo © Dries Otten

Colourblocks, assertive volumes, playful details and bold contrasts: Dries Otten’s spatial poetics take in all these ingredients and translates them into spaces imbued with his vision of interior design, decidedly flamboyant but far from ostentatious

Name: Dries Otten.

Place where you work: Antwerp.

Your Instagram account: @driesotten

Describe your job: Adding a dreamlike quality to the pragmatism of furniture design, interior architecture and scenography.

Where did you study? At the Henry van de Velde Institute, Antwerp.

The project you have been following/are working on at the moment: A bakery, a print shop, private mansions in Antwerp, Brussels, Lille (France) and Amsterdam (Holland)…

Your dream project: A Brutalist holiday home on a cliff with a small workshop and steps down to the sea.

The project (by others) that has influenced you the most: Everything Huib Hoste has ever designed.

A crucial element/detail in all your projects: Pragmatism

Disco Dining, Sien & Pieter Jan - courtesy photo © Dries Otten

City centre or far-flung places? Cities in winter and the country in summer.

Something you have at home designed by you: We live in our showroom, so at the moment I use Danzan and Altare furniture for my vinyl and my record player, there are Bastos lights dotted about the place and a prototype of the Misfit next to a Japon bench, and there are some small Tondis armchairs near the shop window.

What do you like to collect on walks? A suntan.

If you could build a secret passage in the house, where would it lead? To a sunny swimming pool or to a spa (for winter).

What do you usually do on Sundays? Bike rides, go to exhibitions, meet friends and eat a lot.

Your favourite place in Milan: I’ve only been to Milan once, to help a friend put his gallery show together. I remember the food was delicious.

Studio MOMU, fashion museum in Antwerp - photo © Jef Jacobs

DWA Studio would like to ask you: designer or anonymous furniture? Obviously I really like designer furniture, but since design is also often used as an emblem of social status, I would say that rather than design icons I prefer flea markets where I might pick up something really unusual.

Would you like to ask the next interviewee a question? What would you like to drink?