Interview with the Designer: Aydan Gasimli

Estimated reading time: 3 min

Aydan Gasimli has been an Interior Designer in RMJM’s Dubai office since 2014. She’s worked on a number of important projects for the company in that time covering high-end hospitality, residential and corporate projects as well as playing a key role in the design of RMJM’s own award-winning office in the Dubai Design District (d3). We spoke with Aydan about her influences, the city she works in, and what constitutes good design.

What made you want to work in interior design?
To be given a chance to create a ‘wow’ factor that influences people’s perceptions of space and leaves a visual mark on their imagination.

If you didn’t work in interior design, what would you be doing?
I often think I’d be a travel photographer/journalist as, since childhood, I’ve always dreamt of travelling, exploring different cities and their cultures and landscapes before sharing these experiences with a wider audience, hoping to guide and inspire.

What do you most enjoy about your job?
The interaction and collaboration with bright minds, the never-ending creative process, facing challenges and coming up with solutions, the attention detail and the fact that interior design blends together arts, fashion and architecture.

What influences your work most?
Apart from observing the social, cultural and business traits of projects, I would say travel, art, fashion, architecture, cinematography, music…I could go on! The influences are endless and that is the beauty of it.

You’ve got friends visiting Dubai. Where are you taking them?
Dubai is a city offering various experiences, which I usually tend to combine to present the best of the city. I would start early in the day in the historical Bastakiva Quarter, from which Dubai originates, then head to the Creekside. The visually arresting DIFC and Downtown areas offer a striking combination of architecture and light play. I’d finish the day with my friends at the Jumeirah or Marina beachside.

What is most important in interior design right now?
Concentration on social, eco-friendly and flexible design is paramount at the moment. Technology and science are also allowing for experimentation with materials and continued design innovation.

Who is someone you admire?
There are many people I admire who come from vastly different fields. In architecture, Carlo Scarpa and Luis Barragan both stand apart. Joseph Dirand and the design duo Yahu and Puschelberg are a constant inspiration as are the filmmakers Jean Luc Godard, Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola. I often listen to the likes of David Bowie, Miles Davis, Claude Debussy and Vagi Mustagazadeh whilst I work.

What’s on your bucket list?
I think everyone wants to travel and leave an impression. For me, Cuba, Japan and Tibet are at the top of my list.

Which book has had the greatest impact on you?
Waiting for Godot, the play, by Samuel Beckett.

What’s the most awe-inspiring space you’ve been in?
If I can call it a ‘space’ then I would have to say the city of Pompeii, which provides a kind of surreal experience under the open air. I also have to mention the Musee d’Orsay for it’s industrial beauty and Zaha Hadid’s Heyday Aliyev Cultural Centre which makes you believe that the only limit is your imagination.

What does the RMJM Network mean to you?
It means a connection of minds and ideas across the globe, working together and apart to develop work that stands out and serves the people of the ever-merging, globalised world we live in today.

Define good design…
The considered combination of form, shape, material and texture with the twist of a detail that strikes both aesthetics and function.