I’m Fariba Soltani, founder and creative director of Kando Studio. I established the studio in London in 2020 after a career spanning architecture and interiors, including several years at Foster + Partners working on large-scale international projects, Serrenia in Egypt, Kenny Heights in Malaysia and New Holland Island in Russia. That experience gave me a rigorous architectural grounding in proportion, movement, material and detail, and it still shapes everything Kando does, applied now at a much more immediate, human scale.

Founding Kando gave me the opportunity to work differently: closer to the people using the spaces, and with more freedom to explore the relationship between architecture, interiors, objects, colour and material.

We don’t begin a project with a particular style in mind. We begin with the space itself, how it works, how people move through it, what should change and what is worth keeping. Sometimes that means moving walls or completely reconsidering a layout; at other times, a much smaller intervention can change the way a space feels.

Kando is drawn to contrast rather than coordination: old and new, rough and refined, strong colour beside quieter materials, an unexpected object in an otherwise restrained room. Not everything needs to match for a space to feel resolved, often it is the tension between things that gives an interior its character. That means questioning the obvious solution, and asking why something feels right rather than following what is familiar or currently fashionable. Each project should develop its own identity, shaped by its architecture, its purpose and the people or brand it belongs to.

Curiosity drives the studio. Art, fashion, travel, craftsmanship and different cultures all find their way into how we see spaces, Kando is as much about looking and questioning as it is about designing.

Today, Kando works across residential and boutique retail interiors, bringing together architectural thinking and interior design to create spaces that feel individual, considered and particular to the people who inhabit them. Based in West London, we work across London and the surrounding areas, collaborating closely with clients, craftspeople and creative partners from the first idea through to the finished space.