Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another SLD Meetup, your host, Alvar Nune to bring you another interesting, successful, and in this case, very creative guest. His name is John Case, he's a dear friend of mine and he's the director of the company, Arc. There's an award and a claimed design studio that is specializing on interior architecture, interior design and the core, which redefines the laid-back luxury. So they're based in Cape Town in Africa and he's gonna tell us all about that creative mindset that has put them working on some of the most incredible projects worldwide.
What's going on my friend? Alvar, how are you? Very good, yourself? Good, so let me just adjust my camera, my face is a little bit bigger than the, what's allowed?
Yeah, good to hear your voice and see you again. Every time I see you through the camera, you have an interesting background. Tell me what am I looking at right now, what is it there? This is my, I have a sort of, I would call it an art studio where I sort of come and do my work at Arc and I think it's very important to, I learned to have a space that I feel the freedom to kind of express myself and surround myself with things that I've sort of made and collected and so, so, so, so, so, so, they're the things that sort of get me excited to, you know, you know, live the life of a designer and, you know, just kind of be surrounded by things that inspire me.
I love that and this is one of the things that I wanted to actually ask you because, Arc, very well known interior design studio, you guys have been doing some of the most incredible projects worldwide, you're basically Cape Town, but you've done projects all over, including here in Miami. So when I look at the essence of Arc, I see something very unique and I want you to talk about it because as one of the directors of the company, there is definitely a DNA in there that expresses uniqueness of his education and that the late back luxury that you guys represent. So tell me a little bit about that. Well, I think, you know, our story, you know, to summarize it really is, you know, I think we've always kind of had this insane obsession with design and, you know, we also, you know, started from very humble beginnings and you know, from, from being in Cape Town and I think Cape Town itself has really was the sort of catalyst for us to kind of connect with travelers and all of their makers from around the world and very, very quickly we started realizing that working in South Africa and working in Cape Town, you know, because of it's such a multicultural place and it's got such active tourism and we had a lot of clients that were from overseas and, you know, at the time I think we had no idea really that we would be able to, you know, branch out to work in other countries around the world and I think the success of Arc really is that, you know, we come from such diverse backgrounds and different walks of life.
So the work ethic in the company is something that has kept me going for 20 years with the business and, you know, I work with people from all ages and all walks of life and that in itself is such a unique, as such a unique flavor to every single project. And I think that's something that makes Arc very, very unique. So that's, I would say the first thing. Secondly, you know, I think Arc has always tried to, you know, every project that we do, we try to better ourselves.
We try to, you know, really push ourselves to a point that, you know, we're competing on a world stage. And, you know, I think, if I think back, sure, 15 years ago or 10 years ago, when we started working in the international market, we were very concerned that, you know, we would sort of get there and be on the back foot and we always sort of had this underdog approach, which we still have today. And I think that's really what's kept us very hungry and very sort of passionate about, you know, knowing that, you know, if we don't do our best on every project, you won't get another one. So, you know, I think for us that sort of very kind of grassroots level kind of management style and team ethic is something that still is very relevant with us.
You know, we don't ever want to get to a point where, you know, we feel like we have all the answers because that simply isn't possible. No, absolutely. And I like that under-doventality. You're always wanting to stay hungry.
You want to go and keep on expanding. And that's what keeps you flowing the thoughts of creativity and how to stay ahead on the curve. So one thing you're touching, basically, is about the international expansion, right? So you're talking about how you are not just in Cape Town, but you've been expanding worldwide.
And for you, the whole concept of partnerships has become really important because not having that local office in that destination requires to partner up with the local teams in there. So how do you approach other companies to work with them? Well, I think we realized very quickly. I mean, I think when we, you know, when we got our first international project and we got that meeting people in Cape Town, you know, we did a house here and one of our sort of an American client state and it's an arrangement for a holiday and absolutely loved it and phoned us and said, I want you to recreate this for me in Miami.
And that's sort of how we first got there. So that's just a little bit of background. But we realized very quickly that because we're a continent away, our whole process of work, our whole method of communication had to be very, very customized and very specific in order to achieve the kind of work that you see on our Instagram and our websites. And so what we did was we began a process of, you know, communication through imagery is very, very important for us.
We are very, very image-based. On any project, we produce a very large amount of renders and virtual reality because we find that in order to communicate our ideas and to kind of sell the lifestyle that really adheres to is we have to be incredibly visual and have to be able to communicate that way. So finding, you know, so getting a local project is one thing. So, you know, designing a building very often on all of our projects, we obviously have the wonderful luxury of traveling to these locations.
That's part of our sort of proposal. And that's really where we start doing a bit of the groundwork on local teams that come from either recommendation from the owners, as well as experience that we've had with, you know, GCs and vendors and kind of getting exposure to the market. And for America, for example, America's sort of construction industry is vastly different to other parts of the world. So it was very much in the early days a massive learning curve.
I mean, we really kind of had to sort of be sponges and spend as much time and many, many late nights due to the time zones, you know, kind of making these connections and fostering these relationships. In regards to trends, this is an evolving industry, but a lot of people often try to be more traditional, more modern, that late back luxury that you get are emphasizing on. Where are some of these trends that you currently see in the space? Firstly, I mean, I think at Arc, we, you know, trends, any design industry, any design office that tries to, you know, kind of be a bit more avant-garde and dismiss trends, sometimes misses very vital bits of information.
And I think what we try and do at Arc is, you know, trends are there and they're relevant. You know, sometimes trends come about due to unforeseen circumstances like COVID, for example. And in some ways, COVID, you know, was hugely important in paving the way to what people see your home as, you know, and how much time they spent in those places. You know, when you're spending so much time in your home, you know, you start questioning things, you start questioning the way you live.
And very, very often, I think, trends kind of relate to that. For example, we've seen a huge push to the wellness sort of aspects of design being placed into a lot of our villas and our projects. You know, purely because people kind of enjoy the fact that they can, you know, work on their fitness and wellness from home. So we've definitely seen a huge push to, you know, creating sort of private germs and private spas.
That's something that's been around for a while. I would say that a lot of luxury homes have these facilities. But I would say that the trend at the moment is they've been stepped up to a much higher level. You know, things like Cold Water Therapy and Cryo Chambers, you know, keeping up with sort of those sort of fitness and wellness trends is something that I think is definitely very, very relevant to the moment.
And I would say all of our projects at the moment have some aspect of that. So that's why I would say that I've definitely seen a big push in. Working from home, you know, a lot of people have also kind of extended their homes into, you know, having a lot more sort of private meeting spaces and sometimes even boardroom facilities where they're able to kind of travel around the world and work from wherever they are. So that's another trend that I think is something that I think we'll see grow.
With regards to kind of whether it's luxury or modernist or contemporary or sort of classic design, you know, that's sometimes still in the eye of the beholder, I would say. But we've started, you know, I think one thing I would like to sort of say about this is that as arc, I think, you know, trying to, you know, create your own signature is something that I think we are now seeing clients are kind of responding well to that they understand what an arc project is all can recognize an arc project. You know, when they see it and I think that alongside our other company, so it's a view that's very active in most of the regions we're working with, you know, more. You know, the whole ethos of the company and all the companies together has definitely been about kind of creating our own, and I don't want to say trains because I don't think that's the right word.
I mean, kind of creating our own narrative. And I think people are resonating with that. People are kind of responding to that very positively. Right.
No, I love that. I think that's right on. Out of all these trips that you've done, all these projects that you've been working on worldwide, do you have a particular destination where you get the most inspiration from? Who has a difficult one to answer?
It's like asking, which is your favorite child. But I sure, I mean, I must be honest, it varies so much. I mean, sometimes a project comes along and, you know, for example, I would have project in India and Delhi at the moment. And, you know, you go to a place like India and you know, you're really kind of immediately sort of thrust into such a diverse and very, very different kind of environment that those sort of locations really stay with you.
You know, they really kind of allow you to sort of, you know, exercise the design muscles and kind of bring your interpretation of those inspirations. So I think every project, I mean, some of the projects I have in the US at the moment, we've all such a great relationship with the clients that you know, you kind of end up feeling part of the family. And, you know, so, it's a difficult question to answer. I can't put my finger on a specific place, but I think every place that we work in has got something to learn from, something to experience and something to make it memorable.
I mean, I think all the trips I've done in the last while, and there's been a lot last year specifically that I came back from and just felt so inspired and felt so fortunate to be working in this industry and to be working on these types of projects and having the opportunities to travel. I mean, you know, the fact that I'm talking to you today, I mean, it's such a huge sort of, it's a symbol of all that hard work and all that experience. So, I know that it's late in Cape Town, so I don't want to take you too much longer. What is luxury to you?
Sure. I think I've said this before, and it's still kind of rain-strew to me. I think, firstly, I think luxury is different for everybody. The idea of luxury, obviously in terms of design and architecture, luxury is exactly what it's posted to be, but I definitely see that there's a clientele and the kind of owners that we work with today that luxury changes from project to project.
What I mean by that is somebody may see luxury as expensive materials, an Italian model, and a really beautiful exotic design elements, but some people see luxury as space as having the freedom to have a quiet moment. And I think for me that luxury is always about being in a space that inspires you. I mean, for me, luxury is an art studio. It's something where I can express myself, be myself, be 100% the person that I want to be.
So, thank you, my friend. I really appreciate your time and pleasure. It's a pleasure. I'm curious to know more about you, Ark, your projects.
They want to work with you. What's the best way for them to do it? I think our Instagram account is probably the most up-to-date in terms of some of the behind-the-scenes and some of the projects that we do interesting news about the business. So, Instagram, I certainly always go to Instagram because I feel it's from a visual standpoint, it's a bit of connected.
You're welcome to read our website as well, which is www.org.com. And you're a reach out to us. If anybody wants to talk, collaborate, just have a chat. You know, if you've got some great projects, we'd love to jump on those.
And we'd love to meet you and love to build relationships as we spoke about earlier. I love it. Well, thank you so much, John. I appreciate you.
Congratulations once again. Thank you. Thanks very much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Have a great day. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it.
And remember, embrace its beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro, and I'll see you next time.