Cafés, restaurants, student residences, entertainment or health centres, and even metro stations, Julia Christ has made public places her favourite playground. Her interest in collective spaces finds its roots in a Brazilian childhood spent exploring parks and museums, in a cultural context that celebrates a dynamic social life. This urban landscape has certainly shaped her eye and influenced her aesthetic, she confides.
The interior architect strives to create memorable atmospheres, with a strong visual impact. She advocates a global approach and proposes complete concepts, creating unique interiors with a distinctive identity, such as the Kiosque des Bastions in Geneva, the new Japanese restaurant Azuma, or the cultural centre La Grange in Lausanne. She has even completed the training course to get the Swiss licence required by all café and restaurant owners. With a comprehensive perspective, Julia Christ designs hospitality spaces and other interiors dedicated to public use, while meeting strict safety standards and reducing energy consumption through smart technologies choices.
“Designing a public space means creating for a group of people. I particularly like the creative freedom I have to imagine new universes, interiors where each detail tells a story. They are an invitation to travel, just for a few hours.”
Carefully choosing materials that are as natural as possible, and textures that optimise the treatment of light and sound in the space, Julia Christ joyfully plays with vivid hues and vegetal patterns. Her custom tile layouts and mural paintings, sometimes created in collaboration with artists, are real eye-catchers. As she says, “Colour is life”. She aims to foster social interaction in her warm, friendly interiors.
For us, she reveals what she makes space for in her creative process. As every project is full of surprises, the unexpected is part of her everyday life. Therefore, finding solutions is an essential skill in this creative work. Optimistically, she concludes with, “In the end, everything works out, otherwise it wouldn’t be the end.”
This series is created in collaboration with photographer Jelena Barraud, founder of Wings and Creativity.
Geraldine Morand
Jelena Barraud
Alicia Dubuis
Christophe Voisin