Getting to Know GOLDEN
On a recent trip to Melbourne, our editor-in-chief sat down with Kylie Dorotic and Alicia McKimm of design studio GOLDEN to learn more about their process and design philosophy
‘A lot of what we do is about a space feeling right,’ explains Alicia McKimm of emerging Melbourne-based interior design studio GOLDEN. McKimm goes on to explain that she and co-founder Kylie Dorotic often walk into a completed project and gauge if it feels right, which to them means that it’s not over-designed and they’ve executed the right balance of space, light and texture. Within their team they often discuss implementing ‘one big idea’ in a project, rather than several small details.
The visual and emotive aspects of their work are clearly important, but McKimm says that everything they do ‘is grounded in practicality, or the “boring side” of design, much to our annoyance!’ According to Dorotic, they’re always asking how things work or function in a space. ‘We never use a finish just for decoration — it always has a purpose,’ she says. ‘We question everything to make sure it has a purpose. We’re quite reductive in our work.’
McKimm and Dorotic have built up an impressive portfolio of work in the seven years since they founded the studio, including high-end residential, hospitality and retail spaces. They say that rather than having one signature aesthetic, everything they do is grounded in timelessness, and they hope that their clients walk into their new space and feel like its uniquely theirs, rather than it be easily recognisable as the work of GOLDEN. The studio’s name, which came about during a rebranding exercise three years ago, seems to aptly describe the warm feelings they hope people will experience when visiting a space they’ve designed.
GOLDEN recently relocated to a new space in Melbourne, allowing its small but growing team the opportunity to create something for themselves: an open, multilevel space with abundant natural light, access to the outdoors and room for them to be creative. And create they are — the studio has a number of new projects in the pipeline, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
Text / Suzy Annetta
Images / Sharyn Cairns
