You rarely see companies declaring themselves as partnerships, but while speaking to Nick Stoupas and Joe Stella from twenty2degrees Design Partnership, it’s clear that’s exactly what this company is all about. In fact, most of the interview was spent with Nick and Joe bouncing sentences from one to the other and singing the praises of their team, reluctant to stand in the spotlight and adamant that twenty2degrees’ success is what it is because of the way the studio operates – together.
They each tell me how they were inspired by design from a young age. “My father was an inventor and I used to be fascinated watching him as he sketched and worked on his inventions,” Nick says. “This is what stimulated my interest in architecture and design. I was always building things and it evolved from that.”
Joe echoes similar influences from his own youth: “My father is a designer and artist and within my family there are other creatives and I guess being in that sort of environment as a youngster is inspiring. When I finished school, I was torn between two paths – either fine art or architecture – and the thing that attracted me to the idea of interior design was that this exists in the creative crossover between architecture and the arts.”
Despite both being from Melbourne originally, the pair met here in the UK. I ask them why they chose to relocate to the UK from Australia, telling them that as a Brit the move seems pretty crazy. “All Brits think that!” Says Nick. “They don’t realise that when you’re living in Australia you still have to go to work every day. Daily trips to the beach are a myth when you are living in Melbourne.”
At the time, Nick was working for a company that sent him to South Africa for a month, “That was my lightbulb moment – I realised I could do what I was doing anywhere I wanted to. I returned to Melbourne, resigned my job and I was in London a week later. It was like a reset on my life, a whole new set of friends and a different culture. It was fun. I went on to work for a couple of well-respected design companies that opened the door on large hospitality projects where I could really give my input. At that time as someone in their twenties in Australia you’d never get such an opportunity and the responsibility that goes with it.”
By contrast, Joe says he never really made a conscious decision to uproot and move to the UK. “My wife and I were travelling through Europe and we stopped over here just to see some friends. We thought we’d stick around for six months, which turned into a year, and now it’s 15 years later – we literally moved here with a rucksack! From the creative point of view, London is such an inspiring melting pot with so many different cultures and influences to feed your imagination. It’s one of the world’s leading design hubs and as such gives you the opportunity to experience and work in a vast number of places.”