Mastermind
Interior architect Yaniv Chen has moved to Italy, channelling Milan’s creative energy to focus on furniture design. To accompany this debut biography, Yaniv shares his personal visual diary.
INTERIOR / CONVERSATION / 20.09.23
Read time / 15 mins
Mikael wears his take on an office t-shirt in a formal mid-weight cotton pique. On the blind behind him is the FIELDS brand totem, designed by Daniel Ting Chong.
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Creative Director
Writer
[01] Yavni shoots a selfie at Palazzo Contarini, his Venice residence of choice.
Five minutes into my first Zoom call with Yaniv Chen, he recommends a decor publication that’s been out of print for almost two decades. “If you wanna spend some unnecessary money,” he says, Nest Magazine is a treat for the senses, upping the ante on its visuals with scratch and sniff content. He tracked down a few pricy issues on eBay for his collection which runs the gamut from accessible treats like Apartamento to more obscure treasures like Comme des Garçons showroom lookbooks from the 80s. Most of these are currently in storage, as Yaniv has moved from Cape Town to Milan with only the essentials in tow: an artwork by Michaela Younge, who uses felt as medium, came along because it could be rolled up. “It’s quite strange living in an apartment without all your things,” says the interior architect. “They become such a part of your identity.”
A child of the 90s, Yaniv credits the previous decade’s interior design decadence as a formative source of inspiration. “The glamour of the 80s,” he explains. “The restaurants in American Psycho, those colours, those pastels, there’s something really beautiful about that to me. Stuttafords in Sandton: they had a little place where you could have sandwiches, and a hairdresser inside the store. That’s all I was exposed to, I never got to travel overseas, but that was kind of a cool universal thing.”
“The glamour of the 80s,” Yaniv explains. “The restaurants in American Psycho, those colours, those pastels, there’s something really beautiful about that to me.”
Through his interior architecture studio, Master, Yaniv’s retail designs in Cape Town ignite a similar sense of occasion and wonder. Master’s second-ever project, Yaniv’s big break, was the Sans Community store in Sea Point, a luxury grocer and stockist of the revered Australian skincare brand, Aēsop. Yaniv created a framework for the store’s meticulous product curation, designing custom Supawood joinery in a Japanese-inspired style that forgoes screws, nails and bolts. Finished with a caramelly custom lacquer and offset with cool stainless steel, it set the tone for Master’s signature juxtaposition of warmth, minimalism and nostalgia.
At Pauline’s, the coffee shop next door, Master conceptualised a tonal statement for the somewhat awkward rectangular space. Even the untrained eye is sure to pause on the box-brown Sisal carpeting that covers every interior vertical, seamlessly paired with timber floors and Corian counters to elegant yet comforting effect. As for attracting the area’s discerning clientele, this look is as much a calling card for the space as its caffeine and food offering.
Yavni shoots a selfie at Palazzo Contarini, his Venice residence of choice.
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[02] Yaniv's furniture and interior design at the Greek Cypriot restaurant Ouzeri. “He manages to capture an old world, authentic design aesthetic, balancing it with a clean and contemporary feel," says chef Nicolas Charalambous. Photograph by Inge Prins.
Yaniv's furniture and interior design at the Greek Cypriot restaurant Ouzeri. “He manages to capture an old world, authentic design aesthetic, balancing it with a clean and contemporary feel," says chef Nicolas Charalambous. Photograph by Inge Prins.
En route to Palazzo Contarini, Yaniv travels on this water taxi: "I fell in love with that one specifically, got his number, and now that's the only vaporetto I use when I go to Venice."
Yaniv's furniture and interior design at the Greek Cypriot restaurant Ouzeri. “He manages to capture an old world, authentic design aesthetic, balancing it with a clean and contemporary feel," says chef Nicolas Charalambous. Photograph by Inge Prins.
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[04] This floor detailing caught Yaniv's eye on a tour of a palazzo in Brera, Milan.
[05] Yaniv’s Constant Nightstand for Lemon. He aims to design pieces "that could be anywhere in the world. They could be from any era, but also from no era. Those type of things are the most beautiful.” Photograph provided by Lemon.
By 2017, Yaniv was promoted to Creative Director of Lemon, a role he fulfilled for two years before launching Master in 2019. The name was a suggestion from his friend, Ronelle Pienaar Jenkin, who worked on the logo design: “I loved it because it has this grandeur to it, like a master bedroom, master bathroom… There was also this dom sub nuance to it, which I loved a lot.” He still designs a significant portion of Lemon’s offering, and considers Kevin his mentor. They speak every day: Kevin counts on Yaniv as someone he can rely on for honest, “direct feedback. Sometimes it hurts to hear, but invariably I find something good comes out of asking the right people’s opinion.”
I’m curious to hear Yaniv’s take on South African suppliers and manufacturers. In addition to the luxury pieces he’s created for Lemon, the private residences he designed through Master often involved a significant restoration component. “It’s just a constant uphill battle, but when you have your people, it makes it a lot easier. And we’ve got incredible people. The quality of the Lemon pieces is on par with anything you see in Milan and sometimes better.” Having made the shift from Cape Town to the design capital of the world, Yaniv is eager to share his perspective. “What you learn very quickly when you’re here, from other interior designers that are at very prolific firms, is that they go through exactly the same things, sometimes worse. It’s not better anywhere else. All these ups and downs are completely universal.”
Yaniv turns the corner of Via Agnello and Corso Vittorio Emanuelle II. “Oh, this is where I wanted to bring you,” he says, flipping his camera to reveal the Duomo di Milano in its immense glory. “This is, for me, the most beautiful building in the world.”
This floor detailing caught Yaniv's eye on a tour of a palazzo in Brera, Milan.
This floor detailing caught Yaniv's eye on a tour of a palazzo in Brera, Milan.
Yaniv’s Constant Nightstand for Lemon. He aims to design pieces "that could be anywhere in the world. They could be from any era, but also from no era. Those type of things are the most beautiful.” Photograph provided by Lemon.
[06] Yaniv en route via vaporetto to Maybe Corpaci and Rodan Kane Hart's wedding celebrations in May.
[07] Scalloped shelving at the Master-designed aperitivo bar, La Trip, was inspired by the facade of a building Yaniv spotted on the streets of Milan. Photograph by Inge Prins.
Yaniv was born in Johannesburg in 1987, the oldest of three children. His father was born in Tétouan, Morocco, and emigrated to South Africa from Israel. “My father was dating my mother’s best friend, then they broke up and my father asked if he could date my mother.” The women remain friends to this day. Yaniv’s great uncle on his mother’s side, Alec Jaffe, was inaugurated mayor of Johannesburg in 1965. “That whole Jaffe side of my family is very creative.” If Yaniv’s creativity is inherited, it wasn’t nurtured at school. The pressure of coming from a middle class home and attending an elitist private Jewish school was stifling: “I actually didn’t speak at school. I was like a mute. People were like, ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Just another string to add to my bow of weirdness—like I needed it. I was just so anxious.”
Graduation and increasing internet speed reoriented Yaniv’s social prospects and kickstarted his journey as a professional creative. A brief stint at VEGA confirmed that advertising wasn’t for him, so he pivoted to importing Japanese cotton and launched a line of menswear t-shirts at a boutique in Melrose Arch, an enjoyable and successful enterprise hampered by limited scaling prospects. In 2012, Yaniv enrolled at Greenside Design Institute to study interior design—“Such fun!” After that he worked at a large architecture firm, “Hated it,” met Kevin Frankental at a business meeting, and moved to Lemon.
“What you learn very quickly from other interior designers at very prolific firms [in Milan], is that they go through exactly the same things,” says Yaniv. “All these ups and downs are completely universal.”
Yaniv and Amy eloped at the Sea Point pools in 2019. At the head of production company Ola!Films, Amy’s shoots tend to be in Europe or Dubai, making moving to the northern hemisphere all the more convenient. “We’re inseparable,” says Yaniv. “Even though we spend some time apart with work and stuff, when we’re together, we’re pretty much together every moment of every day. Then last week I went to Venice for two days for myself which was lovely. We know when we need me time, and I think that’s what makes a relationship super successful.” Says Amy: “At times I have to remind him to go for a run ‘for his personality’. But usually it just happens.” The third member of their family, Duckie the Irish Wolfhound, won’t fit into the Milan apartment, and remains in South Africa for now. Duckie’s parents miss him dearly, and plan on finding a larger place outside the city where he can roam comfortably, so that he too can become an Italian resident.
A key deciding factor in the move was Yaniv’s sobriety, “which I’m happy to talk about. It’s very difficult to maintain sobriety doing exactly the same things in the exact same place, because you won’t. It’s become a part of me, sobriety. I think it was one of the fundamental deciding factors. I don’t wanna make this move specifically about that, coz it’s not, but all roads lead to Milan, basically.”
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Yaniv en route via vaporetto to Maybe Corpaci and Rodan Kane Hart's wedding celebrations in May.
Yaniv en route via vaporetto to Maybe Corpaci and Rodan Kane Hart's wedding celebrations in May.
Scalloped shelving at the Master-designed aperitivo bar, La Trip, was inspired by the facade of a building Yaniv spotted on the streets of Milan. Photograph by Inge Prins.
[08] "I'm obsessed with Laila Gohar!" For his last birthday celebration, Yaniv and his wife Amy curated a tea party inspired by the artist who uses food as medium.
[09] Lemon's Kevin Frankental calls the La Plume Armchair Yaniv's most successful design for the brand. "I believe it will be an heirloom one day." Photograph provided by Lemon.
“I think life in Cape Town became stagnant,” Yaniv muses. His “soul enriching” work served as excellent portfolio pieces to establish Master, but further growth would mean having to choose between creative values and financial sustainability. “When you’re operating at a high level in Cape Town, you can have your own interior firm, or what? You can work for a big corporate interior firm, but you don’t get mentored.” Working from Milan is allowing Master to focus on furniture design and development, while working on slower, more mindful and conceptual interior projects. It’s a quality over quantity approach that allows Yaniv to distill his studio’s “aesthetic essence, and the idea of what it means to create something that lives in the world.”
On our Zoom call in May, Yaniv should be taking some time off work, and although he’s thoroughly enjoying afternoon Italian lessons and exploring the city with Amy by bicycle, he feels somewhat unmoored. “I’m really, really bad at this whole taking time out thing. I’ve been impossible. My wife thinks I’m impossible, everyone thinks I’m impossible.”
“He moves through the world and lets the work happen low-key in the background,” observes Amy Allais. “And then he has furious bursts of drawing at all hours. From the outside, it all seems so effortless and wise.”
“A job is not just a position for him,” says Kevin. “Design is something he lives. It informs his reason for being.”
“From what I can tell, it is about immersing himself in beauty and inspiration,” observes Amy. “He moves through the world and lets the work happen low-key in the background. And then he has furious bursts of drawing at all hours. From the outside, it all seems so effortless and wise.”
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[08] "I'm obsessed with Laila Gohar!" For his last birthday celebration, Yaniv and his wife Amy curated a tea party inspired by the artist who uses food as medium.
"I'm obsessed with Laila Gohar!" For his last birthday celebration, Yaniv and his wife Amy curated a tea party inspired by the artist who uses food as medium.
Lemon's Kevin Frankental calls the La Plume Armchair Yaniv's most successful design for the brand. "I believe it will be an heirloom one day." Photograph provided by Lemon.
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At Ouzeri, Yaniv elected a plastering technique shared by fishermen's cottages on the Ionian Sea and Cape Town's West Coast. "It felt honest. And it didn’t feel overly decorative," he says. Photograph by Inge Prins.
At Ouzeri, Yaniv elected a plastering technique shared by fishermen's cottages on the Ionian Sea and Cape Town's West Coast. "It felt honest. And it didn’t feel overly decorative," he says. Photograph by Inge Prins.
Duckie on a daily walk in Newlands Forest. Yaniv dubbed their route All Roads Lead to Water: “Because of the breed, he’s very thirsty, so I made sure every kilometre there’s a place for him to drink water from a stream.”
Duckie on a daily walk in Newlands Forest. Yaniv dubbed their route All Roads Lead to Water: “Because of the breed, he’s very thirsty, so I made sure every kilometre there’s a place for him to drink water from a stream.”
Duckie on a daily walk in Newlands Forest. Yaniv dubbed their route All Roads Lead to Water: “Because of the breed, he’s very thirsty, so I made sure every kilometre there’s a place for him to drink water from a stream.”
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[12] Harry's Bar in Venice has served Katherine Hepburn, Peggy Guggenheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. "It's super iconic," Yaniv vouches.
[13] Master's first major project in Cape Town, the Aēsop section at Sans Community in Sea Point, juxtaposes warm Supawood joinery in a custom lacquer with cool stainless steel. Photograph Sarah De Pina.
Yaniv’s demeanour is at its lightest when discussing his creative practice—to see him speak about what he does is to see the way it fuels him. Every design is an exercise in abstraction: calibrating historical references with elements of warmth and minimalism until they chime in perfect harmony: “My process is emotional. I work according to feeling.” The @mastermoodboard instagram account and @yanivechen’s insta stories offer a glimpse into the visuals that translate, intentionally inexplicably, into his designs: “An old Jurgen Teller picture I posted today inspired me to create a marble dining table that I’m working on.”
While with Master’s interiors the goal is to evoke nostalgic comfort for a client, Yaniv designs furniture for himself. “If I can take that Constant Nightstand I designed [for Lemon], and I can put it in a historical Venetian home, a Victorian home, a contemporary home, an art deco home, or a futuristic home, and it can work in all those contexts, that’s when I’ve done my job. I design pieces that are specific because they don’t follow a trend, but they’re also not specific at all: anyone can use them anywhere. I think that’s the most important thing, because of the eclectic nature of my ever-changing taste. I’m into this one week and into that the next, so it has to live with anything because otherwise I can’t use it. Everything I design I want to use in my own interior, coz if I don’t want to use it I can’t expect someone else to.” Kevin echoes this sentiment when I ask him what type of interior object Yaniv personifies: “I think he would be a tapestry. Lots going on. Never goes out of style.” —
Harry's Bar in Venice has served Katherine Hepburn, Peggy Guggenheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. "It's super iconic," Yaniv vouches.
Harry's Bar in Venice has served Katherine Hepburn, Peggy Guggenheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. "It's super iconic," Yaniv vouches.
Master's first major project in Cape Town, the Aēsop section at Sans Community in Sea Point, juxtaposes warm Supawood joinery in a custom lacquer with cool stainless steel. Photograph Sarah De Pina.
Interior Architect
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[02] Yaniv's furniture and interior design at the Greek Cypriot restaurant Ouzeri. “He manages to capture an old world, authentic design aesthetic, balancing it with a clean and contemporary feel," says chef Nicolas Charalambous. Photograph by Inge Prins.
[03] En route to Palazzo Contarini, Yaniv travels on this water taxi: "I fell in love with that one specifically, got his number, and now that's the only vaporetto I use when I go to Venice."