Ottoline Cavendish

Fifteen questions, off-duty.

Role on the line

Interior CGI for private residential. Kitchens, drawing rooms, principal bedrooms, anywhere the client is going to take their shoes off.

Where I grew up

São Paulo. Vila Madalena, then Higienópolis once the family was old enough to argue about it.

Training

Architecture at FAU-USP, then ten years between a Belgravia kitchen showroom CGI team and an Islington interior design firm.

Years on the line

Ten.

The blade I bring

Brazilian modernism, applied quietly. A Sergio Rodrigues chair will fix an awkward room faster than most architects will admit.

Designer I would ride out for

Lina Bo Bardi at the top of the list, Joaquim Tenreiro at the bottom of it, both for the same reason.

Interiors that read true on screen

A rug that has been walked on, books on a shelf in the wrong order, a curtain that does not match the cushion, a lamp that is slightly too tall.

Software I cannot lose

Corona Renderer for the warmth, V-Ray for the verified views, a Pinterest board for the arguments.

Earliest architectural memory

Sitting on the floor of the SESC Pompéia, looking up at the cantilevered bridges and realising buildings could be friendly.

The brief I am proudest of

A Notting Hill family house where the client said "make it look like we have lived here for a decade" before they had moved in. They moved in believing it.

On the headphones while working

Caetano Veloso always, Marisa Monte after lunch, Sade when the floor plan refuses to behave.

London view I never tire of

The walk along the South Bank from the Royal Festival Hall to Gabriel's Wharf at sunset. Brutalist Brazil could have built this.

Coffee or tea

Cafezinho, very strong, with two squares of dark chocolate.

Off the line

A long evening at the Brazilian place on Tooley Street with my sister, who lives in Lisbon and pretends not to miss São Paulo.

The motto on my desk

"Furnish the way they will live, not the way they will photograph."