The city has always been the best place, the best environment for the development of society without which life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short in the words of Thomas Hobbes. The contemporary city concentrates people's interest in and wish to establish a community however without feeling part of the masses. The future promises a trend towards alienation and going in the direction of escaping the hustle and bustle of the mega polis and going for more space, closer to nature, going for more privacy in the suburbs far away from the city center. All this is not just an attitude but it is also expressed in town-planning and all the more in interior design.
Interior design also quickly and distinctively reflects the new and higher cultural norms acquired after Bulgaria's accession to the European Union as well as the new and higher demands of the citizens towards their surrounding environment. Undoubtedly the future city, the city of tomorrow has to be comfortable, beautiful and healthy. As explicit as that are the demands for interior space as well.
The city also needs to maintain the balance between its modern development and the preservation of its historical heritage, it needs to follow the principles of sustainable development. A city without past is like a person without memory. People's life, work and destiny leave traces in the cities, in neighbourhoods, buildings, parks, temples, libraries. These traces are in themselves a collective heritage from the past which provides successors with a feeling of continuity and responsibility for the future.
This process should be vested in the coordination between all interested groups and professional circles: citizens, administration, politicians, high-positioned state officers, representatives of various professions, artists. The perfect city is the city in which a balance between the exterior and the interior space has been achieved; in which there is a non conflicting combination of various sectors and activities (like travel, habitation, labour and rest); in which the human rights of the citizens are preserved; the perfect city presents the perfect living conditions, it reflects and responds to the mode of life and values of its citizens; in the perfect city all people are held accountable for it, the people who use it, trade in it, visit it, look for entertainment, culture, information or knowledge in it, all of them are held accountable.
The interior designer has a creative role to play in the arrangement of every sphere of social activity in the city. It is a proven fact that urban development and architecture mark people's social lifestyle. However, the interior space is definitely not to be disregarded as well. We can't just stop with architecture. After all people live, play and work indoor, spending most of our time there. And that's precisely where interior design is at work.
Design refers to everything that surrounds us like artifacts, it is the world we want to see and which we are steadily and assiduously creating. It is design that reflects what kind of people we are, what we are passionate about and what we strive for.
It has been long time ago since “design” has stopped being just a foreign word in Bulgarians' vocabulary, and it has come to be a meaningful notion referring to the character of quality life.
Interior design influences people by shaping their interior spaces, by giving them volume, shapes, colours, light balance. The inhabitants themselves are demanding more and more when it comes to the environment where they live, work, or play: they demand elegance, luxury, a connection with art as well as an environment which never grows boring but is always surprising and provocative to the imagination.
It is believed that cities function well when they provide citizens with satisfactory quality and mode of life, and when economic development and preservation of the environment have been balanced with the help of regulating mechanisms. Among these are also the high level of civic engagement, dynamic development of neighbourhoods and communities, together with a feeling of compassion and of pride. Architecture plays an active role here too, it is an irrevocable and dynamically changing part of the environment. Interior design has been developing partly as a consequence of urban planning and architecture, partly as an individual tendency determined by the life and culture of the community at large and the individual in particular.
The interior is a sphere artificially created by the people for the people who are directly influenced by life standard and who also influence the establishment of new and higher aesthetic and cultural needs. The interior influences people's mood, esteem and moral as much as do the good city environment, fashion, etc. Therefore by shaping the interior it is possible to create an impression of something special, individual, and unique.
Public design attracts the attention and long past are the days when it was as nondescript in the office as it was in the restaurant. Therefore contemporary interior designers, Tahov being one of them, can afford interior design to be impressive in their projects. Referring to design as an interior space, or to its designer, motivates other artists to work and express their potential. After all thing are rolling.
As a result of the vehement urbanization, contemporary interior responds to the glut of shapes and volumes in cities with dzen absorption. Not for long however because minimalism has grown tedious and has run dry while globalization is reminding of itself more and more, manifesting itself in the mixture of various styles and cultures, verging on superfluity, even kitsch. Eclecticism however has proven to be a blessing for artists of all spheres, and especially so for interior designers.
This is so because in shaping interior spaces it is possible for approaches and styles to co-exist in harmony, even for different ages to unconditionally come close an intertwine. Interior space, be it public or private, is the environment where you stay more than anywhere else. Depending on its intended function (public or private), in interior design it is important to seek to achieve harmony of colours, materials, lights, details, the composition. Having progressed from the bare essentials of survival, urban citizens demand material comfort, accessible luxury for everybody, they demand something extraordinary fusing with the surreal, cutting people loose from the daily grind, transporting them far and away in the unpredictable future time. Luxury accessible to everyone together with the extraordinary verging on the virtual are the supporting points in the JT brand interior design. Their understanding that interior design is not just a matter of furnishing the indoor space, but that it is also a total handling of space, shows in the already implemented projects of offices, restaurants, bars, private homes in almost all towns in Bulgaria, and even outside the country now.
The designer Julian Tahov and his team embrace the challenges of the modern city by designing and creating to the minutest detail the interior of the new cultural venues of the bi city, these are entertainment complexes, disco clubs, nightclubs and restaurants.
Following the idea that such establishments significantly attract mainly young people, Julian Tahov offers them a good portion of eclecticism with a specific view in mind: a mixture of past, resent and future which will make them feel in a different way. He casually gives them an access to the best ancient aesthetic models through prints of renaissance frescoes, or through decorative elements dating back to the most glamourous days of Ancient Hellas.
In the super modern interior solutions of the JT brand one can spot in the details royal symbols, symbols of orders of knighthood, of Olympic gods or Egyptian pharaohs. Thus, all that we have seen in documentaries and illustrated albums, in the museums and temples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Nepal, Greece, India becomes part of our everyday life without being in conflict with our assumptions of modern lifestyle. In this way the best models of the cultural treasury of humanity enter our lives, the great art, or at least a fraction of it, comes to us and doesn't just rest in galleries and private collections waiting for its admirers to visit it. Apart from that, you are left with the impression that you are a very special person, that you are a part of a giant civilization, and this is after all the purpose of the impression that the interior creates.
It is a challenge to decide on such a mixture of styles and epochs in one and and the same space, it is also a risk to do so. You could be accused of plagiarism, of overwhelming the perceptions, or of paying tribute to mass taste. Such accusations can be opposed with strong arguments like the one referring to the time when Perseus decapitated the Gorgon Medusa, placing her head on his shield so that its eyes would turn his enemies into stone. Since then it has lain not only on fruit bowls and vases but also on mosaic floor surfaces in Roman villas and castles, and it has also been borrowed as an emblem by Gianni Versace ever since then being an ornament on the fashion accessories of the brand. Just to mention by the way that these accessories are just splendid, extravagant and most luxurious, emblematic of present day's haute couture.
In Tahov's interior design projects the meanders in friezes on walls and furniture, the chapiters in Dorian or Corinthian style are proudly and bravely perched next to the ultra fashionable stripes and stone square bricks. They are interestingly reflected in mirrors which create a false impression of space and can also be confusing about what is up or down.
In such an environment our senses can't be overwhelmed by conflicting messages because the messages are not in conflict but rather exist in harmony just like different spices and seemingly odd product combinations are in harmony in fusion cuisine. It is not only the mass consumer but also the people with a more elegant taste that aim high when it comes to originality bordering on surreality in interior design. Once having become aware of this demand, it is further developed and more aesthetic, it is turned into a commodity, a product of imaginative power and good knowledge of existing traditions and modern necessities.
This is how a new type of stylistics comes to life, one which is a reflection of the age of space, the age of computerizing everyday life. This is made easier with the help of new high-tech materials used in implementing interior design projects. In this respect Tahov's choice of mirror and metal surfaces in private interior is gaining ground. Even more so are the clubs and discos whose interiors appear seemingly virtual and in which he has used in turns the warmth of leather, fur and cold reflective materials. Sometimes it is the floor and not the ceiling that is made of glass and is illuminated from within. The interplay of light and shade goes even beyond the limits of the fantastic and takes us to an almost virtual dimension.
Modern interior design is diverging more and more from minimalism and monotony, stepping into the deep and alluring eclecticism, which is the realm of the harmonic mixing of styles and cultures reflecting people's cosmopolitanism and the globalization of the modern world. People's idea of relaxation and pleasure excludes the simple straight lines and identifies with grandioseness and luxury similar to the best models in the imperial courts.
The suggestion that the people of the 21st century will eat food pills or concentrated canned food like an astronaut even at home did not stand the aspiration for a greater lavishness in food and cutlery on the table. The home of the elegant people of today are moving away from the Eastern simplicity and and the American high-tech lifestyle. The demands towards the home and towards any type of closed space includes not only comfort but also luxury. Just like any other artist, the interior designer is trying to peep into the future, to predict it and include it in his/her art in an attempt to access it and invite it into our lives.
There are a variety of devices to do so, the opportunities to improvise are inexhaustible if one likes improvisation even if it means to break some rules and traditions, which is the case with Tahov. It's self-evident from his work that it is a challenge for him to be at the cutting edge experimenting with shapes, colours, materials, reshaping the space by adding and reducing volumes, by daring to mix authentic and super modern elements. To him classicism is to be paid great tribute but it is also subject of paraphrasing and even replicating.
He does all this very skillfully and elegantly aiming to achieve a pompous, grandiose feel, which used to be accessible only to a small social class in the past. He considers mixing styles from different ages to be similar to producing jazz music; while it may look as easy as a game, it is at the same time a dangerous endeavor.
What if not the challenges or the breaking the limits would make the artist outdo himself, achieve impressive and exciting results, and be extremely satisfied? This is Julain Tahov's personal philosophy interwoven in his projects some of which won him the prize Man of the 21st Century.
The city of tomorrow – an achievement of the people of tomorrow
History shows that art has always been irrevocably and closely connected to the political and economic situation of the state. It is in periods of economic upsurge that some of the greatest achievements of the human spirit have taken place. Today, upon Bulgaria's accession to the EU, we become witnesses to a new upsurge in art. Having now become officially part of the European cultural community and being under the conditions of higher level of mobility and informational exchange, Bulgarian artists including architects and designers are in a constant creative search of a new spirit and challenges.
Innovation looks towards the future but it masterfully takes upon itself classic elements as well. Every artist is striving for his/her own individuality, for a unique personal style and expression. The most important thing for an artist is to leave a trace in his/her area, to move on and on, to surprise and make his/her audience happy. Tahov admits that he is not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them. He believes it is important for him to be impressive and extraordinary, to leave a trace in the city where he lives and works.
His work can be divided in three different syles: modern and grandiose, cosmic, and natural and grandiose, which he is trying to develop and instill with meaning. His ultimate aim is to achieve something new and complete, something that doesn't need any additions or reductions.