We talked to the head of the RIGroup company Janna Bullok about design, development and art…

Janna, is building and design your initial vocation?

It all started 20 years ago, when I first started working in decoration and then development. I studied to become a philologist and teach Russian language and literature. But I wanted to test myself in something bigger. To start off I went to study in North Carolina and that turned into an MBA. That was at the end of the 80s.

How did RIGroup become successful?

We restored our very own first house in a very good location in the centre of New York. I’ve been offered to set up a show-case there. In 2003, we organized the first ever design show of this type, we were marketing ourselves very effectively, became friends with all the realtors, decorators and architects and quickly became successful.

And now your show comes to Moscow, well just outside the city…

It will be our fifth one; all the ones before we’ve had in the United States. The Russian show will take place at the “Pavlovskaya Sloboda” development, which is kilometre 26 on Novorizhskoye highway. The level of participants of the show will be the same as at the famous designers’ show in Miami. The idea of having this show in Russia received support of the New-York Design Museum and Phillips de Pury auction house.

What celebrities will take part in this project?

There will be a lot of designers from all over the world, some of which have been to Russia before, while others will come for the first time. I would like to emphasise that all the biggest actors of the design market will participate in this project. I mean here the auction house Phillips de Pury, as well as Kreo and Albion galleries, which are the main institutions and real bulwark of the world design. As for the designers, I would like to mention Frank Gehry, Tom Dixon, The Campana Brothers, Herve Van Der Straten. These are crème de la crème of the world top architects and designers, who I’m honoured to work with all the time.

What is your opinion on Russian decorators? Do we have enough in Russia? Are they good professionals?

Russia certainly has very gifted décor artists. However, there aren’t very many. And the only places we could see their work at, would be top class restaurants, which not everybody could afford. And the shows you have in Russia, do not represent neither Russian design market, nor Russian design itself. Even the dedicated décor magazines don’t always publish the best works.

Who decorated your house in the United States?

I did. However, I dot come there very often. Biggest share of my life I spend on the air planes. So in this sense I am the worse shoed shoemaker’s wife.

How often do you change your house design and how often do you think one should?

Sadly, I change my house very rarely. Every two years some minor details get changed. Well, if you have a European house in mind, which is usually chosen once and for all with intention to give it to the owners’ heirs, you should probably change interior design every ten years.

Janna, what is the most exciting part of your work?

Well, my favourite part is the actual work with architects and designers on the project. And the most exciting would be its implementation. It’s the greatest joy, to see with your own very eyes, that something that was a mere idea not that long ago, becomes real. After all, what’s the essence of our work? The houses are built, people live in them, children are born. Life goes on.