Workroom is an Australian contemporary interior design studio specializing in the commercial, retail, residential and hospitality industries. Each project is a feat of design and engineering, a delicate balance between aesthetics and function. John Bornas and his partner Jo-Anne Gleeson founded the Workroom studio in 1999 with the simple aim of making ordinary things beautiful and finding elegant solutions to complex architectural problems.

Yinji：Could you first introduce the design concept？
Workroom：I see architecture as art with a purpose. Spaces can affect you. They can affect you emotionally, physically and psychologically.  It can invoke a feeling that you are walking into something beyond its walls.  These walls are simply the medium with which we design space. The space we inhabit. Through a subjective, personal, artistic expression of someone’s brief, we can create spaces that affect beyond its walls.Our mission is to create contemporary, timeless, elegance.

Yinji：What situations would inspire you to start a design? Which quality is the most important for you?
Workroom：We always start with a sketch.  Using pen and paper.  No computers.The first idea is always most important. We try to retain that initial sketch all the way through to the final product.

Yinji：Out of all the projects you have done is there a favorite project and why?
Workroom：Workroom：Every project is special.  Sometimes it’s the site, sometimes our client, sometimes it’s the way we used a particular material.  But every project has qualities that make it a favourite.

Yinji：Do you long for the permanence of building while designing?
Workroom：Permanence for us comes from the design itself.  We strive for contemporary, timeless, elegance.  That timelesness is about creating a building that retains its contemporary nature through many years

Yinji：Have you ever experienced a hard time in your career? How did you get through it?
Workroom：I think hard times come and go.  The important thing is understanding what your core values are.  By always coming back to those values when making decisions about what the practice should do, we can ensure that whilst we may expand and contract over time, the practice at its core, remains the same.

Yinji：What do you think is the best way to learn design?
Workroom：For me, the best way to learn design is by designing.  Making mistakes and learning from them.  Experiencing other people’s design, travelling and learning from other cultures’ design.