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In an interview with Livingetc, Michaelis Boyd partner Christina Gregoriou advised homeowners and designers to address awkward areas early in a project instead of leaving them until last. She described how the studio turned a structural column and small niche at Miiro Paris into a custom seating feature, while the source gives only limited details about another example involving a statement bathtub.
Michaelis Boyd partner Christina Gregoriou is advising people planning renovations to deal with awkward spaces early, rather than treating them as leftovers after the main design is settled. In an interview with Livingetc, she said that unused corners, narrow corridors and exposed structural features can become defining parts of a home or hospitality project when designers work with them rather than try to hide them.
Gregoriou’s recommendation is to identify the parts of a plan that are hardest to resolve at the outset. These can include odd recesses, long corridors and unused corners, as well as columns revealed during demolition or added to meet structural requirements. She said postponing decisions about those areas can leave them looking like afterthoughts, even if the rest of a project is well designed.
She pointed to the renovation of Miiro Paris, where Michaelis Boyd worked on a hotel formed by two heritage Haussmann-era buildings connected from different streets. According to Gregoriou, the secondary entrance was dark and narrow and had previously served back-of-house functions, offices and windowless meeting rooms. The studio chose to rework the use of that area as an intimate, moody speakeasy.
During construction strip-out, the team found a structural column that created a small niche with no obvious practical use. Gregoriou said the designers responded by fitting a custom love seat into the pocket, turning what she described as a difficult feature into a memorable element of the space. The source also mentions a Michaelis Boyd bathroom design for WOW!house, created with House of Rohl, where the team selected a large round bathtub as the room’s central feature. The provided account cuts off before describing that project further.
Why Early Design Decisions Matter
The advice concerns a common renovation problem: unusual spaces and structural elements can be expensive or impractical to remove, yet leaving them unresolved can make a finished room feel compromised. Gregoriou’s examples suggest that early planning can connect a constraint to the room’s purpose, rather than forcing a solution after other decisions have been made.
For homeowners, that means identifying awkward features during initial planning and discussing their function with the design team before finalizing layouts and finishes. The Miiro Paris example shows one possible design response, not a universal formula: a custom seat suited that particular niche and hospitality setting. Other spaces may call for storage, lighting, circulation changes or a different use, depending on their dimensions and structural limits.
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From Hotel Design to Home Renovations
Michaelis Boyd is a London architecture and design practice founded in 1995 by architects Tim Boyd and Alex Michaelis, according to the Livingetc report. The studio works across hospitality, residential and commercial projects. The article uses its hotel and exhibition work to illustrate a principle Gregoriou says can apply at different scales, including private homes.
The interview focuses on how designers interpret the existing “frame” of a project: its plan, structure and other features that limit what can be changed. At Miiro Paris, the studio reconsidered the role of a secondary entrance and then incorporated a newly exposed column into a seating feature. The report presents this as an example of responding to a specific building, rather than applying a single style or solution to every difficult space.
Details Missing From the Source
The supplied Livingetc material does not state the article’s publication date, and it gives no measurements, costs or technical details for the Miiro Paris seating feature. It also does not explain how the studio addressed building regulations, accessibility or other practical requirements in that project. The example therefore illustrates a design approach but does not establish that the same intervention would work in another building.
The source text ends partway through Gregoriou’s answer about the WOW!house bathroom. Further details about that design, including how the bathtub affected the room’s layout or how the collaboration with House of Rohl shaped the project, are not available in the material provided. The report also does not include comments from homeowners, clients or other designers assessing the advice.
Applying the Advice to a Renovation
The interview does not announce a new project, deadline or forthcoming design milestone. Its practical next step for readers is to flag difficult spaces during the initial planning stage and ask a qualified design team how structural, layout and functional constraints affect possible uses. Where a feature involves structural work, decisions should be based on professional assessment rather than appearance alone.
For the Miiro Paris example, the reported outcome is the custom love seat integrated into the niche. The supplied source provides no further updates on the hotel or the WOW!house bathroom, so any later changes or additional project details remain unreported here.
Key Questions
What is Christina Gregoriou advising people renovating a home to do?
She advises them to identify and plan for awkward areas from the start, rather than leaving them until the rest of the design is complete.
What happened to the structural column at Miiro Paris?
Gregoriou said the column created a small niche during the hotel renovation. Michaelis Boyd fitted a custom love seat into the space, making the feature part of the design.
How did the studio use Miiro Paris’s secondary entrance?
According to Gregoriou, the dark, narrow entrance had been used for back-of-house operations, offices and windowless meeting rooms. The team reimagined it as a moody, intimate speakeasy.
Does the interview explain the full WOW!house bathroom design?
No. The supplied source says the team selected a grand round bathtub as the room’s central feature, but the text ends before providing further details.
Source: livingetc.com
