Colonial house of the forties on the Filipino island of Cebu. The combination of Greek and Filipino cultural traditions in the details of the interior

Passing the gallery

Transfer: Alexey Dramashko

Materials: - (c) East News/Inside/Terestchenko

Magazine: (48) 2001

The midday heat slowly rocks the palm leaf. Birds doze in the thickets of bougainvillea. Even numerous dogs do not bark - no strength. When the sun is at its zenith, life stops. Ria and Yuri Augusti return home for lunch, but all they can swallow before falling into a pair of huge chairs is a hot soup from the leaves of a local plant. “Life in paradise is sometimes so tiring”, Ria laughs For Filipina Ria, her Greek husband Yuri and their daughter Kifu, whose name means “twilight beginning,” paradise is the colonial house of the forties in Banava, on the Philippine island of Cebu. When the family settled here, we decided to demolish several internal walls: "The sun should illuminate every corner of our home and be reflected in the floor of local rare woods," - explains Ria. For the last ten years, Augusti has been designing furniture from local materials — coconut, bamboo, fish skin, and goat wool. Their products are highly valued and sold in the most famous stores in the world: Barneys in New York, Harvey Nichols in London, Takashimaya in Tokyo, Papaya Studio in Sydney. The Augusti Family House in Cebu is the place where they develop new interior details. "Our friends are the most objective critics," says Ria, pointing to their latest creation, the Donut table. "Within a few weeks, Yury tried his best to convince me to offer this model to our customers - and now she has become a bestseller all over the world." Older items, such as the 1987 Sylvie chair made from coconut shells, have already found their place in the collections of many collectors. The buffet, similar to the turtle shell, resembles a fragment of scenery for a fantastic film. “We live within our own design history,” explains Yuri, sitting in a chair inlaid with mother of pearl. Maybe his words are the key to understanding the charm of this unusual house, every detail of the interior of which is a combination of two dissimilar cultural traditions - Greek and Philippine. Unlike, however, thanks to the creative talent of designers who create such a unique "paradoxical harmony".