DESIGN WITH CULTURAL CONFLUENCE

Dubai-based interior designer Pallavi Dean has covered the entire gamut — residential, commercial, institutional and hospitality spaces, all in a career spanning two decades. We join her on a retrospective ride

- NITIJA IMMANUEL

My design mantra is simple; design is for the everyday. It is tempting to get seduced by the instant gratification of designing a beautiful thing or space that gets thousands of likes on Instagram and wins awards. But what really matters is the experience of a person using a space you’ve designed on a random Tuesday afternoon, long after you’re gone, says Pallavi Dean, Founder and Creative Director of Roar.

Formerly known as Pallavi Dean Interiors, the 2013-borne eponymous label was rebranded as Roar in 2018. It now features an all-female star team, which according to her, in a nutshell, is all things, Fierce, agile and bold. She explains further, At Roar, we say we’re 50% wild, 50% tame. The wild side is the creativity, the ideas, the artistic flair, the flights of imagination and storytelling that gives spaces that spark. The tame side is the technical rigour. Think of them as funky creatives when they need to be, but grown-ups in suits when you need to get the job done.