30th October 2026 | IN DESIGN ADVICE | BY SBID Share Tweet Pinterest LinkedIn Lisa Gentile, Founder & Designer at Phasezero Design Studio, has given her insights into the industry. I studied architecture first in Naples and then in Venice and have spent my career working across the full breadth of a project, from the structural decisions that shape a building to the interior layer that makes it a home. I founded Phasezero Design Studio to bring that architectural discipline into residential and hospitality design, working with clients who want one team holding the vision from the planning stage through to the finished interior. My practice focuses on high-end residential, listed buildings, historic restoration, and full house refurbishments, with work in London and internationally. Phasezero Design Studio Why did you want to work in the interior design profession? It happened before I even knew what to call it. When I was twelve, our class was asked to design a dream house. While most children drew something that looked like a house, I designed something rather different. There was a Zen garden. A bedroom that was essentially a swimming pool, with a bed floating in the middle of it. A completely empty bathroom, reached by stairs descending into a marble bath that felt more like a private pool. There was a ballroom, a room designed simply to sit and watch leaves in a glass column, and a dining room centred around a single table. I didn’t know it then, but that project contained many of the things that still define the way I think about design today: the relationship between people and space, the experience of moving through a room, the importance of materials, nature, light, and the idea that a home can be much more than a collection of functional rooms. I simply knew that I loved imagining spaces. Phasezero Design Studio Which elements of your profession do you enjoy the most? The material decisions. Wood, marble, limestone, plaster: these are not just finishes, they are colour and texture in themselves, and the homes that feel genuinely considered tend to be the ones that understand that. I also enjoy the problem-solving that comes with listed and period buildings, working within constraints that most designers would see as obstacles, and finding that those constraints are often what gives a project its character. The grey-and-white default tells you something about a project’s ambition. The most interesting work starts where that ends. Phasezero Design Studio What has been your most memorable career highlight from the past year? After three years working mainly in Italy, across two large hospitality projects and a full residential commission, I came back to London earlier this year with two projects ready to build. One had been designed while I was away, and seeing them come to life has been extraordinary. The reaction from clients, workers and collaborators when I walk them through the site and show them what has been built and what is still to come tells you everything you need to know. That moment, when the design stops being drawings and becomes real space, never gets old. Phasezero Design Studio What are your favourite types of projects to work on and why? Listed buildings and historic restorations. They require you to start by understanding what the building already is before you make a single decision about what goes inside it. There is a discipline to that, a respect for the structure and its history, that I find genuinely motivating. Working in Italy on buildings that are centuries old made me want more of exactly that kind of work. That is the kind of space I want to touch. Phasezero Design Studio What are the most challenging aspects of working in interior design? The gap between architecture and interior design in how projects are typically procured. Many clients appoint an architect for the structural and planning work and then bring in a separate interior designer at the end, by which point the spatial decisions are already made. A lot of value gets lost in that handoff. Getting clients to understand that these two things are the same conversation, and that the earlier you bring in a team that can hold both, the better the outcome, that is still the most common challenge. Phasezero Design Studio What do you wish you knew before working in the field? Two things. First, that the commercial side of running a practice requires as much attention as the design side, and that the two are not in opposition. A sustainable practice is what allows you to do the work you actually want to do. I would have invested earlier in being clearer about what makes Phasezero distinctive and who we are most useful to. Second, that you never stop learning about materials. Every project introduces something we have never worked with before. That is one of the things I love most about this work, but it is also something nobody really prepares you for. Phasezero Design Studio If you could give one tip to aspiring designers, what would it be? Learn to read a building before you try to change it. The most lasting interiors are the ones that feel like they belong to the architecture rather than sitting on top of it. That instinct, understanding what a place already is and making decisions that serve it, is harder to teach than colour theory or CAD, but it is what separates good design from genuinely considered work. Phasezero Design Studio How do you see the interior design industry evolving in the year ahead? Some clients are becoming more sophisticated about the quality of what is inside their homes, which is exciting because it opens up real conversations about design. The wider market is still pulled toward the greige default, which feels like a missed opportunity, a kind of collective decision to make no decision. There is also growing interest in restoration and adaptive reuse, buildings with a history worth preserving rather than erasing. That work requires real knowledge of historic fabric, materials and planning constraints, and I think the practices that have invested in that expertise are well placed. What does being an SBID Accredited Interior Designer mean to you? I will be honest: I did not give accreditation much thought for a long time. I had a wide range of experience and felt that the work spoke for itself. Then I worked alongside a designer who turned out to have no background in the field at all, someone who was very good at winning clients but had no foundation for delivering what she had promised. It was a difficult experience, and it made me think seriously about the value of something that distinguishes people who have built their knowledge over a career from people who have not. That is what SBID means to me. It also connects you to a community of designers who take the profession seriously, which I value. Phasezero Design Studio About Phasezero Design Studio Phasezero Design Studio is a London-based architectural interior design practice specialising in high-end residential projects, listed buildings, and historic restoration. Founded by Lisa Gentile, the studio takes an architecture-first approach: every project begins with the building itself before any design decisions are made. Working across full refurbishment, interior design, and landscape, Phasezero delivers projects from structural and planning stage through to the finished interior, with a single team holding the vision throughout. The studio works with clients in London and internationally, with completed projects spanning Victorian listed apartments, Amalfi Coast residences, and large-scale residential refurbishments. Visit Profile If you’d like to feature your news or stories on SBID.org, get in touch to find out more. 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