Rashi Vijan on Designing Luxury Interiors That Evoke Strong Cultural Identity

Liezel Britz

Good day, you are listening to the FCI London podcast featuring some of London's most influential designers. If you are new to or don't know too much about interior design, but you really feel like your house needs some help in a big or a small way, then this podcast is for you. I am your host, Liezel Britz, and today I am speaking to the renowned interior designer, Rashi Vijan. She is the founder and principal designer of Clique Design Studio.

Operating across London, Mumbai and Dubai. Rashi is known for prioritizing emotional impact in design, creating spaces that evoke strong sensory and cultural responses. She's also renowned for balancing artistry with logistics and delivering high pressure projects on time without compromising quality.

Rashi, welcome. We are delighted to have you with us today.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Thank you, Liezel

Liezel Britz

Great, well let's head straight into it. Let's maybe talk a bit about the designer behind the studio. Operating studios in London, Mumbai, and Dubai must give you quite a perspective on luxury.

So I would really like to know where do you see the concept of luxury evolving the fastest and why would you say that is?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I would say the fastest evolving luxury market in my experience is Mumbai and Dubai. Purely because I feel the evolution of materials, the evolution of the kind of designers and the products out there has taken place more so in the Asia side of the world. and logistically, it reaches these places much faster. People have a lot more spending capacity.

Liezel Britz

Peace.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

and are traveling so much, getting so many ideas and, you know, really have that sense of luxury and the ability to say that I want something no one else has versus in London, this feels like it used to be the case many years ago. And there has been a very big logistical turnaround since COVID. There has been restrictions on, you know,

Liezel Britz

Peace.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

so much spending due to tax laws, people exiting, all of that stuff. I think these things are really changing the dynamic of where luxury is emerging in the real sense.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, that totally makes sense. And you work across very different sectors. You work across residential, corporate, hospitality sectors. What would you say is a design mindset from hospitality that the residential world is still yet to fully embrace?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I personally love hospitality more than all the other sectors just because you can be so bold. And you know, why do people even go to restaurants or hotels? They want to be transported, right? That's something residential sector really often misses. It's because people tend to go for more elegant, you know, evergreen type of designs. I would call them safe. But people...

the, you know, in residential design, sometimes not just the designers, but even the clients miss the point of having spaces that would transport you and, you know, be a bit bold or be a bit, you know, have a different mood altogether in a certain part of your house, maybe. So that I think would be a mindset that I would love for residential sector to imbibe.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, and would you say both sectors can learn from each other or would you say it's more flowing into the residential sectors is a better way to think about it?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I think hospitality already emerged from learning from residential and it takes it 10 steps ahead with all of the logistical and the quality and maintenance issues that any residents would face. So I would say residential has far more to learn from hospitality when it comes to a design perspective and also maintenance perspective.

Because in residential projects, people do tend to go for very high-end items, which are very hard to maintain as well. And obviously there's not as much footfall, but when it comes to new products being manufactured or innovations coming in, you see that more and more people are going towards low-maintenance products because they find them more ecological, a bit more sustainable.

You won't need to spend too much money or too many products taking care of them. And it saves you time as well. So I feel like that's something residential can learn from hospitality.

Liezel Britz

So more smarter design as well in that way. Yeah, okay, great. And I wanna ask you often weave heritage architectural cues into modern hospitality settings. Do you believe design can actively preserve cultural memory?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yes, I do believe that taking cultural cues like craftsmanship, motifs, textures, color palettes or patterns, they are essentially not just making your space unique or adding character, but the fact that we using traditional techniques in some of our modern projects is preserving the tradition in itself and the culture is going forward.

Maybe in a way that the new generation can relate to it. But I feel like it's a way of preserving culture and heritage through design.

Liezel Britz

Sort of having best of both then in a way, isn't it?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, mean, you know, if people don't know the history behind things and if people don't know why things are a certain way, they can't really appreciate it until they feel it, they touch it, you know, they're part of that environment. And then the questions arise that, why does that look so different? know, what's the story behind this? That is actually bringing forward the cultural, you know, nuances and the stories behind the history of why these things exist.

Otherwise the new generation will just like look at it, a picture, upload on Instagram and leave.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, it has no depth. I guess it gives depth to the whole design. Yeah, great. Okay, well, let's move into talking about some details and the real truth behind luxury interiors. Now, you completed a very special project at The Grove, which I understand is a Grade II-listed project in a place that, as I understand, even Queen Elizabeth loved.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

For sure.

Liezel Britz

And it was done in such a short span of time, just 3.5 weeks. Now let me first ask how did you accomplish such a feat?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

This was heavy, heavy, heavy logistical planning and a lot of offsite construction and a lot of planning for fit out techniques that would not disturb the greater listed structures. And we had to, know, refit a space of 3000 square feet, maybe more than that.

Liezel Britz

Yes.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

But the hotel already had staff on payroll, they already had bookings, they couldn't stay shut for more than a certain period of time. So either they gave us a challenge that you complete everything in this much time or you do it in parts, but that means you're going to have to come in after gaps of months. And as a designer, I wanted to really make sure everything comes in tight together versus, you know, when things come in parts, sometimes there's a mismatch.

And I just wanted to avoid that at all costs. So we did like months and months of logistical planning. Every little design detail was pre-drawn, pre-ordered, know, pre-discussed with all the builders. They literally had to just come on site and fit, fit, fit, fit, fit, fit everything and just make sure everything aligns. Yeah. So that's how we did it.

Liezel Britz

I can imagine, wow. Now I can imagine that must have taken even more planning than just a normal project, right?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yes, because in a normal project we have the flexibility that clients sometimes change their minds, sometimes there's delays in logistical deliveries, stuff like that. We can move things around and do something else first, but here we had to have a larger expanded team and also deep dive into all sorts of logistical issues because most things were coming from out of the country.

That's the only thing that made it possible in the budget and the timeline.

Yeah.

Liezel Britz

I've seen some photos and it really is exquisite. You maybe explain to me what would you say was your thinking behind the actual designs that you chose and why did you pick these certain things that you placed?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Thank you.

So this restaurant was originally a French restaurant and it got taken over by an Indian restaurant called Madhus. And it was within the golf resort setting of the Grove. And when we spoke to the team, the general manager, the owner about the history of the space and how they would like us to include that, they spoke about the Queen coming and visiting.

The left wing of the building because that's what overlooks the golf course and the back garden rooms that she used to come and sit there and this was during the colonial era. So we tried to kind of go back to some of the places in India that the Queen visited and loved during the colonial era. One of them was Lodi Gardens and just the way architecturally Lodi Gardens was set up, the interiors of it, the kind of spaces and the way it flowed.

It was kind of similar and symmetrical to the way this space flowed, going up and down, room to room, in a rectangular setting. So we just kind of took that as inspiration and took textures and motifs and bone china inlays and these type of ideas and used them in pretty much every element of our project and still made it quite modern and airy and full of light.

So it doesn't look like you've been transported to a palace.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, so inviting but not over the top in a sense. Okay.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yes, it should still feel like an upmarket restaurant. You know, that's what the brief was.

Liezel Britz

Yes, wow that is amazing and you I probably I can think that you used a strong connection to nature as well if you say you you used inspiration from the gardens. So can I maybe ask then moving into the next thing what would you say is the part of the story you know in working in such a short time frame that the industry might avoid discussing despite it being like utterly fascinating to be able to accomplish such a feat.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, I would say no one ever talks about logistics in the industry unless you're on the table placing the order. You know, everyone talks about the design and, you know, the impact it creates and all the sustainable elements and stuff. But most of the time, would say 80 % of the times, elements get removed or rejected because of the logistics.

Liezel Britz

I see.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

This is something that we had to really emphasize and explain to the clients that to achieve this, you're giving us a very easy task to design, but you're giving us a mammoth task of logistical planning, which is something we need to focus on more. So they needed to be a bit more flexible about, you know, certain things that were and were not possible because it just wouldn't be achieved in that timeline.

Liezel Britz

Makes total sense. Well done again, it really looks exquisite. From what I've seen, I would love to read it someday, but yeah, for what I've seen, it looked really fascinating. Moving into a bit of a different question, maybe you sourced globally from Denmark, Turkey, Italy, India. Let's maybe chat about two parts of that. Is there maybe a country that you would say provides craftsmanship with reliable consistency? And maybe another one that...

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Thank you.

Thank you.

Liezel Britz

Doesn't quite fit the bill in that sense that maybe has has tasted your patience in past.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Oh, Italy and India always test my patience because their timelines can just vary a lot. And when it comes to, you know, some short, short scale projects which have quick deadlines, especially in corporate or hospitality, these things matter. But I would say Denmark and Turkey have always been great with the quality timeline and also, you know, the ease of logistics.

Liezel Britz

Any?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Not just coming to London just because it's close by, but even to the buyer Mumbai. It's quick, it's easy, and I feel like there is some sort of flexibility in their markets which allows them to also send people to do fit-outs for you because they care about the overall quality and it should be fitted right and by their team. So I really appreciate that and whenever we can use them in the budget allows for it, we do use these suppliers more.

Liezel Britz

The fact that they're reliable actually, and you choose the suppliers or does the client sometimes tell you, listen, I want the supply from this place or this place.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Generally, the clients leave it to us to choose the suppliers. We give them lots of options and lot of price points to compare And then they go ahead and choose because there's just so many in the market. What happens is sometimes, for example, a client in Dubai would just go to the showrooms available to them or a client in London would just, you know, go online and see like, what can I get in like the next 10 days? And that's the, you know, it really restricts them, but they also know that the designs we're providing are much more bespoke and they don't exist in any of these websites. So when we offer them all of these global suppliers that can meet the budget and the design and be bespoke, they just tell us, what you handle it.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually what you want to do, right? You want more freedom from your side to also give them the best that you can give them.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Exactly. And why wouldn't anyone go for this, right? If you're getting a bespoke item for the same price as you would get something ready-made, which probably 15 other people have, they would obviously go for the bespoke item.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, yeah. So just trusting your expertise is actually the better way to go. And that's it, of course. Yeah, awesome. Well, let me ask about this. Well, your high-needle clients often say they want ethical design, but they really want the inconvenience that can come with it. Have you maybe noticed a gap there between the values that they express that they want to follow and actually that happening in the real world and the choices that they make in the real world?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah.

Yes, so in the design briefs, in the initial stages, these things always come up that there are certain values and certain ethical or sustainable elements that they would like to incorporate in the project. And up until the point where we're placing orders, we stand quite strong with it. And then when it comes down to actual, you know, restrictions with certain kind of labor restrictions or material restrictions when it comes to export and import. Certain things are sometimes not allowed, certain things people don't have expertise to fit. And because of that, a lot of changes get made. And this generally tends to happen in like residential and hospitality sector. But in corporate sector, things are a little more straightforward and I think, you know, things are more mass ordered versus one of items. So people are able to achieve our requirements in the ethical requirements in corporate projects a bit more. I think that's been the reality.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, so that's actually how it plays out in the real world.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, but we do try and stick to it as much as possible. But when the project progresses, the clients tend to obviously realize that some things are just, you know, out of their hands and some things are not making sense when it comes to like spending all of that extra money or, you know, waiting a few more months for it to arrive. It's just not making sense. So people quickly just be like, give us an alternative and we go for that.

Liezel Britz

Hmm. Yeah.

And I'm sure you have the expertise to tell them you still have something to give that is still sticking with the original design plan that you had in mind. So sticking with something different might not be the biggest problem if it helps with another problem.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I always give my clients plan A and plan B together, but I always tell them we are going to stick to plan A no matter what. And then when such situations arrive, they already know what to expect from plan B. So it's not something that, we need to get back to the drawing board and re-plan everything. We think of these things from before.

Liezel Britz

That makes sense. Yeah, from the start. Yeah, so it's not a surprise to your clients. Yeah. Wow, that's an awesome way to approach it.

Liezel Britz

Let me ask in terms of talking about the clients and their expectations. Do you think they are a bit more simple and safe in just London's general upmarket?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yes.

Liezel Britz

Or would you say there's a bit of a mismatch between what you can provide in terms of bold design and what they sometimes are afraid to approach?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I'm saying it as a general sense, but in my experience, London has always been a buyer's market rather than in Asia, like Dubai or Mumbai. It's a bespoke market. Every little thing from, you know, your bedside tables to like, you know, artwork on the wall, everything gets made on site.

And that's why they're able to have that level of luxury and that level of bespoke design. And know, uniqueness versus in London, people I believe think that bespoke design is a lot more expensive and kind of shy away from it, which is what makes everything looking a bit similar. You know, all the new apartments coming up, new houses coming up. You can see from the streets, you know, into their windows.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

They have almost the same chandeliers. They have that same monochromatic paintings on the walls. I think it's because people believe that it'll be more expensive if they go out and get it made. But what they don't understand is it will be more expensive if you get it made yourself. But if you go with a designer who has global suppliers, they can get anything made in your budget, which is something London has yet to learn in a broader sense.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I feel in hospitality people already know this, but in residential it's only a very small niche of clients who understand that we can get things made from outside and we're okay. But most people just feel like, would rather just go and buy it from that shop.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. Wow, that is so interesting. So I hope our listeners are like really opening up their ears to hear because that's a really good to know, you know, that your designer can actually get some beta materials for you and it's not necessarily outside of your budget. That's great. Well, let's maybe move into a bit of a fun element to design. Of course, there's a fun element as well. So let's chat a bit about that.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Liezel Britz

Can I ask you what is one luxury material that looks expensive on Instagram but you know it would leave you disappointed in a real world project?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

You know, in half the things I've seen on the market, it's always the metals. When they are, you know, PVD coated and you know that you get the finish of the bronze versus the dull aged bronze and the shiny gold and the silvers, whatever you see on Instagram, it never arrives like that. And forget Instagram, even Pinterest, even on their own websites, things arrive much differently. So...

Liezel Britz

See you.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

You have to go with trusted suppliers and you have to understand that your designers already experimented a lot with these things and you kind of understand that they're making the choice, the right choice for you. Worse is you're telling your builder, you my designer said I want gold trims, just bring me gold trims. It's going to look so different when it arrives. And people only realize it once they've already bought it.

Liezel Britz

Yeah and then it's too late you know or what you can't send it back all the time you know yeah okay and maybe just another fun question what would you say if interior design had an olympics which event do you think would you win?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Yeah. Which event would I win?

Liezel Britz

So like, let me give example like speed sourcing, maybe mood board sprinting or negotiating with contractors.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I would say negotiating with contractors because I always tell my clients one thing, like I will find the best quality item for the cheapest price for you, no matter where in the world I have to go and bring it from. Like I will travel everywhere and I will go to every contractor and I'll go to every vendor, but you will get the best price from me. And that's why I keep getting projects.

Liezel Britz

Okay.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

From word of mouth because people actually see it come to life in their budget. And it looks 10 times better than someone else who's just gone off and bought something off the rack. I feel like that has created my niche in the market, the bespoke elements that I provide in my projects for the right price and contractor negotiations and everything.

Liezel Britz

Good, yeah. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Well, that's a good thing, know, always going the extra mile, I'm sure that pays off.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, because I'm really hands-on with this stuff.

Yeah, it has, over there, it has.

Liezel Britz

Awesome man. Just another fun question. If your clients could hear your inner monologue when you're on site, what is one line that you think they would hear most often?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

My God. I think the one line is, I'd rather do it this way because it fits the vibe. And I keep saying that, like, let's do it this way because it fits the vibe. Let's do it that way because it fits the vibe. Anything else? Like, maybe great, but it doesn't fit the vibe.

Liezel Britz

Okay.

Yeah, all about the vibe. Awesome.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, because you have to like feel a certain way when you're in this space. It can't just like keep looking good. You'll get bored of good looking things, but you won't get bored of like feeling good.

Liezel Britz

That's true.

Yeah, because ultimately it's about how the space feels, not just how it looks, And if let's maybe talk about a trend. If you could erase one overused interior trend from the last decade, what would it be?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Exactly. I think I would love to erase the trend that's trying very hard for a long time, but it's just not getting there is glossy, bright colored furniture pieces. You know, a lot of like very high end designers tend to go into that just, you know, to remove a collection that showcases primary colors and glossy finishes. And it never takes off, but it's been happening for a while now. And I hope it.

Liezel Britz

Okay.

You just fades. You're saying it's just not working.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Tones down a bit. Yeah, because it's very specific to certain kind of spaces that it would look good in, you know, versus it being something that you can stick in anywhere.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. And let me maybe ask just about some expensive items. There one of the most, let me ask, one of the most unnecessarily items that has been unnecessarily expensive that you've been asked to source? And did you actually source it or did you advise the client in a different way?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Well, it was a hospitality client and amazing eclectic personality. I mean, I had the most fun dealing with this person. But the one product that he asked me to source is a 30 seater conference table. And he asked us to design it and he asked us to design the mechanisms for it where it would break up into like buffet tables and dining tables. But it had three layers on its surface where you had a textured base with glass and metal on top and then the actual stands would be on wheels but no one should be able to see the wheels and there should be like these key mechanisms that you just like kind of lock each table into and it should look absolutely seamless and we gave him so many alternatives of like different price points of like 12,000, 15,000, 30,000.

But he liked the one that was for 60,000 pounds, one table. And he actually was adamant that, know what, you guys designed it and I like it. So let's just go with it. And we were like, but is it worth it? Do you know what I mean? It's in a hotel. And he's like, look, my hotel looks like the Rolls Royce showroom. There has to be a Rolls Royce standing in here. And I was like, that makes sense. Yeah.

Liezel Britz

Wow, okay, that's quite a bit of money. No. But this never was with Rolls Royce. Wow.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

So I'm not gonna go for like a BMW standing in a Rolls Royce showroom. So yes, we did source it for him. We designed it, we got it made from Citrus. They're obviously a very high-end brand and they do bespoke manufacturing as well. So it was a very interesting process for one table.

Liezel Britz

You fucking ima- And how long did it take? And remember, how long did it take to actually just create this table?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, about three months.

Liezel Britz

You're for a table.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

And one and a half months for logistics on top of that.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, just to actually get it placed and everything, right? Wow. Okay. That's an awesome story love that. Let's maybe talk about clients and where the industry is heading. Has the UK tax laws, I understand they have some new tax laws impacted your international clientele, particularly like the Chinese or Middle Eastern buyers, who once actually drove luxury.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like for a long time, it's the Asian clientele that was driving luxury, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Indian. They were all flocking to London for high-end properties versus just an investment flat for the past many years. They are kind of the reason we grew so fast in the industry because we were getting that kind of clientele and they appreciate it.

The value of a designer versus just going for a base build. I feel that, you know, their migration back to their countries has impacted our industry, especially the interior design sector of the industry a lot, because so many people would rather go for a build, you know, a base build project and save money on the additional luxurious elements that an interior designer would bring in. And I feel like no matter what tier the clientele is from, whether it's a high-networked spender or slightly mediocre level as well, they all have kind of transformed this way of looking at their projects now.

Liezel Britz

Yes. Yeah, I hear you. Okay. And let me ask designers really speak openly about margin pressures in luxury projects. Do you think the industry could do a little bit more of a rethink on how fees, sourcing and creative labor are truly valued?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yes, I feel like there's still a very, very large part of the industry which kind of tries to hide their margins or tries to obviously, you know, work on like trade prices versus client, you know, prices. I have seen it change slowly. Sorry. And I would say that we as a company have been so transparent about this to our clients that we're very happy to offer them all of the discounts that we get. And for example, we still are very transparent about charging a fee for it, about sourcing everything and they may incur, you know, 10 changes or delays or like we will handle everything. But if, for example, we're getting 40 % discount, we're charging maybe 10 % or 7 % as the fee.

To handle all of this. So they're still saving so much money versus going to the showroom themselves and getting maybe 10 % discount, you know, which will give them all of the headache to deal with deliveries, timelines, quality check, you know, deal with customs, providing paperwork, all of that stuff. So.

Liezel Britz

Meow.

News. Yay. And they've never done it before as well. With your experience with it also helps.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. I think this has helped us with, you know, referrals and word of mouth because people actually trust that we are transparent and we are giving them the best price. And we always, you know, do appear very competitive in the market when it comes to the luxury sector, when, you know, they're getting the exact same products for a much better deal when they don't have to handle anything themselves, you know, like every all the headache is on us and they're paying a very small price for it. So I feel like this is not adapted by the entire industry openly, but it is happening and it is getting more and more transparent slowly. I do know a lot of suppliers and companies that are being very open about these things and it helps close deals faster as well.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, I can imagine it speeds up the process.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

It is.

Liezel Britz

Well, of course, we need to talk a bit about technology with technology evolving so quickly. So it's always nice to bring a little bit of AI and technology into a conversation. And where we are right now, know, AI visualizes, they can make like perfect images about in minutes. And what would you say is the impact of AI on young designers? Does it threaten them if they haven't really found their own style and voice yet? Or would you say that's not really the case?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

My God, all our jobs are in danger. I'm joking. No, honestly, to me, I don't feel like our jobs are in danger. Yes, 3D visualizers, I feel, are less and less required by not just clients, but even interior design firms. A firm like mine, we already did all of the visualizations, 3D modeling, everything in-house.

Liezel Britz

But it can feel like that sometimes.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

We never had to outsource it. But now we're adapting AI and it's speeding up our process. But what we notice is we still go back to the actual manual model and do it ourselves anyway, because you need to be so adept with the AI prompts and be so exact and specific that if you don't know what you're asking for, you're just going to get random images thrown at you. And if you're kind of, know, junior designer who just needs some ideas. This is great. But if you're kind of doing a live project where things need to be coherent, measured, things need to make practical sense, certain materials, the availability have to be accounted for. There is other things like plumbing behind the wall or electrical points somewhere that need to be considered. AI is just going to give you like, here's a pretty image.

And then you're to have to go back to your manual models anyway and adjust everything. And you'll realize that the design that AI gave you is just another mood board. And that's why I don't think our jobs are in danger because all of that coordination, no matter how much AI can help you, know, BIM was one of the first AIs adapted by the architecture industry where electrical, plumbing, construction, quantification, all of that was incorporated in the Revit models. And no matter how much we used it, we still did so much manual calculation. So there is a long, long, long way to go. And it cannot replace the human element of dealing with multiple stakeholders and clients and vendors and, you know, contractors on site. That cannot be done by AI and at that time making design decisions.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Yeah. Now the human touch is something that can't be replaced. Even like the knowledge behind it, to be able to know what works and what doesn't work in a space is something that AI can't teach you. And you need to actually be able to pick up if there's a mistake. So if you just trust AI just like that, how are you going to be sure that they

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I think what you just said, that's the real threat to young designers. You know, because what if they don't pick it up? What if they think AI knows everything and they've given the best possible design and they show it to their clients and they go to site and be like, this doesn't work. There's a column behind this wall, you know, you know, things like that. I feel like universities are

Liezel Britz

I hear you.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Being a bit balanced about it these days, but when I was in university many years ago, we were completely forbidden from using technology to make our drawings. We had to make our first year drawings by hand because we had to, from scratch, because we had to understand when we're measuring things, when we're drawing things, what are the considerations we're making? And if there's changes, what gets affected? What are we erasing? What are we remaking?

Liezel Britz

Scratch wall.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

If you give it to AI, you will never understand what considerations it takes. And I feel like that was a very difficult but important thing in our first year as like young students who've just entered, you know, this kind of a course in architecture. So I feel like this is still very relevant and important and AI can just give them ideas, but it can't do their work for them.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. And that might be something that many young people don't realize today is that they can't just give it to AI and just leave it with AI. Even just like writing an email that people use these days.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah.

Oh my God. I get like WhatsApp replies from chat. It's so funny. I don't know what to say. I just look at it and they forget to remove the, you know, the colon marks as well. That you must say this. They literally copy paste and just send it. It's so funny.

Liezel Britz

Really? Frustrating. No, that's bad.

Well, as you said, we have a long way to go. Okay, well, technically we spoke about my next question that just talks about how it does make project management smoother, still, you know, it can strip away the magic and the craft and even the human touch that luxury design depends on.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. And the decision making. I think that's a very important thing. In construction, on-site decision making is crucial because anything can happen and sometimes, you strip out a structure and something, you find something that was there from before but you didn't know about it. And you need to make decisions on the spot otherwise you mess up the entire timeline.

Liezel Britz

So that's a good one. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, an AI is not going to do that for you. Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. Just a few closing questions. We realize that you've earned a reputation for delivering high impact design, but with short timelines. In terms of just personal cost, is there maybe a personal cost at operating at that level constantly?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Mm.

Big one. I actually never gave importance to the personal cost in my early years of the career. I would say for the first 10 years, I didn't care about how my health or, you know, my just like basic, you know, balanced lifestyle was getting impacted because I was so driven and I was so, you know, hands-on with everything, that I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted to be involved in all stages. Even though I was delegating work, I was constantly supervising, sleeping at 4 a.m., having sleepless nights, weekends, just because I just wouldn't stand for a delayed project. Timelines meant everything to me. And if I've committed a deadline and I've committed a budget to someone, I had to meet it by hook or by crook.

You know, once, you know, obviously, like I grew older, I actually faced a health issue. It was a tumor that erupted in my body out of nowhere and it forced me to slow down. It forced me to stop, absolutely full stop for a few months. And it made me realize that cost was too big, you know, of like ignoring my health or my, you know, like just like in general life.

Liezel Britz

I'm so sorry. Yeah. Y'all.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

And I realized that I have to, you know, stay as driven, but set some boundaries and have, you know, some clear goals that I want to achieve, not just in work, but also in my life and with my health and with my children and give that balance. And I need to plan that for myself. No one else. I can't depend on.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Whether the business is doing well or whether the economy is doing well or what the client wants for it to happen to me. So I feel like I have learned that. Yeah.

Liezel Britz

Very personal for. Yeah, wow. That is a really important lesson to learn that, as you said, sometimes learn only later in life.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah.

And you get carried away, right? I was doing very well. I was getting so much work. People were appreciating, you know, my expertise and involving me in more and, you know, more and more bigger and better projects. So for me, it was like, this works. Why should I stop? Right? Until life made me stop and made me think like, you can't keep going like this forever.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Yes, Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

I think this is something young designers these days, would say Gen Z, already understands from what it looks like, which is great for them.

Liezel Britz

Okay, work-life balance in a sense you would say.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yes, yeah, I think this is something that's important to them from the start. Probably for my generation, it wasn't as important as, you know, doing well. And I'm very ambitious. I'm a workaholic. So for me, I was like, there's no full stop. I'm never satisfied. I'm going to keep going. You know, I think Gen Z is different, though.

Liezel Britz

Okay.

It seems like we can learn from them as well, know, which is for sure we can learn from young people as well. Sometimes older generation.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, my young employees show me that they want balance and I realize that yes, you know what, I'm not going to pressurize you. You need balance. I need balance too. As long as the work gets done, we're all okay.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, okay.

Well, interesting thing to learn definitely. We may be asking a question in terms of, is there something that keeps you up at night or maybe something that gives you hope about the future of luxury interiors in the UK?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. right now it's keeping me up at night. Just the fact that so many high network individuals are exiting. And those were a big chunk of my projects. we're kind of going backwards a little in a good way, at least in my company, where we started off dealing with a lot of developers.

Liezel Britz

Thank

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

A lot of show flats, show homes, know, doing a lot of work with estate agents. And those kind of projects were not ultra luxury, but they were a lot, you know, in terms of volume. I think that is a great balance in today's time because the markets are crashing in the real estate sector, house prices are dropping, people are not.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

People are a bit scared to invest and also affordability is low. So the ball is in the estate agents and the developers court. They're taking this opportunity to really build something that will improve the future of the industry. And I believe that that is the step towards a hopeful, better luxury interior industry.

Liezel Britz

So sort of a breakdown and build from the bottom again and make it better than it was. Yeah. Yes.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

So I think that's what UK is trying to do. And you definitely must, I would say, go with the flow and not resist the changes in the industry. And I'm a big believer in that. So wherever the industry takes me, I will give my expertise in that sector. And that's how I moved from residential to hospitality to then corporate. You know, like, it took me there because that was the need of the moment and the demand was there.

Liezel Britz

Yeah.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

So now I'm catering to another demand and I don't think there is hope to be lost, but it definitely does keep us up at night.

Liezel Britz

Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. I would say it's a very good skill to have to be able to be adjustable and to be able to even see what is going on in the market and to be able to adjust to that and move your skills in that direction.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, giving away my trade secrets right now.

Liezel Britz

Make sure to, you know, but I think your experience behind it, you know, really just backs everything that you're saying. Yeah. Okay, last question and then I'm going to let you go. When you reflect on your legacy, what is it the thing that you would like to be most remembered for in the design world?

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah. Okay. I would say... I would say kind of pushing the envelope a bit for all my projects. I believe I've made my clients realize that they don't have to play it safe all the time. And I believe a lot of designers do that for their clients. But I also try and break the boundaries of international exports and imports and all of the things designers don't like to deal with, with customs.

You know, logistics or dealing with contractors, know, designers generally have a very specific role and then every other stakeholder is doing their bit. But in my company, our philosophy is you have to know it all so that you can do one thing perfectly, you know, because if you don't know how you're going to be affected by other stakeholders, you're probably just going to live in your own little bubble and design a certain way.

Liezel Britz

Yo. Yeah, definitely.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

So yeah, think for me, it's about pushing the boundaries a lot with my clients and opening up their eyes to the outside world and what they can actually get and how their dreams can be realized.

Liezel Britz

Yeah. Definitely. Which is actually very nice philosophy in life, not just in how you design your home or your space to not have to play it safe all the time. Rashi, it was so very nice to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time. I learned a lot and I'm sure our listeners will really enjoy this podcast and all the juicy things that you've shared with us. We really learned a lot.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Liezel Britz

So thank you for your time and I wish you all the best for your future endeavors. And I just know it's going to just keep going well for your business and for your personal life as well.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Thank you so much, Lizelle. It great talking to you.

Liezel Britz

Thank you so much. Bye bye.

Rashi Vijan Galhotra

Bye.