Imperfect but precise with Alexander & Co
people • designers
One of Sydney’s most promising emerging designers, Jeremy Bull and his studio Alexander &Co. are behind many a notable local project – from hospitality institution Watson’s Bay Boutique Hotel to one of the most popular homes on est of late, Iluka House.
WEBSITE: alexanderand.co INSTAGRAM: @alexander_andcO
Words: designeers
September 2023
designeers
How long have you been designing for?
jeremy bull
I have been designing professionally as an undergraduate since 1999 and studying since 1998.
designeers
How do you approach working with clients to create a space that reflects their personal style and needs?
jeremy bull
I think a great design process is an enquiry process. It is a process which is very curious and stays open to the experience of someone else, which in most cases is the client. This openness can be difficult, as it is both creatively porous and influence-able. The challenge is then to deliver a process that is also dense, rich and technically excellent.
designeers
What is the most challenging project you have worked on?
jeremy bull
I think that most excellent projects challenge our ‘growth edge’ whether they are large or small, commercial or residential. They push us a bit further creatively, or technically, or relationally than we have gone before. This is really different to just a mis-fitted project or client, which comes up from time to time too.
I don’t love any particular project more than any other, (perhaps my ego does though), but I do love any project which gives me the opportunity to both be challenged with a new idea and then space to fall into love with it.
designeers
Can you tell us about a project that you are particularly proud of and why?
jeremy bull
I think it would be my first family house with Tess and our boys. It was designed in 2010, which feels a long time ago and is a long time in terms of the things I have learnt since then. It was funded by us and remains a really beautiful project which reflects an openness that I had 13 years ago and an openness that I hope I still have now. It has served our family with so much grace, interest and resilience. It has been through three more renovations and has witnessed the growing up of my family, and me!
“We are the sum total of all our parts and history and present. It’s all in our people and in our unique stories.”
JEREMY BULL
designeers
What makes your design firm Alexander &CO. different?
JEREMY BULL
I’m not exactly sure that I can answer whether we are different or what it is that we are different to, as I am so deep into Alexander &CO now. I guess we are different because of the very fact that our people are here and nowhere else. We are the sum total of all our parts and history and present. It’s all in our people and in our unique stories.
designeers
How would you describe your style or aesthetic?
JEREMY BULL
Material, real, imperfect but precise. Shadow and light, colour and darkness, masculine and feminine. Lost in time, yet right here and now.
designeers
What do you love about being an interior designer?
JEREMY BULL
Officially I am an Architect but in reality I’m more creatively boundary-less than that. It’s the creative space I love. Imagination cannot be over-indexed.
designeers
What are the top three suppliers you go to when designing?
JEREMY BULL
Natural Brick Co, Concrete Bespoke, Transmit (lighting)
designeers
What is your favourite hotel in the world?
JEREMY BULL
The Bowery NYC
designeers
Who is one style icon or designer that inspires you?
JEREMY BULL
Le Corbusier
designeers
What is on your coffee table right now?
JEREMY BULL
Pendulum Power (A book on pendulum use), a stick of sage, a Lami Pen and a piece of art by Greg Wood.
designeers
What makes a great interior designer?
JEREMY BULL
What makes a great human?! Passion, care, compassion, energy, tenacity, love, interest, curiosity, courage, openness… I could go on. Creativity is a gorgeous and important gift, but anyone can have it if they want. The world needs more of it, and not just in interior design. We need it everywhere.
