From Vernacular to Visionary: The Poetic World of Jorge Suárez-Kilzi
people • makers
Jorge Suárez-Kilzi, born in Venezuela to Spanish and Syrian immigrant parents, is an architect, designer, and artist based in Barcelona. Signing his work under his mother's surname, Kilzi—a term associated with plaster craftsmanship—he honours his heritage and a nomadic childhood that deeply influence his creations. Educated at the Polytechnic School of Catalonia and EPFL in Lausanne, Suárez-Kilzi refined his architectural skills in Japan with renowned firms SANAA and Junya Ishigami. In 2018, he established his practice, focusing on collectible design pieces that blend beauty with functionality, drawing inspiration from nature and vernacular arts. His work reflects a seamless fusion of diverse cultural influences and a commitment to timeless design.
WEBSITE: jorgeskilzi.com INSTAGRAM: @kilzi.es
Words: designeers
MARCH 2025
DESIGNEERS
Born in Venezuela to Spanish and Syrian parents, how have your multicultural roots influenced your design philosophy and aesthetic?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
Very much. I never felt that there was an aesthetic that was out of the human experience, especially when linked to the movement of people through the world and the way they accept the local cultures and bring them into their homes, all while carrying their own. Seeing life from more than one angle informed the way I see objects and their role in life, way beyond functionality.
DESIGNEERS
Your work embraces a sense of playfulness, much like Pierre Yovanovitch. What draws you to this approach, and why is humour important in design?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
I think our inner child exploring the complex and rich reality in which we live brings a constant sense of awe and a humble approach to objects. I don’t believe in design that is used solely as a sign of status, but in a shared human experience. This child-like view unifies us and makes us sensitive to our environment and the people in it.
DESIGNEERS
When you’re not designing, what are you doing? Any hobbies or guilty pleasures that fuel your creativity?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
Sadly, I design and work most of my day. I love my work but it takes such a huge chunk of my time. When I have free time, I like cooking and/or eating masterfully made food. I love drawing and enjoy repetition. I like sculpting objects made of small parts, drawing the same shape over and over... I also enjoy attending the theatre, mostly classical theatre and opera. Love contemporary dance with minimal and clean tones like Pina Bausch’s, Merce Cunningham’s, or Damien Jalet’s.
DESIGNEERS
If your design style were a movie, book, or piece of music, what would it be and why?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
A book is probably “Cien años de Soledad” for the roots in the vernacular and the way it depicts the essential components of society going too complex and spoiled (I believe in a simple life being the happiest form of existence) all in a magical realism and innocent atmosphere.
A movie, not quite too sure, but, “Spirited Away” just because I love the shapes, the colours and again, how rooted in tradition and magic it is!
Music is such a pure form of art that it is hard for me to choose one. Anything from the earthy and human songs of Benjamin Clementine to Debussy’s Arabesques.
“Seeing life from more than one angle informed the way I see objects and their role in life, way beyond functionality.”
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
DESIGNEERS
If you could design a dream space for a fictional character or historical figure, who would it be?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
I always felt a certain fascination for the figure of Rei Kawakubo. She seemed so intriguing but also so human in so many ways... I would also love to have collaborated with Van Der Laan in his monasteries design... Again, the simplicity of the spaces and life in them, all while incorporating moments of pure contemplation and joy, is just magical, and I would’ve loved to learn from him and design together!
DESIGNEERS
If you had to describe your design style using a joke, what would it be?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
Ahaha, I am not the funniest person, or maybe I don’t think so. I love queer humour and how sassy and nuanced it is. Although if it was a joke I made, probably, it’d be a pun a 60-year-old could do.
DESIGNEERS
What’s one item in your home that brings you joy every day?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
So many! I collect ceramics and animal-shaped figurines! I love them all!
DESIGNEERS
If you could design without any constraints—budget, physics, or practicality—what would you create?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
I would probably design a series of tiny houses all inspired by different feelings or on a very specific topic. I would want to explore an idea and bring it to spaces and furniture: one space in which life happens in a lower lever of the room, one where light is the main theme, a space dedicated to loss or curiosity, endless topics I feel so intrigued by.
DESIGNEERS
Is there a city or place that truly inspires your sense of creativity?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
Traditional buildings. Across cultures, they are the most honest and inspiring spaces to me. Filled with details, intention, marks, and traces of the human hand in which so much love has been put, all while remaining deep, meaningful, and humble.
DESIGNEERS
If you could fast-forward 100 years, how do you hope people will describe your work?
Jorge Suárez Kilzi
I hope they describe it at all in one hundred years.
