At Close Range: An Interview with Architect and Interior Designer, Maria MacVeigh
By The Gloss
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RANGE ROVER
Maria MacVeigh talks happiness, her current state of mind, virtues, inspiration and more …
1. Your favourite virtue: Integrity; my late father Eoin MacVeigh was a person of immense integrity.
2. Your favourite qualities in a man: Humility, confidence, hardworking and a sense of humour.
3. Your favourite qualities in a woman: I am surrounded by strong, beautiful women who are gentle, compassionate, non-judgmental, independent thinkers.
4. Your chief characteristic: I’m a grafter and I live in my head.
5. What you appreciate: the most in your friends Everything that friendship brings, most of all the freedom to be ourselves.
6. Your main fault: Black and white thinking; I can be fiercely locked on to an idea.
7. Your favourite occupations: Sea swimming – the vastness of the ocean, the pulse of the swell and the darkness and light are thrilling. Reading about architecture; Peter Zumthor’s book Reading Architecture is a recent delight. Travelling, I really enjoy going for breakfast in cities that I am visiting, I love the energy of the morning.
8. Your idea of happiness: Tranquility, I am very content with simple things, reading in my garden, walking my dog, and quiet time designing, listening to Bach.
9. Your idea of misery: Watching my loved ones suffer and human suffering in general.
10. If not yourself, who would you be? Another creative person.
Detail of the interior of Chapter One restaurant, designed by Maria MacVeigh.
11. Your current state of mind: Reflective; I am home 20 years after living in Barcelona; I have been reflecting over the last 20 years of my career with gratitude.
12. Your favourite colour and flower: Rich and earthy green, Hoya carnosa, mine is from a cutting from my grandparents’ farm in La Gomera, Spain, the aroma reminds me of home.
13. Most overrated virtue: The pursuit of perfection.
14. Which talent would you most like to possess: Oh I would love a photographic memory.
15. Your favourite authors: More than favourite authors I have favourite books, among them The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton; an author whose work I love is Haruki Murakami.
16. Your favourite poets: Leonard Cohen, Seamus Heaney and a friend Inigo Amezola who is an architect and a poet, he was my boss in Ricardo Bofill’s office when I was a young graduate; Inigo introduced me to the work of Pessoa and Borges.
17. Your favourite heroes and heroines in fiction: Fairies!
18. Your favourite artist: There are so many, but Alberto Giacometti’s drawings fascinate me.
19. Your favourite musical artists and composers: Leonard Cohen, The Cure, Fontaines DC and Bach, specifically his Cello Suites.
20. The principal aspect of my personality: Contemplative.
21. Your idea of good taste: Timeless, understated and personally curated, nothing that is based on a trend.
22. The quality I look for in my surroundings: Tranquility, order, dappled light, and proportion.
23. The country where I should like to live: Here in Ireland, the best thing about having had the experience of living abroad is coming home.
24. I look to the road ahead with: That feeling of a fresh start.
SEE MORE: At Close Range – An Interview with Simon Watson Photographer
