Interior & spatial design · London
Interiors rooted in African design storytelling.
Studio Kuona designs spaces that carry a story. We draw on African craft, pattern and vernacular building, and translate them into calm, contemporary interiors for hospitality, workplaces and homes.
Selected work
Lakeshore House
Private lakeside residence, Lake Malawi
DESIGN PROPOSAL · 2025
Kweza Studio Residences
Artist residency studios, Lilongwe, Malawi
DESIGN PROPOSAL · 2024
Chatham House
Café and co-working in a Grade II* listed building, Rochester
ACADEMIC PROJECT · 2023
The Hill Bathroom
Full bathroom renovation, Essex
COMPLETED · 2026
Services
- 01
Interior design
Concept to specification: materials, furniture, lighting and art, chosen to tell one story.
- 02
Spatial planning
Layouts that make the most of a room, from compact studios to reworked bathrooms.
- 03
Heritage & adaptive reuse
New uses for historic buildings, designed to respect what is already there.
- 04
3D visualisation
Photoreal renders so you can see the space, and decide, before anything is built.
The studio
Kuona means “to see” in Chichewa. It is also the studio’s promise: design that sees beyond.
Studio Kuona was founded by Tadala Bowazi, a Malawian-born, British designer who grew up between Malawi, South Africa and the UK, and that mix of places shapes how she designs.
Trained first in architecture and then in spatial and interior design, she reads a building before she reads a room. She studied Spatial and Interior Design at the University of Kent and has designed for clients in the UK and Malawi.
Her work spans homes, hospitality and commercial spaces, and is drawn to what others have written off: listed buildings waiting for a new life, and design histories the textbooks skipped. Every project starts with the people who will actually use it, because access can’t be retrofitted.