For designer Osiris Hertman, the most important thing is that your home should be a place to relax. In this day and age, more than ever. A Home Gym is ideal then, too. So his latest project became a collaboration with Technogym To create a place that breathes more 'home' than gym. With a leather floor: "Because you can walk on it so wonderfully with your bare feet."
Text: Karine Bloem Photography: Isaiah HizkiaWho is Osiris Hertman?
For about twenty-five years, I have been working as an interior designer/product designer. Half of my work is interior design, the other half I do product development for the residential sector. I am involved in many architectural projects and help people realise the dream home they have always been saving for. I compare it to the pastry shop you cycle round to because you know you are buying quality there.
When I was young, I thought everyone was crafting things themselves at home. I made my own little desk in my room, my mother helped me make a kind of bedstead... Once I got to the Design Academy I discovered that it was special to want to make such things myself. 'Living' I thought was a superfluous profession at first, but people turned out to appreciate being helped and advised in that area.
Now I really see it as a craft. Just like a pastry chef (there he is again), you have to try awfully hard to make the perfect dough. We put a lot of time into creating an interior, applying handcrafted materials and making sure it is also completely finished. You don't have to add anything more yourself.
The very look of those materials is the absolute de luxe. Furthermore, we use simple shapes like a child draws; lamps, tables and chairs all look simple, the details you only see when you get closer. The copper of the lamp is hand beaten in Indonesia, the chair is upholstered in hand-stitched weathered leather and coated with an old bronze coating....
People sometimes save up for a long time to give their interiors a really good once-over. Which does not mean that I then waste their money. On the contrary, I look very closely at what they want, what do they need to relax at home? I see a house as the basis for unwinding. For some that means standing under a hot shower for a long time, for others watching a film. So you build a wellness for one person and for another we hang up a beamer for the true film experience.
Because of covid, things did change. There is now a great need to be able to do everything in the house that you used to do outside. Take for instance the Home Gym trend. People want to exercise more efficiently so people are increasingly placing an exercise bike in their homes. These days, that's an indoor bike with a screen and all, so you can watch the news or check your social media while exercising. What I just don't want such a space to look like a real gym. We try to integrate that more subtly into the interior. Think of a leather floor, combined with a self-developed stucco on one wall (wet desert sand), on the other wall old wood from Austria, a large cactus in terracotta pot and in front of the windows a shutter of aluminium in sand/gold colours.
I would love to tackle a big hotel project, I think we are totally ready for that. We have done restaurants, different wellness resorts, beach clubs at home and abroad. And I want a focus on things that will last a lifetime. For example, a custom-made table that will last at least two generations. Or more art in the house.
SMAKERS
Actually, I don't admire that many people in my field. We buy home decoration magazines from time to time, but more to check if we are innovative and original. Philippe Starck is, as far as I am concerned, the only innovative designer who has ever put anything down. From the most 'dry appliances', like toothbrushes or a juicer, he can make people blink. I look more at what people do with food, what musicians do, what artisans do with new materials. And especially artists. Stef van der Bijl makes object-like lamps from old parts, for example. I think Bram Reijnders is a great talent and I find photographer Jimmy Nelson's work fascinating.
There is no specific design of mine that I am most proud of. Let someone else shine with my designs. I liked Snoop Dogg when I was young and he once wore a bracelet (from Buddha to Buddha, which Osiris designs for - ed.) during a performance in the Netherlands. I find that really cool.
INSPIRATION
Making music with others is an incredibly nice outlet, as is eating with friends and wandering in nature. Preferably in winter, I go to Bali with my son, taking a moped to visit all the workshops that make our stuff and see the artisans at work.
Spanish film director's work Pedro Almodóvar I love it. With films, I find it interesting when it surprises you. Like Quentin Tarantino, the master of mindfucks, always does create a certain shock effect.
In terms of music, Sting is an absolute hero and Henny Vrienten for Dutch music. You can have a hit when you are young but if you keep evolving after that, only then are you a hero. Or like Sergio Herman with cooking. You have a top restaurant, scale down, start a bistro and other new things. I love that.
COLOURS MAKE THE MAN
Actually, I wish my wife was a fashion designer! Look at Ad Visser in TopPop back then. His wife (Melanie Agsteribbe, ed.) is a designer. Every TV appearance he wore a new set of clothes. During my collaboration with RTL Woonmagazine, I had a few clothing sponsors and that was a lot of fun because I could always wear something new. I like to play with colourful jackets and try to wear clothes that radiate energy. I mainly dress according to my mood.
I am a big fan of Dries van Noten. I think he is my biggest inspiration, because I recognise myself in it. We have the same way of working. Everywhere in my house there is material - from pieces of stucco to a piece of wood with epoxy on it - of which I don't know what I want to do with it at first. At some point, it gets into my DNA and I draw something with it. I know Dries van Noten does the same. He only starts designing when a material touches him.
ARMCANDY
My watch is a Tag Heuer, inspired by the looks of a Rolex from the 1970s, with a fabric army-coloured strap, green dial and green bezel. I would -especially in these crazy times- do feel burdened to wear a sixty thousand euro watch, when for that money you can also buy, for example, four cool works by young Dutch artists. I still have a dream watch though: a vintage Rolex. Furthermore, I always wear a Buddha to Buddha bracelet and loose straps from Bali, among other places.
HOME PORT
We have a 'show house', so I never actually talk about my house. We built this to show customers what you can do with all kinds of materials and suppliers. We call it the 'Dune Villa', because it is located in the dunes near Bloemendaal.
The exterior façade is constructed from planks of all different sizes, consisting of boiled and pressed bamboo. It has a fluid indoor/outdoor feel; the floor extends out into the platform, leaving the house free in space and landscape. The profiles of the window frames disappear through the walls and ceiling, so you really look from inside to outside, so I regularly walk into a window haha.
I envy people who live in Curaçao. Houses there are built on shade and wind. It is then so cleverly made that you don't need air conditioning. You work with the elements and I really like that. Look, the 'show house' is meant to show how things work and excite people; there are electric curtains, a dry and wet sauna, a Home Gym, a large art collection and you name it. All the comforts. But most of all, very simply, I myself would like a wooden hut near the beach in Ibiza or Curaçao. May as well be on a mountain, a bit away from the world, so you can walk around the house barefoot and totally unwind.
WHEELS
I drive a Landrover. My third one already. I find that the most practical car. Whether it's a seat or a roll of fabric, I always have something with me. It drives great and there is always room for a lot of stuff. I think the Porsche Targa from my birth year 1972 is the most beautiful car there is, but it is very Spartan in terms of driving comfort. Like whizzing around corners at 200 kilometres per hour in a go-kart.
LEISURE TIME
I love kitesurfing and enjoy doing it. But that is not possible with my four-year-old son, so we now go supping. I really enjoy cycling, on a mountain or road bike through the dunes. I find doing sport at home pleasant and efficient. You don't have to go anywhere. Especially now, no hassle with reservations and mouth caps. Together with Technogym, we developed the Home Gym concept. I was honoured to do this because Technogym is really an A-brand in wellness and fitness equipment. Based on the customer's training needs and furnishing wishes, I make a drawing so that they know exactly what the end result will look like. A unique concept that is not distinguished by luxury mirrors and shiny lamps, but by purity and simplicity. With materials like leather and stucco, terracotta, lit candles and a work of art on the wall, to approximate the homely atmosphere. My favourite is the Personal Line, developed by Antonio Citterio (Italian designer, ed). Technogym's chrome dumbbells fit this perfectly. Those are one chunk of high-gloss micro-polished steel. It also fits in a smaller space. With a few cool gym items (dumbbells and wellness ball), your Home Gym is then complete. And the Technogym Bench, the first all-in-one fitness bench for home training, is also a piece of furniture that blends in perfectly with your interior. With a leather cushion on top, it can even be placed right next to your dining table.
REISLUST
Costa Rica and Boracay (small island in the Philippines, ed) are the most beautiful places in the world. So pure. The people are incredibly sweet and the nature pristine. New Zealand is still on my wish list. Not in a camper van, I find those musty things. I do love streamliners and tiny houses. I choose travel destinations based on the inhabitants (culture) and nature. Bali is now ruined by tourism, but the local people have remained the same; they still live with respect for tradition and nature.
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