Patrícia Ramos: Like the mottos that are present on the YSG Studio website, would you say that a YSG project is a “magnetic mix of unconventionality”? Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem: I’ll take that as every project is radically different to another, but their connective thread is my drive to represent nuanced moments and moods that hopefully heighten the experience for people within them. Every time they walk into a YSG space, I want them to feel alive because there’s one particular sensory element or several that woos them. If that invites conversation, then all the better.

Among all the countries where you have lived, which one do you miss the most? Why? Truthfully, I’ve never felt settled anywhere. Feeling “at home” is more about a sense of connection to a place. Kenya, where I spent three months doing volunteer work on my slow return to Australia after living in America, ticked that box majorly for me. Kuwait is where my true mates are. You can’t buy the kind the security friendships forged over time gives you. Despite our scattering over the globe, we talk often. Then there’s my carefree uni days in Savannah and the time spent working in Portland, Oregon. You just don’t party like you do when you have so few commitments, especially when your whole future is ahead of you.