Anna Rubner & Chiara Kozich

Photography: Christian Cervantes

What is growth for you?

Chiara: Growth for me is to allow yourself to slow down and also take a break. Over the past years I struggled a lot with myself, anxiety and the feeling of always having to meet expectations of others and I came to the conclusion that walking your own pace is really the only pace you should be walking. Especially creating Afterhour Furniture together with Anna really showed me that you need to take a break once in a while to realize how far you’ve actually come and to appreciate the things that did work out and not focus so much on the ones that didn’t.

Also I recently read that a person needs 8 hugs a day for maintenance and 12 for growth, so I’m really aiming those 12 hugs now.

Anna: Being open-minded towards people, opportunities and situations that come along in life. Also now with our business it is a complete new situation in my/our lives which is obviously not always easy and we’re still in the process of figuring out how things work best for us but in the end I think it is always a process of learning and understanding yourself and the people around you.

What keeps you grounded?

Chiara: I love chilling at home in the evening with Anna, eating pizza margherita and watching trash tv. I honestly turned into such a homebody over the past years with corona and with my anxiety, evenings like these really give me so much comfort.

Anna: Staying focused on the present, obviously in these days it’s not that easy to not think too much about tomorrow but I try to live in the here and now and making the best out of every moment. #yolo

How does nature influence your creative process?

Chiara: Growing up in a city you’d think there are not many possibilities to escape the hectic without having to drive couple of hours but luckily in Vienna you can find yourself surrounded by nature very quickly. As a child I was very blessed and had the possibility to spend most of the summers at our little family hut in Seebenstein (NÖ) and I’d be gone the whole day just riding my bicycle and building stuff. Nowadays my schedule is sadly way more time consuming than as a child but I love just going for a walk in the park when the sun is out or enjoying the nice view up at Bellevuewiese.

Anna: Since I grew up in South Tirol, surrounded by the Dolomites, I always had a deep bond to nature. I remember when I was a kid, it was like a mandatory program to go with my family on a hike every Sunday. I didn’t really like it as a kid and especially when I was in the age of 12-15 I hated it, but now I’m always happy to go back. Since I am a bit older now

I really appreciate having the possibility to go back home when I feel like I need a bit of a time out of the city.

What is a book that has inspired you?

Chiara: I’m that person that never finishes a book. I buy so many and start reading three at a time but then I just don’t finish them. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho was recommended to me by my mom, one of the few books I really read and loved! It was at a time where I really hated Vienna, wanted to leave the city and go abroad or travel. Although I never managed to do so, that little risk-taker in the book who sold everything he had just to follow his dream really inspired me.

Anna: Since I can remember Patti Smith was a big role model for me, I always had a favorite song of her in every decade of my life. Therefore I would say may favorite book is her biography Just Kids. She is a free spirit and that inspires me.