Urban Refuge Studio is a San Diego–based design practice working across interiors, residential renovation, furnishing and styling.

We think of refuge not as isolation, but as tenderness — a way of creating spaces that offer comfort, presence and a deeper connection to everyday life. Our work is shaped by architecture, art, materiality and the belief that a home can be both deeply personal and responsive to the place it inhabits.

The studio was founded by Claudia I Bialostozky, an architectural designer and artist originally from Mexico City. Her background spans architecture, contemporary art and photography, with graduate studies in Architectural Design at UNAM and Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art in London. This multidisciplinary perspective informs an approach that not only considers how spaces look and perform, but also how materials carry history and evolve through use. Each project begins with what is already there revealing and refining rather than imposing a fixed aesthetic and finishes with a contemporary art curation developed for each site.

Urban Refuge operates as a collaborative studio. Depending on the scale and needs of each project, we work alongside architects, interior designers, artists, contractors, fabricators, landscape professionals and craftspeople, bringing together the right team for each home.

From private residences to properties being prepared for sale, rental or hospitality, our aim is the same: to create spaces that feel considered, enduring and distinctly their own.