The People
Behind the Work

Forma Nova is a full service architecture and interiors firm in Chicago. One close team designs the building and the rooms within it as a single idea.

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The Studio

One team, by design.

Forma Nova is built around a close, senior team, so that one clear vision carries from the first sketch to the final detail. Architecture and interiors live together here, and so do the people who practice them.

Sergei Safonov, AIA

Founder and Principal

Sergei founded Forma Nova to practice architecture and interiors as a single craft. A licensed architect with more than 25 years of experience, he has designed across nearly every building type, at scales from 16,000 to more than 2 million square feet, throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe.

In Chicago his work spans the Cinespace film campus and DePaul University's School of Cinematic Arts, the OpticsPlanet headquarters, and civic buildings including a federal archive for the National Archives. Along the Puerto Rico coast he leads the design and master planning of resort communities such as Tesoro Del Mar and Dorado Waterfalls. On every project he assembles and directs the specialists a building needs, holding a single clear vision from first concept to final detail.

Licensed Architect · AIA Member · Illinois Institute of Technology

Sergei@formanova.us

Vladimir Morozov

Technical / Senior Project Architect

Vladimir is the technical spine of Forma Nova, carrying each project from early planning through permit and construction documents. A senior project architect with more than 20 years of experience, he builds the Archicad and BIM models, produces the drawing sets, coordinates the structural and specialty consultants, and reviews every drawing against code.

His work runs across residential, commercial, healthcare, and industrial projects throughout the Chicago region, from a 110,000 square foot service facility to private homes and places of worship, and includes the technical development and feasibility studies behind the firm's Puerto Rico resort communities. Earlier he ran his own design and build studio and master planned residential developments in Europe.

Technical Project Delivery · Archicad and BIM · Code and Permit Review

Vladimir@formanova.us

Nasiba Rakhmatullaeva, PhD

Senior Design Architect

Nasiba shapes the early life of a project, from its first massing and master plan to its interiors and the spaces between the buildings. A design architect with a doctorate in architecture and more than 12 years of experience, she works alongside the principal on concept design, interiors, and the public realm, giving each development its landscape, its amenities, and its sense of place.

Her work reaches from the firm's Puerto Rico resort communities to luxury residential interiors in South Florida, along with civic parks and public spaces abroad, one of which earned her city's award for young researchers in architecture. She brings a designer's eye for material, light, and human scale to every plan.

PhD, Architecture · Concept Design and Interiors · Public Realm and Master Planning

Nasib@formanova.us

Dmitry Kolokolov

Senior CGI Artist and Interior Designer

Dmitry gives a Forma Nova design its first visible life. An interior designer and CGI artist with more than 20 years of experience, he shapes rooms through material, light, and custom furniture, then renders them as photorealistic images, cinematic walkthroughs, and interactive spaces you can move through before a wall is built.

He works where traditional visualization meets real time technology, bringing scenes from 3ds Max and Corona into Unreal Engine 5 so a project can be explored as a living environment. His premium residential and commercial interiors span Russia, Armenia, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Interior Design and CGI · Real Time Visualization · Stroganov Academy, Moscow

Dmitry@formanova.us

Alex Lapshin

Interior Designer and Kitchen Designer

Alex brings 25 years of interior design to Forma Nova, with a particular gift for the rooms people use most closely. He designs high end residential interiors and custom kitchens and baths, carrying a project from first concept through detailed drawings, specifications, and construction, so that what is drawn is what gets built.

His care shows in the details: field measured layouts, cabinetry drawn and coordinated with the makers who build it, and finishes and materials chosen to last. Trained at the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry, he has shaped residential, hospitality, and commercial interiors across the Chicago region for two decades.

High End Residential Interiors · Custom Kitchens and Baths · Stroganov Academy, Moscow

AlexL@formanova.us

Alex Safonov

AI and Technology

Alex builds the intelligence behind the practice. An AI and software specialist and the founder of Sylex.ai, he brings automation and machine learning into architecture. His systems read a full set of drawings and check them against building code in minutes, turn a laser scan or a handful of photographs into an accurate as built model, and reveal the feasibility of a site before the first line is drawn.

From generative massing and unit mix optimization to real time visualization and automated documentation, his tools fold machine intelligence into every stage of a project. The result is a firm that holds on to the craft of design while working at the speed of software.

Artificial Intelligence and Software · Founder, Sylex.ai · Design Automation and Reality Capture

AlexS@formanova.us