Climbing the well-worn timber staircase to the Surry Hills, Sydney design studio of Longina Phillips Designs and the door opens to a hive of a hive of design activity and modern technology. In the case of this busy design studio there is nothing artificial about the distressed finish to the timber stairs and flooring, it is genuine wear and tear from the traffic of hundreds of talented designers and artists that have worked in the Victorian-era terrace building since the studio opened in 1988.