table talk
How did your partnership with porada come about? we’ ve been big fans of the brand’ s craftsman ship for years, so when we had as candi project that needed italian flair, it made
perfect sense. i’ ve always been impressed by how, even with the scale of their production, their workshop never feels like afactory.ik new they would do it well and they did not disappoint. tell us about the main inspirations for the capsule collection? it started life in my head as‘ the artisan collection ’– a series of hard-working, everyday staples that would be elegantly expressed by po rad a. once i’ d formulated the‘ red thread ’–
that these pieces would be true to craft traditions, fit for the
demands of daily life and be beautiful enough to treasure as heirloompieces–istartedto think about the identity that would encapsulate the various form si could see emerging. where did the ‘red thread’ principle come from? it’ s a scandinavian expression used in all creative works to highlight, trace or extract the narrative of a design. you could think of it as the uniqu ed na or purpose of a design. this means interrogating the architecture, client and vernacular materials and arriving at a design language that we will use throughout the project.i use the‘ red thread’ to make sure th a ti am only telling one clear story. and the name of the collection, archipelago? the title of the collection comes from the groups of islands that makeup the archipelago wherei was born and raised. just as they are wrapped by rock and surrounded by sea,iw as drawn to the idea of encasing and protecting a precious, industrious material in an enfolding,hand-workedwrapper. did you bring certain scandinavian aesthetics to the project? not only ami as wede,bu ti was also a student of engineering once. soi have a fairly pragmatic approach. my mantra is ,‘ be practical or why bother .’ the aesthetics boil down to simple lines, decorative elements that are either part of the structure or the function, and the beauty of natural or raw materials.
italian heavyweight porada turns 70 this year and is marking the milestone with a swish capsule collection of solid ash tables, designed by swedenraised, brit stalwart staffan tollgard. He tells us more about the archipelago range…