Architecture furniture

Spanish architect Benni Allan combines his passions for art, design, space and craft with the studio he founded, Ebba Architects. He creates objects and spaces that explore the potentials of materiality, construction, proportion and forms. In Brussels, represented by the London gallery Béton Brut, he showed furniture and lighting from the "Low Collection". With his minimalist sculptural furniture, Allan explores the different ways of sitting in different cultures around the world and aims to create small places of rest as well as interaction. He plays with scales and approaches a new "Zazen", a sitting meditation of Zen Buddhism, of our modern life. Allan found inspiration for his collection from chairs, benches and tables of different heights that he saw on his travels through Japan, China and southern Spain. The round objects, which he makes from solid oak grown in Great Britain, have a pleasantly smooth and natural look. For this, he combines modern production methods with traditional craftsmanship and makes each piece by hand with great attention to detail.

The British-Nigerian interior designer Kelechi Ejikeme founded her label "A craft exhibit" in 2022 to showcase culturally conscious furniture and product design. With her designs, Ejikeme not only wants to celebrate her country, but also to preserve indigenous heritage through design. In Lagos, Nigeria, the young designer, who studied in London, also runs an office for interior design. At Collectible, she showed her limited collection "Gbo" - hand-woven, embroidered and braided rugs made from a mix of jute and wool yarns. She consciously chooses natural, sustainable and artisanal materials for her rugs, which she has made in India and Nepal. Kelechi Ejikeme found inspiration for the design in her Nigerian homeland - in geographical lines, typical local colours, materials and themes. The "Plantations" pattern, for example, refers to the pre-industrial farms that still stretched over several hectares in eastern Nigeria. "Plantations" is meant as a tribute to the richness of the sub-Saharan soil, which, she says, "has produced an abundance of tribes, cultures and mineral resources." With the design "Ilo", which literally means "outside", the designer recalls the pre-industrial village squares in her homeland, where communal activities such as wrestling matches, gatherings and masked dances took place. Her design "Confluence" is dedicated to the lush landscape of Lokoja, where the Niger and Benue rivers meet.

Paris-based architect Adrian Blanc began his career in the Indian city of Pondy, from which he also borrowed the name for his own label. Whenever he finds time, he draws quick, comic-like sketches: "I have always drawn a lot and wanted to make more out of it. So I translated my more artistic images into technical drawings and made them into unique objects that combine the disciplines of art, design and architecture," Blanc says. He calls his drawings "half-realistic, half-fantastic" and the resulting objects - mirrors, carpets, seats, stairs or poufs - are just as playful, colourful and innovative. Blanc's signature is unmistakable, his style clearly recognisable in both drawing and object. With his design studio, he develops concepts for contemporary furniture, rooms, street furniture and micro-architectural installations. "As a designer, I don't fit into any pigeonhole," he says. And adds: "Whether it's drawings, furniture, travel, architecture - everything is always about an exchange, about conversations and connections".