"The Lost Cloth Project is a capsule collection created through a collaboration between Italian surfaces manufacturer ALPI and acclaimed design studio Stephen Burks Man Made, led by Stephen Burks and Malika Leiper, celebrating the ancient bond between wood and weaving. Translating traditional Kuba raffia textiles into intricate wood inlay, the collection draws from centuries-old patterns originating in the Kuba Kingdom in today's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unveiled at Design Miami this year, the mini-collection fuses cultural research, craft, and contemporary expression"
"For the duo, hand production is not a nostalgic gesture but a vehicle for innovation - a direct response to the commodification and planned obsolescence of modern design. Inspired by Kuba cloth, traditionally woven from raffia palm leaves and adorned with abstract geometric motifs, the designers translate these intricate patterns into a new material language. The resulting wood-inlaid pieces - two ottomans and a sculptural partition - celebrate the individuality and improvisational nature of Kuba textile design, realized entirely in veneers from ALPI's Legacy Collection."
The Lost Cloth Project is a capsule collection by ALPI and design studio Stephen Burks Man Made that reinterprets Kuba raffia textiles as intricate wood inlay. The collection translates centuries-old geometric motifs from the Kuba Kingdom into veneers made from ALPI's Legacy Collection of 'lost' woods such as ebony, mahogany, teak, rosewood, wenge, and zebrawood. Two ottomans and a sculptural partition embody improvisational qualities of Kuba cloth and highlight material scarcity and cultural lineage. ALPI's recomposed wood technology reassembles real wood into authentic, reproducible veneers. Hand production serves as a strategy for innovation against commodification and planned obsolescence.
Read at Design Milk
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]