Mix ancient Egypt with Danish minimalism, talented designers, and experienced craftsmen, and you get 13 unique stools. Danish-Egyptian dialogue on the floor of a factory in Damietta is a recipe for innovation.
By Rasmus Bøgeskov
As Mostafa turns off his lathe machine and the piece of wood stops spinning, Marie puts her hand on the surface of the wood. It is now almost as smooth as silk. She gives a thumbs up to Mostafa who looks at her over his glasses, which are resting on the tip of his nose, and returns a smile.
This is a very rare meeting. Not only because it is between a Danish design student and an experienced Egyptian craftsman with no language in common. But because design and production aspects of furniture have been practically divorced from each other.
In today’s world, those that create new ideas for furniture rarely get to meet those who bring the ideas to reality. Most furniture production has been outsourced far away from where designers draw the sketches for new products, making it difficult to have a dialogue on both development and sustainability in the business.
But in the heart of Egyptian furniture production, the coastal city of Damietta, Danish and Egyptian designers worked alongside artisans on the floor of the Pinocchio factory. Together they produced 13 stools inspired by ancient Egyptian design and developed in the Danish practice of minimalism. On the 2nd of December the stools were exhibited at the Egyptian Museum of Civilizations in Cairo.
It was the third time that the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Initiative (DEDI) had facilitated this kind of cooperation between Pinocchio and the Royal Danish Academy. The project aims to bridge the gap in the furniture industry and foster innovation and development.
“Designers need to be in dialogue with producers and know what it means to work with your hands. They should not be far removed from the production”, says Amr Orensa, design manager at Pinocchio.
He wants designers to have a good understanding of how production works and to benefit from the skills and creativity of the craftsmen that work on the factory floors.
“If they work together, they can develop new ideas and find ways to deal with the challenges the industry is facing”, he says.
Responsibility for the future
Not only does the lack of interaction between designers and craftsmen limit innovation of new designs and products. It also makes it much less likely that solutions are found to the sustainability crisis the business is facing. The production and transportation of furniture eat away at the resources of the planet and contributes to global warming.
“Designers of the future have a responsibility to find solutions to global problems. They must be able to look beyond their own backyards. They need to understand how conditions are where the furniture is produced and take this into consideration. But today there is very little dialogue happening. Furniture production has been outsourced, and the craftsmen have become almost invisible to the designers”, says Nicolai de Gier, professor at the Royal Danish Academy.
He has brought his master students to Egypt to begin this dialogue.
“This is a fantastic possibility for us to get a more nuanced look at how we produce furniture, and to discuss how we as designers can contribute to a more sustainable production”, the professor explains.
Both Egyptian and Danish traditions might hold answers to how furniture production can adapt.
Unbelievably good at their job
This year the furniture cooperation centered on one of the oldest forms of furniture, the stool. Already before coming to Egypt, the Danish design student had been introduced to ancient Egyptian furniture and begun developing their ideas for a modern stool with roots in pharaonic times.
Once in Egypt, the students met up with four Egyptian designers that had been selected among 37 applicants. Each had submitted a design for a stool, and a jury consisting of Amr Orensa and professors Nicolai de Gier and Andreas Johnsen had chosen the four best.
Together the designers visited pyramids, museums, mosques, churches, and old houses in Cairo to get further inspiration for their stools. They then travelled to the Pinocchio factory in Damietta to work in teams on finalizing 13 stools in cooperation with the experienced craftsmen.