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PHOTO CREDITS: Inês Silva Sá
Iany Gayo and Lucrezia Papillo, designers and co-founders of the MACHEIA studio, combine their expertise in architecture and sustainable design to create unique pieces at the intersection of craftsmanship and contemporary design. In 2020, they launched their studio, where they explore ancient techniques such as reed weaving while incorporating innovative biomaterials. Their commitment led them to participate in Sessùn's DIVINE exhibition, where they reinvented the iconic bag using an algae-based biomaterial. Meet a creative duo dedicated to promoting craftsmanship.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
We founded our design studio in 2020 and we work as a duo. Lucrezia has a background on sustainable design and Iany studied architecture but both soon realised that those roles were not as fitting for how we wanted to move.
Today, we find ourselves in a grey area between being designers and artisans, where an artistic mindset also sneaks in.We feel like each of these roles have the same root and share many qualities while also differ in topics such as knowledge transfer,community and sense of self.A big part of what we do is to find innovation through researching ancient practices.
How did you two meet and decide to collaborate?
We like to say we met through a plant.This is how our encounter went both between us and also with the first artisan we collaborated with.This happened in 2020 where we were both finishing our masters and exploring crafts - we got extremely fascinated by Manuel Ferreira, the material he works with, bulrush, and the special technique behind it.That’s when we started to pay him visits in Santarém, where he lives and works.The more he generously shared his knowledge with us the more our fascination and interest grew. Moreover, we felt the urge to keep this endangered technique and everything that comes with it alive.
Could you tell us how the MACHEIA project came about and what you're looking to explore with it?
It came out from the need of working with something traceable and valuable which is honest to itself. In times where everything is rushing we quickly loose connection with the actual matter of things.And craftsmanship is the perfect antidote for this, it teaches you to slow down, observe, listen and question.That’s actually what happened in the first month of working with Manuel Ferreira.The general constant drive is to bring embedded stories of materials, techniques and artisans to the forefront while adapting and rethinking them to our times.
What is the origin of the name MACHEIA?
MACHEIA, in english ‘handful’, is Portuguese artisan slang referring to a measurement of quantity equivalent to one’s hand.
It encapsulates the idea of a crafted piece being a mirror of the creator and as there are no two equal set of hands, there can’t be two equally crafted pieces.
Your work at MACHEIA emphasizes natural fibers and ancient techniques. How do these elements influence your creations?
Ancient techniques are a vast source of ingenious know-how and passed down knowledge that influence the way we want to portray and evolve contemporary design, either in the form of an installation or rather an object with a specific function. It boils down to the stories these techniques, materials and artefacts carry and ask to be told.About people,cultures and how we live.Natural fibers have the power to ground us to their origin - literally to the soil where they wildly grow and get harvested. Our creations end up being a snapshot, in a sense, of a story, a material characteristic or any other aspect of the research these subjects take us on.
How would you describe the relationship between research and production in your work?
We like to call our practice material based research.Yes, there is always an incorporation of techniques, that are nothing more than an understanding and interpretation of a material to a specific purpose. In that sense, we embark on material-based researches, as we did with bulrush and now starting it with Leather, to stretch and learn materials possibilities and stories to be told. Production come as the materialisation of that research, through various channels, by us or by collaborating artisans, depending on the subject in matter.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sessùn's DIVINE bag, we invited fifteen artisans, including yourselves, to reinvent this iconic bag. Could you tell us about taking part in this project and how you reimagined the Divine bag?
Rethinking the Divine bag opened many 'firsts' for us. It was certainly the very first time we designed a bag and that for itself was very challenging and exciting for us. On another hand was the material - an algae based biomaterial - developed by us exclusively for Sessùn's bag.
Through an invitation from Biolab Lisboa we joined a project called Atlantic Futures where we have been researching biomaterials for some months now and the bag was the first closed outcome from this research project.
It made sense that we made the bag out of the material we were most involved with at the moment. Specially in the context of a celebration that not only looks through the bag's history but is projecting the bags continuation and existence in the future, as we believe that biomaterials are a key path to design's future.
What will you take away from this collaboration with Sessùn?
That when there is freedom for creativity, there are a variety of ways to express one concept.
What does Sessùn mean to you?
Sessùn encapsulates the celebration of beauty. Often times as designers we can get caught up on functionality and utilitarianism but we believe beauty is something we should always seek.We feel like for Sessùn that beauty lies in simplicity and true materials, and so does for us.
Discover the looks of Iany and Lucrezia.
