2024-10-23
30 分钟We visit a design practice in Tbilisi, take a tour of faded signs of east London with Sam Roberts and learn about paper models at the Zaha Hadid Foundation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is Monocle on Design, a show where we discuss everything from architecture and craft to furniture and fashion.
I'm Nick Moniz.
On today's program we visit a Georgian design studio, take a tour of ghost signs in London and visit a new exhibition on the work of Zaha Hadid Architects.
All that coming up on Monocle on Design.
We start today's episode in Tbilisi and a visit to the Design Practice Rooms Studio.
Focusing on collectible design with a strong connection to Georgia, the studio honours traditional craft.
Its output often features motifs from historical designs from the region as well as reproduced pieces from the country's long history and Soviet era.
Monaco's Gabriele Della Santi paid a visit to Roem's studio to meet its founders and sent us this report.
I'm in the Vera neighborhood of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
This lively part of the city is characterized by a grid of narrow streets lined with small wine shops, popular cafes, bookstores and restaurants serving classic Georgian fare.
In the heart of the neighborhood, the local Design Practice Rooms Studio is housed in a historic building with long balconies adorned with intricate wooden carvings.
Inside, high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows create an ideal setting for the studio's diverse collection of furnishings gathered over the 17 years since its founding.
I visit the studio on a warm September morning where co founder Nata Gianberidze, who is regularly based in Tbilisi, gave me a tour and began by sharing how it all started.
It started quite long ago in 2003 when me and Katie Toleraya, who is my partner in work, we founded Room Studio.
We were studying together at Tbilisi Academy of Arts for Interior Design faculty and just right away after the graduation we started to work for some projects together and in 2007 we formed the Studio Rooms.
A watershed moment for the practice that allowed founders Nata and Keti to define their identity as a design studio occurred when one of their lab Designs won the 2010 Salone Satellite Award in Milan and was set to be mass produced.
However, this was not the direction the studio wanted to pursue.
In the beginning.
In early years of our practice we were doing some pieces that were considered for the mass production, but later we just acknowledged that it's impossible to produce high quality mass production pieces in Georgia and that led us to some understanding that we would prefer to make more artisanal and and limited edition objects.
Working close with the artisans, really small studios and being involved in the production of every piece, it helped us to somehow create our own direction and to understand what we really want to do.