From handmade to industrial and back

The curators (Frederico Duarte, Pedro Ferreira and Rita João) asked us to develop products that reflect on timelessness in Portuguese design and culture, keeping an eye on sustainability and responsible use of resources.

Looking at three everyday objects we question the affordability and accessibility with which serial products have entered our social conscience and have become part of our everyday rituals. How mass production fails to embed unique interpretation and memory of a territory and its people, turning its back on local cultural origins. If things are to be reproduced everywhere in the same way, how can we continue to develop a local cultural identity in everyday goods?

1. Chopping Board – An approach to local culture through materiality: the plastic of an industrial and widely recognized utensil is replaced by a natural and indigenous material olive wood.
2. Oven Toaster – A traditional, semi-industrial product is improved using an old technique -an enameled finish and slight changes to its dimensions.
3. Olive Plate – An original local item made traditionally in terra-cotta becomes a product made in melamine.