Designers
Albio Nascimiento & Kathi Stertzig
Contact
origemcomum.com
@origem_comum
Country
Portugal & Germany
Origem Comum/Common Origins is a work and research platform that shows just what can be achieved with the thousands-year-old heritage that is shared by humans and the land. Slowing things down. Awakening the senses. Creating awareness and recovering the connection to our surroundings. A reconfigured way of life.
We research, take into our programme and create simple utensils that return artisanal knowledge to everyday practice. We value objects that improve with time and usage; sometimes they are reworked into more contemporary versions, other times they are merely rescued from oblivion. They are things that are made by hand and for use by the hands and provide a conscious experience of the world.
We work side by side with the artisans because we want to highlight the cultural and commercial status of situated artisanal production – based on knowledge, creativity and workmanship.
We have opened a contemporary space for providing context to, encouraging involvement in and criticism of the vernacular know-how. We want a place for artisanal practices at the global table when the issues of our times are discussed: sustainable manufacture, fair trade, responsible consumption, respect for the climate and for the communal well-being.
Background
The Origem Comum/Common Origins platform is a natural progression for The Home Project Design Studio. Since 2004 we have been working with artisans to preserve and transform vernacular practices. This still ongoing work of immersion into different territories has given us insight into the relationship between the natural landscape, the climate and the people in those places. The knowledge we have gained from this is manifested in the ways things are done, in interpreting the surroundings and in attributing meaning and value to the objects.
From potters, basket-makers, weavers, carpenters, tinsmiths, anthropologists and scientists we have learned about technology, natural materials and their processes, about contextual design, about the market, the local economy and natural cycles.
