Basque heritage with a side of contemporary, coming right up! Designers Silvia Ceñal and Naia Querejeta incorporate influences of Basque culture’s traditional elements into common, everyday objects in OHI Design Project. With an aim to re-introduce these forgotten elements back into society, OHI focuses on investigating, innovating, updating and disseminating pieces of their national cultural heritage, highlighting the materials, craftsmen, manufacturing processes and history that come along with them.
Already on their second collection, the two founders have reached out and collaborated with with creators, students, individual designers, artisans and design studios alike to come up with a range of contemporary home accessories and products which each highlight an aspect of Basque history and culture, either by a subtle design pattern or artisanal technique, a symbolic homage or the use of traditional materials. The resulting range of tableware sets, furniture pieces, bags, planters, lamps and other decorative objects become thoughtful cultural touches to any modern home setting. Through this evolving project, Ceñal and Querejeta hope to investigate the “capacity that design can have in other sectors such as trades, tourism, training, and ultimately, the economic and social impact that would contribute when reinventing satellite activity adhered to it.”
Visit their collections here and on Instagram.
See more cultural design-driven projects here.
Images © OHI Design Project / with permission