I NALBA
bioregional design + craft II MIKANOVA
brand design + strategy
III I CARE HOME
lighting + spatial design
IIII TIDES
lighting + experience design
IIIII THE SPACE IN BETWEEN architecture + social integration
IIIIII HOMO SACER spatial installation + upcycling
IIIIIII Hey litter... art installation + upcycling
Co-founded project by Lavinia Ghimbasan & Capucine Robert
Location: Romania- France
Part of the European Worth Partnership Project for Innovation in Design
Focus areas:
~On-field local research and community engagement
~Development of concepts, making, and ~Delivery of final design objects (rugs)
~Handcrafting of rugs collection (natural dye of wool fibres and hand weaving)
~Development of Nalba’s brand identity
With Nalba we work at the intersection between design and craft to create objects, research, and collaborations that hold bioregionalism as a driver. This approach recognises the interdependence of human activities with the natural ecosystems and cultural nuances of a region, in our case, Transylvania, Romania. As such, we strive to shift the paradigm from an extractive to a regenerative model by focusing on four key pillars: wool, natural dyes, loom weaving, and cultural sustainability.
Romania is known to have had a vast pastoral ecosystem where wool was valued and celebrated; we learned that locals used to carefully collect every tuft of fallen wool, under the belief that missing even an ounce of wool would cause them the death of the corresponding sheep. However, the present decline of the wool ecosystem affects Europe on environmental, economic, and social fronts. Nalba’s commitment is to contribute to the revival and safeguarding of wool by narrowing our material focus to nearly 100% wool.
As an extension of the household, Romanians were using natural fibres for weaving vernacular objects and garments. The wisdom of their flora for natural dying was equally important to the craft technology as a combination of manual dexterity, craftsmanship, and the use of specific tools and materials. This type of cultural knowledge still exists in tangible and intangible ways. With Nalba, we try to bring to the forefront the highly sustainable solution that craft represents for the production of objects, community making, and continuity of cultural identity.
Along with the values that we carry comes great responsibility. For us, cultural sustainability is interconnected with environmental and social sustainability, forming a holistic approach to building resilient and thriving communities. We search for ethical and disruptive models to co-create with one another, and particularly to equalise the known hierarchical relationship between designer and craftsperson. It is in our power to change the attitude towards design and craft, to soften approaches in order to ultimately create pockets of well-being for nature and humans alike.
Project developed for Mikanova; Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Brand strategy and identity - created together with Communication strategist Sofia Gilioli
Focus areas:
~Development of strategic and aesthetic brand concept
~UAE and international market assessment
~Competitors strategic mapping
~Brand vision and mission line out, with a focus on floral, digital, and susbscription- based business models
~Brand aesthetic implementation and deliverables: graphics, assets, logo, colors, font, mock-ups, brand book
~Translation of vision towards the web and SM implementation
Committed to a new way of sensible mind and space caring
and Font
Individual project developed as part of the MA in Lighting Design at AAU University Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Focus areas:
~Lighting and spatial design for health, focused on the care home located in Greve, Denmark
~Applications of biophilia and well-being through nature and daylight exposure
~Proposing of dynamic lighting solutions for elderly patients suffering from dementia
This project proposes an indoor space, an oasis of light, and nature for care home patients suffering from dementia. This condition affects drastically cognitive functions and memory in elderly people. Due to this illness, patients are spending their days in the indoor environment since the outdoor space appears threatening to them.
The vision of this lighting project is to transfer the human innate connection with nature into elements that can stimulate well-being and trigger past memories for the care home patients.
The solution has been drawn in relation to the geographic orientation of the room, sun movement, seasonal changes, and the needs of the patients. From a spatial perspective, the solution is to open the space up through a large glass balcony and a ceiling window. This approach challenges the regularity of a four-wall room, opening the space up for daylight, direct outdoor, and sky views.
The proposed lighting solutions are dynamic and adjustable to the time of day and weather conditions. Beside, an interactive lighting installation, ‘the Wall of Seasons’, is meant to bring newness to the ambience of the care home through light color and movement. Inspired by the transitions of seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) and their specific natural phenomena.
The wall is proposing outdoor-specific ambience in a safe, indoor context. The presence of the interactive wall is meant to help dementia patients reconnect with the present moment in time and space by relating to the season of the year.
Supporting Tableau Studio with lighting design solutions
Installation delivered for Art Walk Cph
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Focus areas:
~Planning and set-up of light fixtures
~Creating of light layers and atmosphere through shadows and color
Art Walk is an initiative meant to encourage people to get out of their homes at the moment of the COVID outbreak, when most public spaces were in lockdown. ‘Walking and mental training for well-being‘ is the statement of the concept.
Part of the exhibition TIDES, we have created a space of light and colour that will decorate the long, dark winter hours in Copenhagen, while at the same time presenting a universe of creatures and textures of clay that can be seen from the window.
TIDES was an exhibition without entry being necessary. One could just peek.
Individual project developed as part of the training in Architecture & Social Integration at Onsdagsskolen
Location: Skagen, Denmark
Focus areas:
~Observation and analysis of architectural spaces as a tool for social integration in Skagen, Denmark
~Concept development at the intersection between spaces and society
~On-site research, recording, and interviewing
~Delivery of a short movie with a proposed solution
...I found that the meeting point between majority and a minority is the space of communication that gravitates around values, cultural background, knowledge, ethics, most of all - trust.
How do see the world?
How do we regard human connection?
Where do we feel like belonging?
And how does this place of shelter and comfort that we call - home, looks like?
Imagining no common tongue, what else would we use to get to know one another? It occurred to me that there is a language regardless of words, that could bring people together, open a discussion, and raise curiosity towards one another.
This language old as the world and here ahead of words, is a visual language, the one of Symbols.
One part of the social integration challenge in Skagen was represented by the large Romanian community that has moved there gradually for work reasons. The Romanians and the local Danes did not seem to cross paths. After research and interviews, I tried to find a common line between the two cultures. I noticed the habit of the locals to hang strings of stones around their gardens and on the facades of their homes. I figured I could use these natural resources taken from the shore as a metaphor. I painted on them Romanian traditional symbols as a visual language that might spark curiosity and open a conversation between the two communities. Afterwords, I placed the painted stones around the city of Skagen in places, both outdoor and indoor, where people might meet each other. The goal was for the stones with Romanian meaning to become a portal for curiosity, trust, and integration in the forign land and community.
Project developed while working with K-O-N-T-O studio, for Trailer Park Festival
For: Dignity Institute Against Torture
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Focus areas:
~Spatial exhibition made of up-cycled solutions: textile, wood, etc
~Concept development for Dignity Institute Against Torture in the attempt to create awareness towards the existence of this organisation
~Aiming to support victims of abuse as much as encourage them to reach out for help
This project created for the Dignity Institute against Torture intended to create a bright, soft and hopeful image of the power of shared human vulnerability.
“If we stay with our precocity within our selves, we are left alone, only to cover our wounds and risk getting lost in the maze of sorrow. On the surface of language, we can create images that help us forget. But by speaking from our vulnerabilities that lie beneath these words, it is possible for us to reveal our selves and to appear to one another.”
(Text: Morten Benke)
Participation in the Romanian Creative Week
Installation developed together with textile designer Capucine Robert
Location: Iasi, Romania
~Development of concept in relation with the exhibition theme - ‘Impatiens tremens’
~Upcycling of textiles for art installation
~Making use of local intrusive plants to spread a message about industrial consumption and natural resources
litter, when did we grow so close?
Thinking of the safe space that a wide green field is, or my mother’s untamed garden, could it be that we have given a similar power to the consumption- based life that we carry?
With this floral-textile - installation we are trying to create a landscape of the reality of now. Merging the beautiful yet deemed invasive plants of this land with the most acclaimed materials, such as textiles from the clothing industry, we hope to reverse the roles. Can we like nature again, or did we grow too close and oblivious to the piles of litter?
Our motivation is to fold, roll, pile, and seed, not only leftover cut-outs from textile factories and local plants, but also how we are, and affect.
Concept development, Spatial and retail design, Lighting design, Project management, Visual Identity, Illustration, 2D and 3D mediums, Articulating of Vision, Art Direction
Specific knowledge in: Spatial, Floral & Lighting installations, Textiles - Wool, Regenerative practices