THE HOME PROJECT Text: Tiago Krusse

Photo: Courtesy of The Home Project

The Home Project is a design studio founded in 2005 by Kathi Stertzig and Álbio Nascimento. The two designers created their studio with the intention to be aware and informed about “solutions with an origin”. Álbio Nascimento clarifies this idea in his concise studio presentation: a search for a “responsible design innovation that unfolds from an exploration between people and place”. They both define their standpoint as an integrated design “that explores cultural research as an approach to authentic, engaged, sustainable material culture”. They are also driven by their curiosity and passion backed by the interest on technique and materials. The aftereffects and the cultural aspects of the making process are important issues, underlining sensitivity and prize for tradition. The German Kathi Stertzig and the Portuguese Álbio Nascimento met in Italy while attending the Politecnico di Milano. They lived in Antwerp, Netherlands, for some years, and now they are based in Berlin, Germany, and Faro, Portugal. She studied Interior | 28 |

Design in Hannover and Milan, earning her degree at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Stertzig defines her work as a reflection of continuously questioning how design can improve social and environmental issues. Stertzig taught Product Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany. In his turn, Nascimento trained Interior and Product Design in Lisbon, Portugal, and Milan, Italy; afterwards, he worked as a researcher within ExperimentaDesign — the Portuguese knowledge production and project development unit working in design, architecture and design culture, created in 1998, based in Lisbon, with Guta Moura Guedes as chair. The particular interest in crafts cultures lead Nascimento to focus his work on cultural innovation and vernacular craft, the subject of his MA thesis and semester lecture at FH Potsdam, Germany. www.the-home-project.com