The Architect-Furniture Makers
Beth and Naeem in their studio in Nairobi, Kenya
Beautifully designed objects - lights, furniture, textiles - in magazines, books or up close in the flesh always leave me feeling uplifted and inspired. But at the same time I’ve always felt a bit of distance - would I ever own something so beautifully crafted, where I could see up close the attention to detail - the care, thought and skill that’s been channelled into making such a piece.
Beth and Naeem are the wife/husband team behind Studio Propolis - a two- man-band architect and design duo working out of Nairobi in Kenya. Both are trained architects and turned to making furniture simply to pay the bills.
But what started as a stop-gap is now a business and the furniture they make is just what you aspire to own. Reactions to our hand-crafted dining room table, benches and chairs made from local, sustainable timber are anything but insipid: “It’s like having (another) sexy lady in the room - I just can’t stop looking at it”! crooned one friend. “Those chairs. OMG I am so going to Pinterest them!”, from another.
Above: A prototype and real-size cathedral pew and a model of the couples' own house project in Nairobi
Beth planing wood in the workshop
As Beth and Naeem point out, there’s no deep tradition of design in Nairobi - no furniture or product design courses at the university to inspire a culture of design, so what you do find being made by local craftsmen isn’t, generally, unique. There are plenty of copies, reproductions and antiques to be found but you’ll likely draw a blank if it’s contemporary design you’re after. And that’s where Beth and Naeem have bridged the gap.
The passion and enthusiasm they have for their trade is as infectious as it is bold. Always using locally sourced materials, their approach to design is about going against the grain, being flexible, taking your skills and looking for a market, and then finely honing, adapting and refining the process until the piece is perfect.
Naeem measuring and adjusting in the workshop
Below these two perfectionists describe part of their entrepreneurial journey….
B&N: Even leaving architectural school we had no idea we would be doing this for a living. We always fantasised about owning a workshop as any architect might do – it’s a connection with making things and that enjoyment - but we never thought we’d be doing it for a living. We both had experiences working in different workshops which is how we learnt about woodworking and furniture making
Does architecture feed into the design process of your furniture work?
B&N: It’s actually quite a different profession to architecture – there’s a lot of crossover but its mostly the scale initially that we enjoy. We’ve always been drawn to detailing in a certain way and I think the issue at first when we came to do an architectural project was the pace of the project. It is so much slower. So many other people are involved in the making of a building. But to make smaller scale pieces – furniture, joinery whatever it might be - is more immediate so in terms of work satisfaction you achieve something much faster. But primarily for us we needed to make some money. So that much faster turnover of a project meant that we made whatever amount of money we were making more quickly.
Did the architectural course you did equip you for starting up your own business and setting up on your own?
B&N: Absolutely not. It didn’t give us the tools of business management or that kind of side to it. But what it did give us is the confidence and conviction in our own ideas however bad they were. It gave us the abililty to conceptualise whatever we were doing whether it was our business, our design ideas…. And yes, definitely to think a bit unconventionally and flexibly.
You’ve had experience in architectural practices in the UK, furniture design workshops in Mexico, bee-keeping in Northumberland, have their been key people who have nudged you in a certain direction?
B&N: We were so lucky that the people that we have worked for are just so ingenious in the way that they run their businesses and their lives. They make everything and do everything for themselves. It may sound unconventional to some people but I think the crowd of people we learnt from and hung around with, the norm was to just get on with it and do it yourself.
They’ve generally been people who have lived against the grain of society and may have struggled at times but they’re people who haven’t sold out, basically. They make you think that things are possible and you just have to go for it.
And also, that its much more fun that way.
The Studio Propolis design studio adjoining the workshop