Linde Freya Tangelder has found the balance between collectible and industry

25 July 2023

Experimenting and designing, going beyond formal standards without forgetting function: perhaps this is the way to the balance between uniqueness and raison d’être and in design, knowing how to reconcile collecting and industrial production. Linde Freya Tangelder, Belgian designer born in 1987, winner of EDIDA in the young talents of the year 2023 category, is taking her first steps in this direction. Not surprisingly, starting from an experimental project, intended for a gallery public, she was discovered by Cassina and involved in a high-profile collaboration.

How do you translate architectural culture into design?

As architecture is just a starting point, I love to move freely around this endless source of inspiration; the materiality, the building structures, the volumes, the gestures that I see in this field in several eras, modern and ancient. By deconstructing, re-scaling, new connections, making endless variations within a topic, it becomes something new, a design piece that still carries the original source. These new sculptural furniture objects are a sculpture as a furniture in one.

What are the values that you carry forward through your work?

I strive for sensory relevance and cultural value in detail and on a larger scale. My works have a sculptural and architectural character, and balance between contemporary and traditional elements. Inspired by architectural shapes, the furniture pieces highlight the field between industry and human, through diverse materials, in specific wood, metal, glass and stone. Constructions are scaled down to human sizes, and translations result into sculptural gestures. Both low- and high-end materials get re-valued, reconsidered and transformed. The interventions and finishes by hand, give these architectural objects a tactile aspect. The contrast in materials, the touchability, and the human traces that are still visible in the object, explain the method of Destroyers/Builders.

How do you choose the materials for your projects?

It is a result of the process, where material choice is developed simultaneously within the topic. Sometimes it is a direct translation within a material that suits the subjects, sometimes I let in a new material that has another quality that I feel is needed to clarify my idea, for example – when in my research and in my inspirations the Liquid is an element, water, wax, glass are a result of this thinking stream, and therefor can be used in the process and end result.

What relationship do you have with the house you live in and with the objects and furnishings it contains?

At the moment I live on two locations: one is my small studio in Antwerp, which is filled with my prototypes and miniatures, models, combined with a few important furniture pieces from other artists and a papa bear chair from my grandparents. Warm natural tones, like burgundy, and warm grey come together within lacquered wood, soft leather, fabrics are combined with clear aluminium elements & massive wood elements. These same tones and mix of work/life objects is now growing within a new studio – house outside Brussels that we are renovating.

How did the idea of the Wax Stone lamp for Cassina come about?

This is a lighting collection that resulted from a long research and limited editions from my residency at INResidence, and solo show at Carwan Gallery. In first place only developed as a glass sculpture, Cassina invited me to rethink and design a visual similar glass piece, to become a lighting collection with 5 different sizes, from table light to floor lights. The inspiration is based on glass bricks – which I love, and natural stone masonry, I wanted to develop a vivid light in its texture (which is an imprint of handmade wax shapes) and its shape (which are blocks of glass on top of each other) . This is executed in mouth blown Murano glass in Italy and is my second collection for Cassina.

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