Studioilse, founded by Ilse Crawford, is the go-to team for design with rigour and integrity, whether for homes or hotels, restaurants or schools, offices or shops, furniture or objects, exhibitions and experiences. The studio is jointely managed by Ilse Crawford and her husband Oscar Pena, former head designer at Philips. It is a multi-disciplinary design studio with a simple mission to put human needs and desires at the centre of all that they do. This means creating environments where humans feel comfortable; public spaces that make people feel at home and homes that are habitable and make sense for the people who live in them. It means designing furniture and products that support and enhance human behavior and actions in everyday life.
Studioilse and Zanat have been collaborating productively after a meeting over a delicious lunch at Studioilse in 2015. We in Zanat decided to approach Ilse Crawford not just because we love what she and her team do, but above all because we see eye to eye on more fundamental questions about the purpose of design. The Touch collection, designed by Studioilse for Zanat, is about the use of carvings to enhance tactility and create a strong physical connection between humans and objects which still surround them in an increasingly digital world.
