Hands on design is a young Italian company that combines design and high craftsmanship to create durable, timeless objects — one of the cornerstones of sustainable design.
The longevity of objects, their ability to last a long time, is one of the important values for a design that aspires to be sustainable. Materials, manufacturing techniques, the relationship between form and function, and the empathy we feel with the objects we use are all elements that contribute to creating harmony. One virtuous example of this is the young Italian company Hands on design.
The idea behind Hands on design is to create beauty by building a bridge between design and high craftsmanship, between Italy and Japan, developing a series of timeless objects of beauty. These creations are born from the happy encounter of more than thirty contemporary designers with a strong inclination towards experimentation and an equal number of craftspeople who carry on traditions that are often two or three generations old.
"Sustainability lies in the history, the purity and the simplicity of materials," according to Riccardo Nardi, an Italian designer, and Kaori Shiina, a Japanese designer from Shiina+Nardi Design and founders of the Hands on design project, which launched in 2013. "It is the conscious ingenuity of hands that build considered things, using optimal tools and techniques, tried and refined over time to perfection. Sustainability is spontaneous optimisation without waste. Sustainability is the value and the longevity of timeless objects."
The most commonly used materials are wood, metal, stone, boiled wool and glass. The idea behind the form of the objects is closely tied to function, yet leaves room for free poetic interpretation in order to achieve an overall visual and sensory harmony. Such as Shuji Nakagawa's water bucket, a masterpiece of perfectly interlocking curved elements that can be replaced over time. Because the age of things, according to Japanese philosophy, is an added value rather than a negative factor.
The production techniques are rooted in Japanese craft tradition — such as the fine wood worked according to the ancient Kumiko technique of interlocking joints and inlays by Hiroaki Usui; and the slate, smoothed and thinned to perfection by Ogatsu Ishi. Nothing is thrown away, something new is created from the offcuts: such as the candles made with rice bran and vegetable wax by Warousoku Daiyo.
They are also rooted in the Italian tradition — for example in Murano glass — and in the history of Kyrgyzstan and the boiled wool production of Tumar, steeped in the culture of a people. A centuries-old story of women who produced in boiled wool every object of daily use, from slippers to the yurt, their mobile dwelling.
"Harmony is the name given to the perfect relationship that must exist between an object and its purpose," wrote Henry Havard. And it is precisely the pursuit of this harmony that lies at the heart of Hands on design — the desire to create an empathic relationship between a person and their object.