With Alberto Lievore and Manel Molina we were partners under the name Lievore Altherr Molina until 2015, and my current partners Delphine Desile and Dennis Park already worked with us in the studio. Manel left, and since 2019 we are two studios – Altherr Desile Park on one side, and Alberto Lievore on the other. We have signed some projects together. We currently collaborate mainly on revisions or extensions of past projects.

“Essential” is a concept that goes beyond formal language. It means defining what really matters in a project, and those aspects can be different. The timelessness and long life of projects have always been very important aspects, and to achieve this it is essential to establish an emotional connection with the objects, a connection capable of lasting over time. It is not a simple attraction that quickly disappears, but a relationship that is revealed again and again, based on trustworthiness and mutual respect. They are objects capable of accompanying you even at different stages of your life.

In recent years, with Altherr Desile Park, we have expanded this idea from an even more holistic perspective: not only from an aesthetic point of view, but considering its entire life cycle, from materials, production, its maintenance, repairability, reconfigurability, up to recycling at the end of its useful life.

I arrived in Barcelona in 1989, disillusioned with design in Germany which, in my perception at the time, oscillated between a certain ‘techno-fetishism’ on the one hand and, on the other, hyper-conceptual designs that often seemed disconnected from the sensibility of real life.

The search for balance between different aspects, from the technical to the sensual, without giving up a certain poetry or delicacy, exploring new frontiers but maintaining its integration with reality, has been my motivation since then.

Thanks to the studio’s projects, I have been able to expand classic industrial design studies to fields such as color, textures, artistic direction, creative direction (including strategy) and a broad exploration of all types of materials and techniques that are used. They lie between industry and crafts.

Realistically, the furniture and lighting sector is relatively small compared to big players such as fashion, food, cosmetics, cleaning, automobiles or energy. Companies often lack the resources of large industries, and their environmental impact is also lower.

On the one hand, circularity encompasses much more than the use of sustainable materials: it involves considering the entire life cycle, from suppliers to design, materials, use, reparability, reuse and recycling at the end of life useful. It may even include a change in the business model. It requires extensive training in all areas, from design to logistics and marketing.

It is a demanding and highly disruptive process. The purpose of sustainability must be ingrained throughout the company, from the CEO to the team: everyone must take responsibility for sustainability and gain expertise in the topic. This takes time and learning, but this process will significantly enrich the entire value chain.

Therefore, sustainability is not for all companies. It is already an achievement if some companies begin to implement changes within their structure. Some companies will move more quickly and with greater conviction, while others will do so in a more limited way. There is no room for a middle ground, the future can only be better or worse depending on our own actions, but the status quo cannot be maintained. Here we will see who will be part of an inspiring model by actively designing a more promising future, and who will participate in a more dystopian model.

I would highlight the Kata collection for Arper. It was a self-assignment: how to design an armchair from a 360 circular perspective? The FSC certified wooden structure has been reduced to a minimum to be as light as possible and have minimal impact on transport. This structure is covered with a 3D knit fabric made of post-consumer recycled polyester. The fabric is custom made, which means it produces no cutting waste, provides comfort by being slightly elastic and features micro-padding of the same material, eliminating the need for foams and reducing material, water and energy by 70% compared to with traditional upholstery. The seat is completely removable to allow it to be reconfigured for a second life, and each element is recyclable at the end of its useful life.

3D technology, commonly used in the production of slippers or office chairs, has been adapted in this case to achieve an aesthetic reminiscent of straw braiding, valuing pre-industrial and pre-modern artisanal techniques, but reinterpreted so that they can be manufactured at industrial level.

This year we have expanded the collection with a chair in which we have replaced the 3D knit fabric with an ultra-thin plywood with a printed texture, inspired by the Thonet chair seating technique of the last century.

Another notable project is the Catifa chair, presented this year with an innovative material: Papershell, made from 29 sheets of paper glued with a natural resin, creating a novel material that, at the end of its useful life, can be transformed by pyrolysis into Biochar without releasing the CO2 captured in the air.

Plastic emerged as a durable alternative to natural materials, it was not conceived as a single-use material; It is its low cost and the bad consumer habits of our society that have made it what it is today. We all agree that single use is no longer a viable strategy, especially in a context where recycling is not working as it should. However, it would be naïve to believe that all plastic can be replaced by natural materials, or that these natural materials are always the most sustainable option by default.

There are countries where we all know that the demand for sustainability is greater than the rest, central Europe, Scandinavia… there is a cultural part, another for having basic needs well covered and being able to open up to other concerns. This unfortunately does not imply that they are zero-impact societies, but they do set the bar somewhat higher than the rest. However, the important thing is that this transformation reaches everywhere in the fairest way possible.

Surely it is still insufficient, but I love seeing how progress is made in Latin American or Asian countries. There are also those who are understanding that improving their impacts generates benefits at all levels.

Take the famous example of the water bottle: which is more sustainable, a glass bottle or a plastic one? Well, it depends. At close range, the glass one. At long distance (that is, in transport), the plastic one. This is valid for today. If tomorrow the transport and manufacture of glass were carried out with renewable energy, the balance could change. When considering natural materials, it is also necessary to take into account their water consumption, pesticides, deforestation, weight, among other factors.

Regarding plastic, instead of indiscriminately demonizing it, it is important to differentiate: any single-use material, including paper, is not very sustainable. A plastic that is used consciously, fulfills a function that natural materials cannot perform, is used for a long time and is recycled at the end of its useful life, cannot be compared to single-use packaging.

Artificial intelligence is a very broad and controversial field. On the one hand, we already use it as a tool in Photoshop and other programs. We could not work without the Internet and computers, and even media like Pinterest have provided an important creative boost.

On the other hand, I see many dangers: in our area, the homogenization and trivialization of proposals if AI replaces authors; the reduction of what we consume, if it is an algorithm that decides what we see; and although in the short term it may benefit small studios, in the long term it is likely to lead to a reduction in jobs, leaving only room for the largest ones. But even more so, I am very concerned about how it influences politics: the megaphone it provides to misinformation and the division of society risks having a brutal negative impact on the future of the climate.

On the one hand, overcoming the “value – action gap” means that consumers inherently want the good, but without sacrificing performance or incurring additional costs. On the other hand, we have to change our conception of beauty to include the environmental impact in what we consider beautiful. Are extremely bright colors beautiful if they cause a lot of pollution and do not stand the test of time? Or excess material? Or new just for the sake of being new?

We have recently developed a bathroom collection for Roca, pioneer in a new technology of electric kilns for the production of ceramics. In this collection, we have reflected on the meaning of water in our near future, inspired by aesthetics from southern cultures, marked by water scarcity. For the first time, the collection does not include a bathtub, as is usually requested, and we have revalued a “backpack” toilet, with the water tank visible, so that it can be a visible but elegant piece in a renovation, instead requiring new construction.

I would say that what is natural is that which coexists in harmony and balance with all the systems in its environment. To go against this principle is to go against oneself. Having a garden has been the best lesson to experience climate change and its impact directly at home: how it suffers from drought, heat, pests, wild animals, and how plants need to adapt to an increasingly dry climate here in Spain.

For Barcelona Design Week / Objectar el mon in 2019, I translated this experience into a garden visual diary:

“What is an object that meets the material, functional, methodological, consumption or production characteristics necessary to stop the destruction of the environment, or even initiate processes to restore it? If the climate crisis is caused by overconsumption, we will have to produce and buy less, but experience more. If ignorance is the main obstacle to change, we have to learn better. Perhaps the design has to evolve towards a broader idea: object + relationship + integration.

A garden is a designed natural space. It is a small-scale circle of life and is restorative by definition: for the environment and for the people who use it.

The garden is represented by a journal written for 7 years in which I have documented how gardening shaped my relationship with the environment.

Taking care of a garden is a process that leads us to all kinds of learning: about plants, water, soil, pests, animals, climate – which then leads us to questions of ethics, politics, food, energy. Consequently, our idea about aesthetics also changes: “In the end, what you learn is that we are all part of the same system.

Everything is connected. Above all: loving your space makes you want to protect it.”