MADEINSITU

/ Aug
2022

Ana Paula, head of technical development tells us about working at Viúva Lamego since the 1990.

You joined Viúva Lamego in 1990. How was manufacturing and product development back then?

When I joined, after graduating in Chemical Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico, the factory was still very much in the nineteenth century. We were in the middle of Lisbon and we were still working with wood kilns, for instance. The neighbours complained that their clothes smelled of firewood, we had buildings being built on our doorstep. The city had grown and reached us, just as had happened with the first Viúva Lamego factory that this one had replaced, the beautiful blue-and-white-tiled façade in Largo do Intendente.

Initially, my job was to help with the change of facilities and to bring in a more organised approach to the way we worked: the manufacturing process, quality control, etc. Up until the nineties, the legacy of secrecy still had a huge impact on the way we worked. There wasn’t much of a culture of sharing technical or artistic knowledge in Portugal. To give you an idea, Manuel Cargaleiro, who still has his workshop with us here, once told me that when fellow artist Jorge Barradas found out he was to start teaching, he kicked him out of the atelier they shared, fearing that Cargaleiro would divulge his methods and techniques to his students.

For us, this legacy of secrecy meant things such as having trouble reproducing an exact colour, because nothing was registered, we didn’t have a technical approach to creating colours. Today we have a structure and a team that’s technically much more evolved. And artistically, we now benefit from the existence of better schools, on which we can rely when looking for trained and talented painters, for example. All our painting is manual, so painting remains a crucial aspect for us.

/ Jul
2022

José Mateus, from Nó Marceneiros, tells us about himself and the making of the wooden panels.

What are your earliest memories of working with wood?

I was a navy scout. Besides all the activities common to all scouts, we did a lot linked to the sea – things like building wooden boats and canoes. I have wonderful memories of these early challenges. But I didn’t consider carpentry from the beginning; for a long time I didn’t know what to do, professionally. I studied design at Lisbon’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and later on I taught plastic arts. Meanwhile, I thought about being a Jesuit priest, I moved to Coimbra.

When I returned to Lisbon, my father had opened a small carpentry studio. He did repairs, mostly. My father had worked all his life in something completely different, but he had the passion. His grandfather had been a carpenter, he had many memories of him and his craft, he grew up with these references. I remember, for instance, being small and my father wanting to build a mezzanine in the garage.

I started to work with my father, and progressively, I dedicated more and more time to carpentry. I wanted to learn more, get better at it. Later, when I already had an atelier of my own, my father stepped back but my brother joined me – he became instrumental in the project.

/ Jul
2022

A multisensorial dining experience taking guests on a journey through the origin of raw materials.

/ Aug
2021

Manuel Couto, from Granorte, tells us about the process behind the Burnt Cork collection.

Created in 1972 in the region of Porto, Granorte started as a mid-sized granulated cork producer. Few decades later, Granorte has become one of the key players of the cork flooring business in Portugal, with clients in 50 countries around the world.

Manuel Couto and Granorte teams enthusiastically embraced Noé’s project from the beginning so let us introduce you our manufacturing partner in a little bit more detail.

Manuel is responsible for CNC/3D management & production control at Granorte, the expert department for developing new projects and designs. He has been our main partner, since day 1, on the Burnt Cork adventure.

/ May
2021

The Burnt Cork
collection in Noé’s words

When I moved to Portugal in summer 2017, I decided to drive from France alone. It was a 3 day drive during which I sensed a change in my life and the beginning of a new chapter. This road-trip was open to feeling, seeking and finding, eloquently narrated by landscape.  Upon entering the country, I was met by flames, burnt forests and charred black trees. It was a shock to drive into these hills ablaze, the inferno consuming the landscape and leaving behind a world of visible entropy. Hauntingly dark, each spike of burnt wood sticking from the ground where a tree used to be. The power of fire struck me, one of the five elements vital to existence on earth, a keystone to the development of culture. It is a transformer of environments: subtle when controlled and aggressive when wild.  Fire is somehow always beautiful.  Part of me didn’t want to think about this, but I took photos and this experience stayed with me. It made me question my interaction with nature as a designer and as a consumer. I felt it would resurface in the work I was to do here in Portugal.

/ Dec
2020

Meet with Daphné Bugey,
the creator of the Soenga perfume.

Based in Lisbon, Daphné Bugey is an independent perfumer, and perfume consultant for Firmenich, whose laboratory is in Paris.

After starting her career in “body care”, she specialized in fine perfumery, still known as alcohol-based perfumery.

Daphné develops fragrances both for large international houses (Dolce & Gabbana, Kenzo, Jean-Paul Gaultier or Hugo Boss) as well as for more niche brands (Le Labo, L’Artisan Parfumeur or Penhaligon’s).

What exactly is your role in the Barro Negro collection?

As part of this first collection, Noé has developed a series of black ceramic objects, including an interior perfume diffuser. I have created the “Soenga” fragrance to be used with this object. It is a pure, oil-based fragrance.

What sparked your interest in this collaboration?

Personally, I am happy and grateful to have the chance to live in Portugal. So I made an immediate connection with the concept of the MADE IN SITU project. The idea of collaborating with Portuguese artisans is a great way to get closer to the culture of the country. In particular, the human adventure of MADE IN SITU appealed to me; I was interested in working with Noé, with his team, with the artisans.

/ Oct
2020

Xana and Carlos on the

Barro Negro Collection

Xana Monteiro and Carlos Lima are a duo of Portuguese ceramicists based in Molelos, Tondela. For over three decades they have been developing an extensive body of work in black ceramics, respecting the traditions of pottery as well as keeping an open mind to new creative challenges. As promoters of this art form, they are true masters of Barro Negro and have been performing an important and innovative artistic practice at national and international art biennials.

What made you accept a collaboration with Noé, a French designer?

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Mainly, the fact that we were already very fond of his aesthetic work. Furthermore, he was able to form his ideas around our work method, which resulted in 
a process of discussions, and encounters bringing to life the pieces in this collection.

What was your role in the Barro Negro collection?

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We are artisans, we made every single piece of this collection by hand, based on Noé’s designs. Some pieces were co-created after our encounters with Noé in the atelier, seeing some sketches and us making clay mock-ups for Noé, adopting a “hands-on” approach, allowing ideas and initial concepts to become something unique, born out of that specific moment. Other pieces were adapted due to technical viability. We tried to find solutions together, changing certain details in shape, texture and proportions, in keeping with the clay production techniques we work with and the firing of the individual pieces.

/ Sep
2020

8 Questions to
Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance

Why leave France and choose Portugal?

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Choosing a new country means leaving one’s comfort zone, looking at and perceiving things in a different way. I grew up in Brittany in France, was living in Paris and I was looking for a place to breath and look at the horizon, it was a time in my life where I really needed the sense of space and a place with a sense of origin. These points are necessary and inspiring for my work. In Portugal, the geographical positioning gives this opportunity, the ocean and the land.

I have worked a lot in my life, loving specifically my time with craftspeople, I also find industry fascinating, the whole process that involves humans. I wanted to find a place where the designing was part of the production.

Portugal is a country undergoing change –it feels now that it is in transition, rooted in heritage but currently in motion and this dynamic is one of its assets. It feels to me like one of the only countries that always comes back to itself. It has been anchored by necessity in certain traditions, this strong connection can still be found here. The country remains attached to a certain form of “simplicity” which, in my opinion, is essential. To choose Portugal is to take up a new approach – to get physically closer to the work of craftspeople, in their workshops.

It is captivating to be a foreigner in a new country it feels fresh and invigorating. Sensation created this project, the moments of excitement with explorations, like the beginning of a love story.