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From his vast studio in rural Portugal, Mircea Anghel experiments with new materials, designs and possibilities

- HELENA AMANTE

Outside Mircea Anghel’s studio on a rural estate in Portugal’s Alentejo, a profusion of materials and ongoing projects glint in the sun: blinding marble stones sourced from nearby Estremoz to become the pillars of his gravity-defying tables; a construction in wood bricks awaiting the next phase in the experiment; a huge dead tree twisting and arching at the perfect angle to lead visitors through the studio door.

‘I saw the tree down in the fields and decided to bring it here. It’s standing exactly the way it fell from the lorry. Now the challenge for me is resisting the temptation to do something with it, and simply letting it rot on our doorstep,’ Anghel says.

The Romanian designer moved to Lisbon in 2000 with his parents, aged 14. A graduate in economics from the University of Lisbon, he was top of the class in mathematics and found a corporate job in finance. His passion for design and carpentry flourished around that time, when he was looking into adding a room to his parents-in-law’s small holiday home in Comporta – a protected seaside area where new construction is forbidden. The experience of sleeping on a boat while on holiday in Morocco sparked the idea of building a suite inside a boat brought ashore. After the municipality approved his plan, Anghel visited the sawmill at Herdade da Barrosinha, close to Comporta, that would later become his studio. There he met Hélder ‘Calminhas’ Mateus, one of the few remaining traditional master boat builders in Portugal, who helped him with the project and showed him the ropes of woodworking.