The Human Touch

The Singapore- and Portugal-based designer Gabriel Tan talks to Jing Zhang about the revival of handmade items, craft and clarity, and how cultural exchange sparks inspiration.

- Jing Zhang

Beautiful interior objects have become more vital pleasures this past year. As we’re at home more often, we want our environments to inspire, soothe and delight. A recent trend towards handmade items is one part design humanism and one part high-tech fatigue. And during a pandemic, it’s all part of the slow-living zeitgeist gaining traction even in the world’s fastest cities.

Currently doing the job are the hand-polished quarry bowls made from three segments of Portuguese marble, textured salt vases in cobalt blue or earthy orange, tall conical jugs or the wonderfully shaped charred clay vases – all items from Origin, a brand of handcrafted, collectable objects by Portuguese artisans and international designers.

Founded by Singaporean Gabriel Tan, who helms an eponymous studio as well as Origin and the Japanese furniture brand Ariake, the project was inspired by a 2014 holiday to Portugal, when he expected little other than sightseeing and some beaches. Inadvertently ending up in the workshops of Portuguese artisans, Tan was amazed by the craft that resided so close to glorious landscapes.