Destroyers/Builders: sculptural objects looking for a raw environment

“Most of my works are inspired by elements of architecture”, claims Linde Freya Tangelder, the designer behind Destroyers/Builders, a young design studio characterised by the fondness for raw textures and sculptural realisations. A passion that the designer also shares with BRUT, the Belgian collective known for the same aesthetical research, which she co-founded in 2018. From Bolder, the chair defined by its large feet similar to big truncated columns, to High Section, the freestanding brass bookcase that, if seen from a certain angle, recalls Le Corbusier’s Dom-Ino House, Tangelder’s repertoire offers seductive reinterpretations of the archetypes of the architectural world. To affirm even more the aesthetics she is after, the designer collaborated with the Belgian photographer Jeroen Verrecht, known for his photos of architectural ensembles steeped by soft natural light. Verrecht – whose latest works include a portrait of the Abbey of Vaals (Netherlands), a visual documentation of Fosbury & Sons, a new co-coworking space in Brussels (Belgium), as well as views of Louis Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (India) – has come up with a series of staged pictures shot at Le Lorrain, an industrial loft newly refurbished by Belgian architects noArchitecten.

“By placing the objects in this raw loft”, explains Tangelder, “I wanted to create a dialogue between the design pieces and the location, through the diversity of materials that define this collection – like aluminium, wool, brass, painted horn, whitened chipwood – and the materials of the location – reddish tiled floor, concrete ceiling and beams as well as felt curtains. These materials and colours create an interesting, eclectic mix of warm, but brutal elements”. By presenting her new collection – which has been already widely published on the occasion of the 2019 Milan Fuorisalone when it was exhibited in the installation of BRUT in the Isola neighborhood – through this series of photos, Tangelder tries to give shape to new perspectives and conceptual connections that enable her to affirm her identity outside of the collective she works with and that highlight how important it is for young designers to find innovative and inspiring ways to narrate their projects to both the press and the public.