The South African designer Mpho Vackier has a credo: design should improve people’s lives and above all tell local stories; form and function go hand in hand, and simplicity is equal to refinement. After having taken a degree in interior design in Pretoria and working as an engineer in a mine, she founded the studio TheUrbanative. “The inspiration came from my son,” she says. “With my creations I want to create a dialogue between cultures.”
Combining European Mid-Century design with fabrics having an African cultural matrix, she has created Homecoming, a collection of furnishings where forms, colors and textures link back to the vernacular architecture of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Mali. The aspect of collaboration is equally important: many of the products involve local businesses and artisans.
“The collection began with the Akaya chair, and since then it has evolved to include sculptural lamps, as well as ceramics and candles with organic forms,” Vackier explains. Based on an overall idea of the home, “which the social networks allowed us to share during the pandemic, helping us to discover what we all want and what we truly need: safety, security, comfort, a sense of belonging.”
The names of the items contain words that define the domestic environment and its emotions, in various languages of the African continent. “Exploring these languages we learn something about the people who speak them, about their culture.”
In collaboration with the textile design studio Something Good of Johannesburg, she has created a chair and a blanket named after two influential Congolese queens, Nasara and Nenzima. Names that have a certain weight: because, as Vackier concludes, “the home is not a structure or a building, but instead the people, the things and experiences that bring joy into our lives and give our existence meaning.”
