CARA \ DAVIDE is the name of the design studio founded in 2016 in Milan by Cara Judd (South Africa) and Davide Gramatica (Italy). Their works and limited editions, made for both brands and galleries, rely on an interest in experimentation with materials, techniques and processes associated with different territories, in close collaboration with expert artisans in Italy and South Africa.
One of their latest projects is the Broca Bench for Marmoles Covarrubias: in this case CARA \ DAVIDE have concentrated on the negative imprint that remains on blocks of marble in the wake of the removable of cylindrical cores. The company’s machinery has guided the dimensioning of the design and the finished product; the studio then shifted to manual work to guide the sequence of extractions along the edge of the block in a more organic way. The result is Broca, a long bench in Grigio Camberi, a local marble utilized by Marmoles Covarrubias to experiment with the mechanical aesthetic of the machinery used to shape the material.
In 2023 the studio designed Tratti for Tooy Lighting, a modular sculptural lighting system that stems from segments made in 3D printed nylon powder. Ideal in solutions for floors, walls and suspensions, thanks to the various available compositions, Tratti blends light and material into a single entity: from an object/sculpture when off, the product becomes a luminous body with a soft glow, enabling the viewer to glimpse the structure, highlighting the divisions and connections between any segments, with details that are visible only when the lamp is on.
Produced for the 8th Biennale of Contemporary Mosaics of Ravenna and curated by Maria Cristina Didero, the Tessere Collection is composed of a trio of geometric objects that use the mosaic tile as a modular unit of measure to create stylized forms for multifunctional seats and tables. The results are three hybrid pieces created by means of a 3D printed skeleton on which to apply the blocks of tiles. Their borders feature the ancient technique of Byzantine mosaics, namely the use of darker pieces to highlight the perimeter and to emphasize the interaction, or separation, between subject and context.
Not just furnishings and complements, but also interiors, with the Milanese showroom of Moose Knuckles, the Canadian brand of outerwear and luxury prêt-à-porter based in Montreal, designed by CARA \ DAVIDE in collaboration with Motel409 in 2022. Here the futuristic space welcomes interventions with decontextualized materials and dystopian volumes: a solid portal in fabric creates a transition between the technological realm and nature, and accompanies users towards the club area, with an apparently floating structure composed of hundreds of strips of backlit PVC, and a monolithic counter that contains the bar – built with four meters of hand-hammered steel. Everything that has been designed in the space responds to the two fundamental elements of the brand: its Canadian functionality for high performance in cold climates, and an irreverent spirit.
