VOLCÁNICA BY MESAWA || Contemporary Furniture Design Combining Simplicity and Durability
The unique fusion of steel and recinto, the product of inexhaustible experimentation, is the essence of this collection, whose pieces combine subtlety, simplicity, and durability.
Mesawa is a Mexican company that highlights the beauty of domestic natural elements in functional furniture. The designs showcase the power of simplicity, combined with the exploration of materials and processes done by hand.
Ikpali chair
Kaxi vanity
Yeixpan console
Mesawa’s in-depth reflection and incessant experimentation has given life to unprecedented contrasts, achieving the most exquisite treatment of steel, wood, and even volcanic rock, to create unique spaces with modern, minimalist pieces.
The brand was born as a joint project by the architect Santiago Sierra and the designer Diego Linares, who together seek to create a utilitarian furniture concept that uses metal as its core material. In each series, updated annually, Sierra and Linares translate elementary shapes into a range of 20 pieces, which include tables, chairs, consoles, dining sets, vanities and mirrors.
Pakax Mirror
Grapa akolti acero
The pair’s pioneering vision is an organic synthesis of their common interests in the fields of design and the visual arts. Their professional backgrounds and creative perspectives complement each other. Sierra’s expresses his architectural praxis in projects and studies in the United States, Spain and France, while Linares, with his global education, conveys his experience in the creation of large-scale metal structures.
The soul of Mesawa’s concept is steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, which is masterfully processed by the expert hands of the artisan metalworkers. They create striking outlines and high-quality finishes that suit the aesthetics of ultra-modern settings.
Their most recent collection, Serie No. 2. Volcánica, features subtle, elegant lines. It harmonizes steel finished in black electrostatic paint with the natural touches of walnut and an unusual texture: recinto, a porous volcanic rock in different hues that is formed when lava hardens, widely found in the cantera stone that emerged from the volcanoes around the Valley of Mexico.
The skill with which the recinto is handled gives it a sense of both lightness and absolute strength that comes together on the surfaces of star pieces that use the material, such as the Xalpi console table, the Pakax mirror—two meters, or 6.5 ft high—the Sentlapa side table and the Kaxi vanity.
Sentlapa side table
In their next series—currently under development—Sierra and Linares will deepen their interpretation of Mexico’s natural wealth and their architectural reference points to conceive a line inspired by the Brutalist style, where concrete, recinto and steel will be to the fore.
At Mesawa, Mexico’s versatility, materials, design and cultural expression combine to achieve total experimentation in modern furniture.
Mesawa Founders. Photo Credit: Manolo Sierra
Photo Credits: Manolo Sierra for Mesawa
