Luka Stepan
DESIGN THAT CAN BE IMPROVED?
Car design obviously; it can’t just be about
styling, can it? It’s not enough that Tesla
challenges the other manufacturers, there’s
lot to do: how do you improve on the
interior and how do you interact with all
the electronics at your command? And
being in charge of so much deadly power
in the street, how do you develop the auto-
matic system keeping everything in check?
If we will have driverless cars in a sharing
economy, what will they look like? What
kind of sociological and cultural challenges
are we facing?
THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?
The Architectures of Atelier Bow-Wow:
Behaviorology. I’m fascinated with the
Japanese metabolists of the 1950s and
how their work applies to the architects of
today, especially when we look for new
types of dwellings for new lifestyles.
LATEST MUSIC EXPERIENCE?
The Serbian indie-pop band Repetitor;
they are at their best live!
Luka Stepan continued his studies at the Royal College of Art in London,
after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana.
He received guidance from Professor Ron Arad at the RCA, and worked
as a freelance designer in the UK for several renowned London studios –
among them Tangerine – and Luka is now based in Ljubljana with his own
design studio. ‘Why am I making yet another chair? Yes, that’s a good
question! There are really way too many chairs in the world, and lots of
them are really bad since they don’t last long, not even culturally. Lucky is
made without any compromises or short-cuts, and while it’s not a cheap
chair, it’s actually an investment because you can count on using it for a
long time.’
As a designer, I appreciate restrictions regardless of whether they are
related to with artistic expression, marketing issues, sociological concerns
etc. It is these restrictions that make you bound to find successful solutions.’
Cutu Mazueolos and Eva Prego started their design
studio Stone Designs more than 20 years ago, and
today have clients all around the world. Offices are
to be found in Shanghai, Tokyo and Moscow, as
well as their home town of Madrid. Their designs
have earned them great popularity among
Swedish manufacturers thanks to a Nordic feeling
which surpasses even local designers. Maybe it’s
because of an aversion to an ever-more artificial
world? ‘We feel a strong affinity with both Nordic
and Japanese culture and aesthetics. We talk the
same language’, says Eva Prego. ‘Furthermore,
colour is a universal language, which people
FAVOURITE MUSIC?
‘We don’t really listen to Flamenco, but my life-long favourite
is Debussy’s Claire De Lune’, says Cutu Mazuelos. ‘We also
appreciate Nordic music like Sigur Rós and First Aid Kit.’
THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?
Tratamiento psycológico de la hipcondría y la ansiedad
generalizada. Who really believes in the image of designers
all clad in black going from success to success? It’s a tough,
stressful life; you travel all day, you’ve got all these dead-
lines, it hurts a lot, and you really have to curb your anxiety
and hypochondria. I believe that in order to make people
happy, you must also allow yourself to experience sadness
once in a while.
Stone Designs
CUTU & EVA
LUKA
understand and can interpret on their own, almost
like abstract art.’ Cutu Mazueolos has a past as a
professional snowboarder and is a keen practitioner
of extreme sports. ‘I really find myself at ease with
nature; everything else is plastic. Worst of all
is social media. Where is the taste of life in all these
plastic products which surround us?’ Stone Design
works for many internationally well-known and
high-profile clients, as well as providing interior
design for ski resorts both in Spain and Japan. Both
Eva and Cutu emphasise that they want to improve
people’s lives by creating a new relationship with
both object and surroundings.