Pendhapa is a team of 23 architects, designers, and makers who are based in London, Paris, Singapore, and Jakarta. Founded in 2019 by Antonin Hautefort and Ignatio Tenggara, the practice focuses on creating buildings, spaces, objects, and furniture while dissolving the boundaries between landscape, furniture, and architecture. The practice is based on cross-cultural exchange between Antonin, who grew up in France, and Ignatio, who grew up in Indonesia, and is fueled by their curiosity and passion for new challenges. The name Pendhapa represents a traditional construct found across Indonesia that adapts to its context, with form redefined by the materials used and the changing landscape. Learn more about Pendhapa and their furniture in today’s Maker Monday.
Mysterious by essence, La Nuit Étoilée is a piece of furniture inspired by the midnight starlight sky. From the back, it appears like a piece of the moon, levitating in space.
Andrew Joseph: Describe your design style as if you were explaining it to someone who cannot see.
Antonin Hautefort: Like a body. Sensual: full of never-ending curves, textures and sleek edges.
Ignatio Tenggara: If you walk and sit down on this piece, you will notice that it embraces you, run your finger through and you’ll find the smoothness of its carved body. In finer details, you feel the nature of this material through the senses on your finger.
AJ: If you weren’t a designer, you’d be a ….?
AH: A gardener. I am always in tension between listening and shaping the natural character of materials. I have recently become more and more attracted to the unpredictable.
IT: A singer probably! I love impromptu singing! Maybe throw in a few piano notes as well.
Khanda is a playful, yet grounded piece with a certain sense of timelessness in its solid mass. Its modular functionality varies from a low table, a pair of stools, a bench… It is a dynamic piece of furniture that evolves in a room by changing its function over time.
AJ: What would your dream project or dream client be right now?
AH: Someone fearless. A project driven by a desire to push the boundaries of what can be achieved, not following what has been done.
IT: Someone who is daring, someone who might be willing to build a spaceship in the jungle!
AJ: What’s inspiring you in life (in the industry) right now?
AH: Experts in their field! We have recently started working with unpredictable materials such as ceramics and glazed stones… I love the unpredictable nature of the material and I am so excited that we get to collaborate with such passionate artisans.
IT: All the people that I and we have interacted with in the process of designing, all the craftsmen and designers that are passionate in what they are doing. I think collaboration is key today and forever in the future, and these players in the industry motivate me to grow even further.
Inspired by a traditional Indonesian musical instrument that resembles a small drum, the Udukkai is a table conceived with weight at its center. It has been designed both as a long table or a circular round table.
AJ: What’s your biggest fear in life?
AH: To stop exploring! The more we discover, the more we realize how little we know.
IT: I’m always driven by curiosity in my experience. For me, to stop being curious would be to stop living.
About the Makers | Atelier Pendhapa brings an architectural understanding to the scale of the furniture in order to design spaces as a sequence of anchoring points. Our extensive exploration of hand-carved solid wood allows the furniture pieces to hold a certain weight, both in their aesthetic and lifespan. For each architecture project, a new collection arises: we design bespoke furniture collections encompassing all categories, including our chair Mast or the versatile sofa Naksathra, to statement pieces such as the long marble table Udukkai and smaller sculptural pieces, such as the Gingko side table.
Atelier Pendhapa is currently represented by galleries including Zèbres.Paris, The Invisible Collection, Galerie Philia, Love House New York, Galerie Oros Shanghai, and Affluency Singapore.
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