The house that heals

For designer Lorna de Santos, there is nothing as healing as the truth that underlies craftsmanship. Therefore, The House of the Future was meant to be an ode to the handmade. She and her team have traveled throughout Spain visiting each workshop, learning from the methods of each artisan. This was the common thread of Mazda, SACo and The Sibarist invite you to their home, an exhibition that combined sustainability and craftsmanship, and in which unique pieces were exhibited as a natural remedy to achieve a full sense of wellbeing.

“The personal challenge for which I chose the project of La casa de futuro is because it opened a window to the world of real craftsmanship, the one of a lifetime, and it has been an honor,” says the interior designer in charge of shaping the project. She also adds that for her it has been a very strong professional challenge, because in each place she found the germ of a new idea that transformed the previous ones and made her dream of reaching even higher.

Lorna chose each of the objects that were exhibited at El Invernadero from March 11-20 with attention to every detail, with care and dedication. Hand-printed silk, pressed textiles, the finest yarns in the world, naturally dyed fabrics and fine ceramics. “Each piece is special because it is unique, and it is made with all the love that unites the work of each one of them,” Lorna tells us.

The house of the future was one of the essential events of the Madrid Design Festival. It took place at El Invernadero The Sibarist, where we championed a new concept of housing: houses that take care of you, the so-called Wellness Real Estate, where the health of people and the planet are placed at the center of its design. An exceptional enclave at the height of that meeting between high contemporary craftsmanship, design and sustainability.

“A space is welcoming when there is soul in the space. When you live in a space, it envelops you, and the building itself transmits that soul. Hence the union of Mazda, SACo and the Sibarist, because that soul is created through our hands.”

Mazda, recognized worldwide for its design, is also the only automotive brand that designs and conceives its cars from a block of clay. It is then molded by hand before being transferred to the computer, which is why the Japanese company considers craftsmanship to be one of its fundamental pillars. “Our craftsmen, or takumis, use their hands in the same way as the craftsmen who belong to SACo,” explains Natalia García, Mazda’s communications director.

The president of SACo and founder of Abbatte Elena Goded does not conceive craftsmanship without truth. She says it inside El Invernadero with a restrained voice, as if she were inside a temple. Around her, alabaster lamps by Siete Formas, delicate plates by Vajillas de Ultramar, the work of José Luis Bazán, who is this year’s National Craftsmanship Award winner. Also, lamps by Mayice, feather crowns made by Henar Iglesias and thirty other artisans have made up the decoration of La casa del futuro. SACo was born to rehabilitate craftsmanship in Spain. Its craftsmen are specialized in different areas, but in all of them excellence is the characteristic note.

For her, a cozy home needs emotion, and that’s precisely what everything handmade conveys because you see the hands of the craftsmen. “The covid has made us reflect on what our den is like. Also about what we have to take care of the objects we surround ourselves with in order to take care of ourselves as well.” Here there is no trick or cardboard, everything is authentic, everything is handmade. “The objects in this exhibition are not just to look at, but to enjoy with all five senses, and that is quality of life”.