Q&A: Mosaics, Materials and the Middle East with Furniture Designer Nada Debs
Based in Beirut, StudioNadaDebs is a furniture design company that combines culture, craft, and creativity to create unique and distinctive products.
Founded by Japanese-born Lebanese designer Nada Debs, who originally trained as an architect, StudioNadaDebs champions craftsmanship and storytelling through design. The designer’s success in the region has seen her receive the ‘Grand Prix D’honneur’ from the Institut De Monde Arabe, Paris, in 2023, alongside being named as one of Architectural Digest Middle East’s AD100 in 2024. Here, the founder opens up about the brand and its personal roots.
Furniture designer Nada Debs, 2022. Image courtesy of Instagram @studionadadebs.
NN: Can you tell me a bit about yourself, from your upbringing in Japan to studying at the Rhode Island School of Design?
ND: So before going to the Rhode Island School of Design I actually went to the American University of Beirut and I studied business administration. The reason for that is because when I was growing up, my parents insisted that I followed the family business, and I needed to study business to do that, but my passion was actually interior design and drawing. I was always more on the creative side. When I was growing up in Japan, I was always either drawing, doing some kind of crocheting or working with my hands, that’s something I’ve always done. It’s something that I also learnt a lot about in Japan, because the Japanese really appreciate craft and working with your hands. After I finished my business degree I told my parents that I wanted to go to America and study design, so I studied interior architecture at Rhode Island.
NN: So, when was it that you started sketching ideas for furniture design?
ND: The course I was taking was interior architecture, but I had one course in furniture design that I took. This was a very interesting course, because the teacher gave us one word and we had to come up with a furniture design using the word. That was the first time I started to realise that I enjoyed working with furniture, because we got to work with different materials. For example, had to go to the marble place, the flexi-glass place, and the wood place, and I started to learn a lot about materials. This was when I really started to enjoy furniture design, but I didn’t know that this was what I was going to do in the future. Looking back, I got an A+ in this course.
NN: Being exposed to two different cultures, how does culture and identity influence your work?
ND: For me, growing up in Japan I was always in search for my identity. I would think: who am I? Am I Japanese or Arab? So, when I came to Lebanon, I was really eager to understand Lebanese culture, especially through design. When you go to different countries, you can understand their culture through their craft. For example, if you go to France it feels very elaborate and classic. If you come to the Middle East you have Islamic geometry and also a lot of patterns, inlay work, and mother of pearl. I realised very early on that every culture has a certain style, and for me, because I was a combination of two cultures, when I started to draw furniture in the Middle East it looked very Japanese but at the same time very Arab. Actually, designing furniture gave me this sense of identity which was neither Japanese nor Arab but a combination of the two. I named this ‘Neo-Arabian’, because I felt it was a new Arabian identity.
Promotional image used for the ‘Retro Collection’, 2023. Image courtesy of Instagram @studionadadebs.
NN: From your days as an architecture student, were there any movements that inspired you that you still reference today?
ND: Yes definitely. I think architecture is much closer to furniture design than interior design is, because it’s all about form and proportions, so definitely architecture influences me. It’s not so much particular architects that inspire me, but I do look at how they think. Let’s say for example Frank Gehry and he looks at deconstructivism in architecture, that kind of reminds me of how you can take a product and break it apart. It’s really more about how architects think that I’m influenced by. In terms of movements, I’m very much inspired by the 20th century.
NN: Taking these different ideas of identity and architecture into consideration, how then would you summarise your style of design? Is it ever changing?
ND: I would say yes that it is ever changing. It is hard to define my style, it’s more about it being pure, so the forms I use are very pure. It’s more about the craft techniques and the patterns I use. My work has become recognisable because of the repetitive geometry that I use and the intricacy of it. You’ll notice that the form is quite pure and simple, but the actual details in the veneer work or craft work or the carving or inlay, that is what actually distinguishes my work and is identifiable as Nada Debs.
NN: Collaboration and working with local artisans seems important to your brand. Can you tell me a bit about why this is?
ND: Definitely! Working with artisans I get very inspired, so I’ve been travelling to different countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and in these countries, when you sit with the artisans, each culture has a different expertise. For me, it’s really challenging. Let’s say in Pakistan I’m working with stone, it’s hard to come up with something a little more contemporary for them to work with. My take is always to push the craft and maybe come up with new craft techniques, or applying their craft technique in a new, more contemporary way. This gives me a lot of pleasure but what it also does is it pushes the craft and the artisans to come up with new ways of thinking in the way they do their work, so that maybe the next generation can be doing something a little newer and adapted to the times.
Nada Debs in the design studio creating one of the pieces from the ‘Keeping It Together’. Here, the designer is using broken window frames that came from the Beirut Port Explosion in 2020, 2024. Image courtesy of nadadebs.com.
NN: Lebanon also has its own traditional craft techniques. Has Lebanese craft influenced your work at all, or were you exposed to it growing up?
ND: Growing up not really, I wasn’t exposed to Lebanese craft and so when I did come to Lebanon after living in both Japan and Europe, I started to notice it much more. I hadn’t known the details and the beauty of the craft of this part of the world. The fact that I came from another culture, actually very much influenced how I work today because I didn’t have any emotional attachment to the craft of this region so changing or adapting parts of it was very easy. If someone was here and grew up here, they wouldn’t even question changing what they’re doing. So, for me coming from outside I was able to question it. This is how I was able to work with the artisans here and come up with new craft techniques and ideas.
NN: How about the materials that you work with, where do you source them? Also, does using sustainable materials matter to you?
ND: Definitely! Sustainability does matter. It’s very hard in the Middle East to really find out about the sources of items because everything is imported, but in my case, what I consider sustainability is sustaining craft techniques and work opportunities. Eventually, I am looking at sourcing materials that are sustainable, and I think the people that are importing materials these days are very conscious of that. So yes, sustainability is important, as is upcycling and trying not to waste whilst producing.
NN: Can you tell me about a memorable design and the process of creating it?
ND: The most recent thing that I really enjoyed doing - which was kind of sad but at the same time memorable - are the tables that I made called ‘Keeping It Together’. These are tables made using broken window frames after the Beirut Port Explosion. I didn’t throw away the frames, they were these beautiful French window frames, and I saved them. What we did was cross-cut them and laid them out, and turned them into terrazzo tables. Those pieces of wood are actually a memory of the blast but also about how we can keep and preserve wood and memories through furniture. It’s kind of sustaining the lifetime of the wood further on. It was something that still feels emotional and touching.
Terrazzo table made as part of the ‘Keeping It Together’ collection, created as a response to the Beirut Port Explosion in August 2020, 2024. Image courtesy of nadadebs.com.
You can find the designer’s work at StudioNadaDebs at https://www.nadadebs.com/en/home.