Imperfettolab’s creative world is one where design transcends function and becomes narrative—a space where memory, landscape and emotion yield forms. Based in Italy, the practice, co-founded by Verter Turroni and Emanuela Ravelli, is described as ‘a workshop, a gallery, an open space… and above all, a family’. Within this hybrid environment, part atelier and part exhibition gallery, the Italian designers handcraft furniture design and objects that feel suspended between the realms of art and design. Working primarily with fibreglass, Imperfettolab transforms this highly technical material into organic, sculptural pieces that carry the weight of memory while hinting at the future. Each work feels like a fragment of landscape or a recovered relic, inviting a poetic reading of everyday life.

Their latest collection, Vestigia—meaning ‘traces’ or ‘footprints’—explores the terrain of ritual and abstraction. The furniture pieces evoke archaeological artefacts and mythical objects, bridging past and present. The forms seem unearthed from ancient ground yet speak to contemporary aesthetics. Works such as Berliner, an armchair with its monumental legs, and Matau, a chair design whose silhouette fuses archetypal shapes with modern languages, recall primal gestures and distant worlds, creating contemporary ‘finds’ that are both symbolic and functional.

In this conversation with STIR, Turroni and Ravelli reflect on how history, instinct and imagination shape Imperfettolab’s practice. The furniture designers discuss the tensions they explore between opposites, the emotional charge of materials and how their process turns memory into sculptural designs that invite contemplation and connection. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow.

Anushka Sharma: “A workshop, a gallery, an open space... and above all, a family.” How does his multifaceted identity influence the way you work and the pieces you create?

Emanuela Ravelli: Imperfettolab’s identity stems from daily activities deeply intertwined with life—our passions and thoughts, all nourished by memory. Each work becomes a fragment of history, a piece of landscape that tells of our connections with the earth, with fire and with the roughest and most ancestral elements of nature. Our creative process manifests itself as catharsis: creating means transforming emotions, memories and observations into objects and forms that make our thoughts tangible and invite observers to embark on a journey between the real and the imaginary.

Anushka: Your work lies at the intersection of nature and artifice, sculpture and design, often exploring the tension between opposites—weight and lightness, structure and spontaneity. What does this balance mean to you, and what does it allow you to explore aesthetically?

Verter Turroni: The tension between contrasting elements opens up spaces for the imagination, for the encounter between different worlds that complement each other in an inexhaustible journey. This play of balance allows us to explore forms and meanings that give life to objects that are at once functional and poetic, concrete and dreamlike.

Anushka: Your works often evoke archaeological finds or mythical artefacts. How and why do history and memory enter into your design process?

Turroni: In our design process, everything stems from instinct and intuition in the construction of forms. History and memory are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for us, a passion that guides every creative choice. Our works are presented as true contemporary artefacts: they invite the observer to rediscover and rework their connection with time and space. Each piece carries with it the echo of what came before it and, at the same time, holds the seed of what is yet to come.

Anushka: In Vestigia, pieces such as Matau and Berliner seem to embody ritual and abstraction. What were the inspirations behind this collection?

Turroni: Vestigia embodies a balance between ritual and abstraction. The collection draws from distant worlds, vanished and now reborn, evoking ancestral memories without ever copying them. The forms reappropriate a material alphabet, exploring the subtle boundary between the visible and the invisible, between the concrete and the abstract.

Berliner’s imposing ‘legs’ are reminiscent of those of a mammoth, while Matau’s silhouette is born from the encounter between archetypal forms and contemporary languages, between ritual and imagination. Each product design thus becomes a bridge between past and present, between memory and creation, inviting the observer to rediscover a world of symbols and primordial gestures reinterpreted with contemporary sensibility.

Anushka: The use of fibreglass—a highly technical material—contrasts beautifully with the organic and often surreal forms of your works. What considerations do you make when choosing materials?

Turroni: The encounter with fibreglass was not a technical choice, but a natural evolution of our creative journey. It allowed us to construct a unique, distinctive language that is free in its expression. This material has always allowed us to self-produce and experiment, offering technical possibilities that integrate perfectly with the organic and surreal forms of our works.

Its strength, lightness, and versatility, combined with the ability to create large-scale forms, have brought us closer and closer to this material, which we have been using for over 25 years and whose possible metamorphoses we know well.

Their approach to contemporary design merges craftsmanship with narrative, creating pieces that are both sculptural and deeply functional. Rooted in memory and instinct, Imperfettolab’s work blurs the line between past and present, function and poetry. Through material and form, they invite us into a world where objects are not just seen, but felt.