"Nature is full of eloquence and expression, with a beauty that comes through in its irregularity… like a snaking river, wind-swept tree, rip currents, shards of rock and rising tides,” says Adam Court, Creative Director of Cape Town-based furniture design studio, OKHA. For Court, furniture transcends a mere vessel of function, they are entities that demand connection, strike dialogues and ooze with nuances and character. The dramatic lines and angles crafted by hand carry a unique energy in any space they occupy—the pieces are sculptures, communicators and utilitarian objects.

OKHA is a creative practice that dedicates itself to the creation of lifelong pieces that strive to embody a deep reverence for natural materials, traditional craftsmanship and quality. A strong voice in the rich landscape of African design, the studio breathes life into furniture, accessories and limited edition works in collaboration with South Africa's finest artists and artisans. Pushing against industrial production, spotlighting work by hand—woodwork, stone carving, metal casting and other materials inspire their experiments. The work by hand, however, begins at the very inception of their designs: a pencil-and-paper sketching process. “It’s like having your hands in clay,” Court explains. “They are guttural, instinctive, volcanic gestures that are not interfered with consciously,” he adds.

The inspiration for their product designs comes from nature—a place where irregularity and harmony coexist. Long walks on the mountains, the beach or even a local park offer countless encounters with an ecology that thrives with the juxtaposition of supposed opposites—asymmetry and balance, harmony and contrast, growth and decay, volumes and voids, and so forth; the designer aspires to mirror this in the studio’s creations. A calculated collision of contrasts characterising OKHA’s body of work is articulated in a manifesto that the brand released in 2022—tracing thoughts, ideas and entities that interweave to yield OKHA’s designs.

Fluidity and Movement

Fluidity and movement are intrinsic to everything that partakes in the intricate web of the ecology. This is evident in nature’s blatant disagreement with linearity and a strictly symmetrical language—unveiling perfection in irregularity in its countless facets. This quality that OKHA intends to inject into its design language becomes the first chapter of the manifesto. For the creative practice, objects’ journeys begin on paper, as intuitive pencil sketches guided largely by materiality. The movement is then translated into three-dimensional entities—handcrafted functional furniture communicating with the room it inhabits.

Elaborating on his inclination towards the semantics of African design, despite his first interaction with design being in Europe, Court says, “I’ve fallen in love with the rawness, visceral quality and honesty of Africa. There’s an immediacy here, which comes through in the brutality of materials and forms.”

Transformations and Materiality

About his process of creating designs, Court shares, "The shape tells me, ‘This is how I am meant to be; this is me.’” Barring the obvious elements such as the chosen material palette, it is interesting to consider how music, people and emotions play a crucial role in what a design is and can be. OKHA studio explores functional expression in textures and feelings, in collaboration with expert artisans.

The second chapter of the manifesto also delves into the idea of ambiguity and how it accompanies society today—in terms of news, information, truth and sexuality—and consequently shapes the undefined forms that express an ambiguity in OKHA’s furniture.

Harmony and Discord

The complex and layered being of nature is often described by the phrase ‘order in chaos.’ Discord paves the way for harmony and vice-versa. This intriguing coexistence of two antipodes is explored in the third chapter of the manifesto through OKHA’s furniture designs. At first glance, compositions that exude congruity reveal asymmetry and disagreement on a closer look.

Materials such as metal, wood and stone are woven together in arrangements, their innate characteristics colliding with each other while their crafted components complement one another. In the table design dubbed Mesa, for instance, warm wood and cold metal mesh together—the dramatic curves of the wooden top sitting on the zigzag metal legs.

Form, Silhouette and Void

Any three-dimensional body is a play of volumes and voids—different configurations culminating in unique silhouettes. While volumes serve a purpose and carry a visual voice, the voids become shapes in themselves that express a subtle message. Form, Silhouette and Void is the theme of the manifesto’s fourth chapter.

The GTA armchair by OKHA, a design where this play is evident, is one where the bulky-looking volume appears almost weightless as it sits on a sleek metal base—volumes perched atop void. A similar experiment comes to the fore in chair designs such as Void and Moramou. 

Construct and Deconstruct

For Court, inspirations for the sculptural designs come from a multitude of directions: a studded bracelet, a tattoo or even music. He resorts to sketching 20 or so interpretations of these planted ideas, selecting the best to work with for the next few days. Forms are manipulated by millimetres until the angle is ‘ready’; lines are added, subtracted, twisted, turned and punctured until the silhouette speaks to the furniture designer—leading to the final chapter of the manifesto, Construct and Deconstruct.

Asymmetry—deemed the natural order—is embraced to contrive unfamiliar yet evocative objects. This approach guides the objects and accessories crafted by OKHA that defy ‘order’ and are characterised by deconstructed lines and angles.

According to the creative director, honest materiality or ambiguity of a shape resides in the nuances. The forms are not quickly recognisable and call upon users to explore the unusual curves, angles and natural materials abundant in African design. “More and more, we are looking for connections,” Court points out, reflecting on how OKHA’s designs integrate with the interior. "People want to be in dialogue with the things that surround them and, because of our objects’ innate ability to reveal themselves over time, they hold an authentic dialogue in a space.” Through its creative endeavours, all accumulated in an elaborate manifesto, the studio fortifies its ethos of design for a visual conversation as opposed to mere function—a vision wherein objects emote, invite and speak with users, the spaces, each other and within themselves.