Resonance by Studio Lugo layers material memory with the ingenuity of making

Layers occur throughout Studio Lugo’s works, especially in its most recent design collections. They appear in the exposed surfaces and peeled-back metal of the latest Resonance series (2026); in the geological references of the furniture set Mother and Daughter (2025); and in the way each new furniture and product design collection seems to carry traces of the last. For the studio’s founder, Turkish designer Doruk Kubilay, these accumulations become a way of thinking through ‘originality’—a central tenet of his Istanbul-based design practice—as an evolving process rooted in reading and retaining cultural heritage, specifically, the city’s artisanal history and traditional craftsmanship, transcribing them into bespoke contemporary designs. 

“Until now…I have tried to build a unique narrative through the natural qualities of the material, while allowing the objects to become somewhat undefined, leaving room for interpretation and interaction,” Kubilay tells STIR, expanding on the visible departure from the precise forms and polished looks of his earlier designs. Although the recent collections appear untethered from their predecessors in a few regards— conception, materiality, resolution and physical expression—they uphold the studio’s continued reverence for the rich artisanal history of the Mediterranean.

While both Anachron (2025), a furniture and lighting collection, as well as Mother and Daughter, a set comprising a plant display and a side table, draw from the landscapes and fertility of Anatolian lands—in fact, Mother prompted the conception of the entire Anachron series—these were conceived as distinct collections. “Eventually, [Mother] came to life together with its smaller companion, Daughter. The layered sections visible within the forms and their earthy colouration were inspired by sensations that emerge directly from the soil. They evoke ideas of growth, fertility and geological memory,” Kubilay elaborates.

The furniture and interior designer attributes his experimental approach to the constantly shifting demands of the contemporary design industry. Yet his most recent body of work, titled Resonance—which debuted at the former Baggio Hospital as part of Alcova's showcase at Milan Design Week 2026—seems to strive for something else. “With Resonance, I wanted to create works that are more collectible in nature; pieces that offer a stronger emotional and sensory impact, almost like jewellery. This shift came from a desire to push my own boundaries. I wanted to embrace uncertainty, get my hands a little dirtier and take greater risks,” he shares with STIR. 

Comprising a mix of eight main pieces of furniture, products and lighting designs, Resonance reads almost like a catalogue of Studio Lugo’s own evolution. Finished in Madrone wood veneer, its materiality is further accentuated by the use of horsehair, wherein the Checkers armchair appears as an extension of the Anachron series. Meanwhile, the Veil screen and Memory in Matter nightstand, initially crafted to repurpose the brass remnants from the other Resonance pieces, signal a departure from the warmth and polished precision of the veneer towards sculptural experimentation, with the use of moulded metal.

Featuring distinct markers of process-driven variations, the rest of the collection—Totem v.II shelving unit, Scribe desk, Dusk candelabra, Cut side object, Rest club chair, Lux pendant light and a set of candle holders called Small Objects—reaches towards a sharper formal language, suggesting the arrival of a new generation of collectables within Studio Lugo’s growing family of objects. “The collection combines the unpredictability of fire, the discipline of technical metalworking and the precision of fine hand-tailoring into a single body of work,” the project’s description relays. “Construction is never concealed. Laminated metal layers are openly revealed and gently ‘bloom’ at the edges, giving the pieces a delicate articulation despite their structural weight.”

For Resonance, Kubilay chose to surrender a degree of authorial control to the process of making itself. Rooted in the historic production culture surrounding Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, the ‘process’ allowed the material to narrate the journey. Even when the idea was not entirely resolved, it was developed enough to pursue a specific balance of rawness and softness, leading Kubilay to Alpaca metal: an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, also known as ‘German Silver’. “It feels unstable, almost fluid and invites the viewer to lose themselves within its surface. I felt that this quality aligned perfectly with the spirit of the objects and the direction in which the collection needed to evolve,” he says.

Much like the exposed layers and jagged edges of the products—a departure from the studio’s usual fine furniture language—the process of moulding the material itself was far from smooth. As the designer explains, “Alpaca is a very challenging alloy to work with. Shaping it, manipulating it and joining individual sheets together requires significant effort and technical precision. Its reactions were often unpredictable and difficult to control, and although it challenged us repeatedly, I believe that unpredictability is exactly what makes the material so valuable. The balance between intention and material behaviour became an essential part of the collection's identity.”

Studio Lugo’s recent collections bring more nuance to Kubilay’s ongoing pursuit of bridging culture and traditional craftsmanship with the demands of the contemporary world. Yet instead of chasing originality as singular authorship, Resonance, ‘an ode to the energy of production and trace of time’, embraces variation. As Anachron offered its own expression of natural landscapes and softness of material, Mother and Daughter retains its position as the first spark for the subsequent collections and Resonance captures what came after: a body of sculptural designs that relinquishes certainty to the ambiguities of making. “Resonance is an artefact shaped as much by making as by design,” as the project’s description conveys, ensuring each piece in this series arrives with its own subtle variations and no two objects resolve the same way.