Salem Charabi explores the gestures of making with 'A Thousand Moons'

“When you dress a stone, what are you doing?,” pondered Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, addressing the beauty of craftsmanship in a documentary on Egyptian architect Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil by the Caravane Earth Foundation. “You are removing the superfluous and keeping the essential. So, you are spiritualising the stone and spiritualising yourself.” He argues that a city is not the components it is made of, but the countless acts that go into fabricating it and its effects on the basic nature of man.

Fathy was a prominent figure in introducing Egyptian vernacular architecture to the world. He valourised culturally-specific architecture and his works accommodated traditional and affordable modes of living for the masses. Highly inspired by Fathy’s works and beliefs is Salem Charabi, a young Danish-Egyptian architect and craftsman who explores the gestures of making by drawing on his roots, experiences and influences, to craft new possibilities.

When Charabi was approached for an exclusive commission to create furniture designs for a private Californian residence, he contemplated on the makings of a home. The project’s directive was simple yet profound—the residence would exclusively feature Charabi’s creations. Recalling Fathy’s words, he acknowledged his role and the significance of his acts that would contribute to the home’s identity. The challenge seemed personal, compelling him to confront his past and intimate memories. For two years, he traversed within, researching and crafting to find answers. A Thousand Moons emerged from the apotheosis of his perseverance.

An ensemble of 38 bespoke design pieces, A Thousand Moons constituted a studio exhibition that adorned the architect’s workshop outside of Copenhagen, Denmark, on shipping crates during 3daysofdesign, before it departed for its home in California.

A culmination of Egyptian grace, Danish craftsmanship and Japanese elegance, this collection exemplifies Charabi’s hybrid design approach that ‘combines local resources with a language shaped by a search for what is out of grasp, time and place.’ Featuring lower seatings akin to traditional Egyptian furniture, A Thousand Moons collection consists of Danish cherry and maple wooden furniture, its seat and cushions made from mino washi and French hemp fabric by Berlin-based Joseph Walia Tailoring Company (made under the guidance of Hiroki Osuka, founder of a textile research and development studio in Aichi, Japan).

The Bird Who Lost His Shadow chaise lounge chair flaunts an adjustable back and Egyptian Brace and brass fittings by Danish architect Mikkel Kjærholm. The Elephants is an open cabinet with a Danish cherry wood frame treated with alkaline soap, featuring ochre-painted maple wood, finished with linseed oil. If Anything, a Butterfly is a three-legged chair design made with book matching, whose seat and the frame are fashioned from cherry wood, while its attached maple veneer wings act as tables.

For Louis Kahn is a daybed featuring elegant half-moon joints and a maple wood seat. With the addition of a maple wood backrest with woven French hemp reversed twill fabric, the piece becomes the It Takes a Village sofa design. The Tunisian pair of armchairs feature half-moon joints and the fabric is dyed by hand using kakishibu, a fermented persimmon tannin dye. A stunning carved Bavarian limestone rests atop a cherry wood frame for To Dress a Stone coffee table. With a three-legged Danish cherry wood base and a carved undulated seat that makes up a high stool design, Charabi declares I Would Go to the Moon (for Salma).

The residents are indispensable to the memory of the spaces within a home. Much like the unbreakable bond that unites a family, Charabi entwines the product designs comprising A Thousand Moons into a collective identity through similarities in form, materials and finishes. The architect and furniture designer celebrates the individuality of every creation by subsuming it with a distinct purpose and story, attempting to make sense of the world through the act of making.

Striving to create timeless designs, Charabi reflects on the fleeting nature of everything around him and remarks, “In an environment where nothing is permanent, we produce static artefacts. Mementos of spirit. We hope they’ll live forever, holding resonance through each passing decade. Some might, but many won’t. It’s impossible to know. We can only keep building.”

(Text by Bansari Paghdar, intern at STIR)