During the 2023 edition of the London Design Festival, visitors thronged to one of the V&A South Kensington’s galleries to see Part Exchange, local designer Andu Masebo’s showcase of furniture born from a disassembled Alfa Romeo 145 Cloverleaf.
The exhibition—the museum’s annual emerging designer commission—narrated the vehicle’s 25 years on the road through Masebo’s creations. From a humble coat rack to a statement coffee table, each piece was made “in relation to what [the car] meant to all the people it meant the most to,” he says.
By tracking down the Alfa Romeo’s previous owners and listening to their stories, Masebo cleverly “pulled the car apart emotionally,” he says. “A car is an amazing case study for how an inanimate object can accrue meaning in your life.”
Thanks to Masebo’s mother, who partook of the city’s abundant free activities like art gallery visits and classical music concerts, the London native had a culturally rich upbringing that led him to study ceramics before pursuing carpentry and fabrication. But a decade in, he could no longer grapple with the profession’s physical demands and unhealthy environment.
“When you are working on a factory floor building things out of wood or metal, the reality is not glamorous,” he says. “I’d fallen so out of love with making things, I decided to [quit] and focus on becoming a designer.”
Masebo’s Union chair is produced from a single plank of wood
As a student at the Royal College of Art’s graduate program in product design, Masebo recalls that “for the most part I made bad work because I was trying to be something I wasn’t.” But once he began tapping into his practical maker roots, his objects started to burst with emotional resonance.
His three-pronged Candleholder No. 12 is a prominent example. Named for the bus route that Masebo treated as “a contextual and production network,” as he puts it, it’s crafted from bent tubular steel found in the South London neighborhoods the bus passes through.
Masebo’s predilection for steel has also manifested in rolling lamps, rippled stools, and an undulating chair that pairs tubes used to manufacture car exhaust systems with recycled chip rubber. His handy Cup of Tea shelf, by contrast, is a solid ash holder for steaming beverages.
“I have a delicate relationship with simplicity and complexity in my work,” says Masebo. “My hope is that I make things that people don’t want to throw away, but things they care about.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s August 2024 issue.
