Material explorations, traditional craft, and the hand of the maker place these emerging designers at the forefront of collectable design.
This piece originally appeared in est magazine issue 55: ‘Faces of Design’.
Proudly supported by Skupa.
In their Brooklyn studio, Irisa and Aaron Kawabi are reshaping the way we experience light. As partners in life and work, the duo behind design practice Kawabi combine centuries-old traditions with a deeply personal exploration of identity, belonging, and craft. The pair’s practice, as they describe it, is “a creative container to explore heritage and transcribe its influence across time and place.”
Both graduates of Parsons School of Design, Irisa and Aaron met as product design students – initially collaborating on class projects, before their creative and personal partnership deepened after graduation. “We both share an interest in the idea of home, what it means to feel at home as descendants of another place,” they say. This idea became the foundation for Kawabi, a studio that reinterprets familiar objects – particularly paper lanterns – through a poetic, contemporary lens.
Irisa and Aaron Kawabi are the founders of Kawabi, a Brooklyn based industrial design studio.
New shapes and forms evolve within the framework of the paper lantern medium.
The Legume Lamp, an interpretation of a peanut-shaped form.
Each Kawabi light is a labour of love, taking between two to six weeks to complete. Built entirely by hand from wood and paper, the process is inspired by traditional East Asian craft techniques. “For the wood frame, we use hand tools like planes and chisels to make the joinery that holds up the structure and gives it its architecture,” they explain. “For the paper, we wrap rattan reed (our local substitute for traditional bamboo reed) around a mould… then lay-up paper over the reed form until it’s fully covered, let it fully dry, then collapse the mould to remove it from the paper shade.” The final paper form is pleated and fitted over the wooden base, completing a meditative, tactile process that is as much ritual as it is design.
The studio’s debut collection draws on the imagery and symbolism of Japanese cho-chin lanterns used in festivals, believed to act as literal beacons for souls and spirits. Yet, Kawabi’s aesthetic is entirely their own: organic, soft-edged, at times even abstract. “We saw ourselves in those lanterns and reformed them with our own sensibilities. Drawing from the feeling of love, hope, and everything we find beautiful and awe-inducing about being alive,” they say.
Aaron and Irisa Kawabi make each order by hand, which the couple started as an expression of their cultural heritage.
The Souvenir table lamp blends modern forms and handcrafted elements.
Irisa Kawabi crafting the handmade pieces in the studio’s collection.
The hand of the maker is imbued into every Kawabi lamp, where forms are both familiar yet entirely new.
The Cascade Pendant—a beautiful, sculptural piece blending timber and paper lanterns.
More than objects, Kawabi’s lights are vehicles for emotion, intimacy, and meaning. They view light as both sensory and spiritual, “a beacon of sorts”. These exquisitely tactile and handmade sculptures flicker between materiality and atmosphere, history and presence.
As the studio continues to evolve, the pair remain open to where their hands – and heritage – might take them next. “We’re unbound by tradition and will probably use a lot of different techniques to explore future series,” they note.
For Kawabi, the act of making is not just about preservation; it’s a way of processing, feeling, and connecting. “Craft gives us an outlet to process what we think we know in real time… it creates a generative loop of learning and doing which really allows us to feel connected to ourselves and others.”