Alara,
Alkan
Alara Alkan is a New York based designer, maker and founder of Alara Alkan Studio. Trained as a furniture designer, she has spent the early years of her career immersed in furniture, interiors, and service design, steadily building momentum towards the creation of her own brand. Alara is currently teaching as part time faculty at her alma mater, Rhode Island School of Design, and a guest lecturer and critic at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design.
A first generation Turkish-American designer, Alara has been a collector of objects as manifestations of memories along her way. material curiosity has become the origin of her work. She utilizes craft to reveal properties inherent to each individual material, turning to the transformative nature of tides, wind and sunlight for inspiration.
CO/ONY Journal
Alara, how do you approach creating a new piece of furniture?
A: In my designs, I have continuously worked to develop pieces that do not steal attention from the material itself, rather ensuring that materiality always prevails. By highlighting the inherent qualities of each material, natural beauty and texture, I approach each piece with a neverending curiosity.
Describe the moment this collection came into focus for you.
A: My brain loves to play with what it loves, and I have a great love for tangible materials. My practice is a form of play from which comes a material in an altered/other state of itself that is refreshing and new. I believe playing with material states/forms is another way to keep them alive. I view all my works as fragments of one big, ongoing story, where my pieces are often linked or related in terms of their ideas, materials, and aesthetics, across time.
Describe both your personal and design styles.
A: There is both comfort and curiosity in bringing the force of nature into someone's home. It is not something we often come across or think about. I want my objects to carry these qualities wherever they go. They bring something within them that is inherent to their nature, as do the objects I collect and bring into my own home; they resonate with my own nature.
Being a designer was never actually my intention. Looking back at how fascinated I’ve always been by objects, how things are made, materiality, colors and texture, it is no surprise that I have been a collector of things for their unique qualities.
In my practice now, what fascinates me the most is pushing those qualities further in different materials.
