Good Morning Doha

The beauty of any product, is in its simplicity. Add to this clear lines and utmost functionality, and you have a stunning product. The boxes are all ticked in this piece of homeware from Architects Independent, a Qatar-based design and architecture collective founded by Dr Thomas Modeen and Maysaa Al-Mumin.

The name of the piece, Aamu, translates from Finnish as ‘Morning’. It functions as hybridised eggcups which also contain a shallow area for condiments and a cavity to place a flower.

“The design introduces – almost covertly – its user to the more subtle, sensuous, qualities and properties of the artefact, which will hopefully weather and age alongside them for decades to come,” says Dr Modeen.

Made of 3D printed porcelain it explores and pushes the more tactile qualities of a technology usually affiliated with more sterile outcomes. Here the usually hidden base of the ceramic piece which automatically remain unglazed due to it facing the bottom of the firing-kiln, is promoted (due to its eggshell-like texture) into a more prominent position to form the top surface of the design.

Intended for daily use and engagement, the piece (which comfortably fits the palm of the hand) has a pleasing weight, texture, and size that allows, even encourages, a more intrinsic and candid relationship to develop between the artefact and its user.

The firm, according to Dr Modeen, is interested in engaging and designing environments and artefacts, both small and large, the individuals that use them, the processes that realise them, and the ideas, contexts, and sensorial constructs that define and unite them.