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Fernando Laposse

@fernandolaposse

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Designer London/Mexico - design with natural materials.

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New corn husk marquetry table made for Split Personality a show curated by @alicestori for @friedman_benda gallery in NY.

The table body is all hand carved and stained ashwood. The top is made with my signature Totomoxtle technique of transforming the colourful indigenous Mexican corn husks into complex marquetry patterns.

In my studio we not only design and make the final pieces but we also grow these rare varieties of corn and make the veneer in close collaboration with a community of indigenous farmers. This makes this table a truly special piece!.
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Nueva mesa de Marqueteria de hoja de maíz criollo hecha para Split Personality exhibida en la galería @friedman_benda.

El cuerpo de la mesa está hecha de madera de fresno cinceleada y teñida à mano en mi estudio. El top esta hecho con Marqueteria de Totomoxtle de maíz criollo.

En el estudio no solo hacemos todos nuestras piezas a mano sino que aparte hemos reintroducido maíces criollos endémico y hacemos la Marqueteria en estrecha colaboración con nuestro segundo estudio en la sierra Mixteca y su comunidad.
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..#handmadedesign #handmadefurniture #marquetry #totomoxtle #heirloom #heirloomcorn #mexicandesign #hechoamano #diseñomexicano #carvedwood #woodcarving #talladoamano #organico #sustainable #ecológico #diseñoecológico #fernandolaposse #friedmanbenda by @fernandolaposse

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6 years ago

Handmade credenza and wall panels made with Mexican heirloom corn husks.
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Gabinete y paneles murales hechos a mano con hojas de maíz criollo Mexicano. by @fernandolaposse

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9 days ago

Woof woof…. Pup bench.
Made with agave leaves which I plant, de-fiber and hand knot to create this “hair” by @fernandolaposse

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3 months ago

ماذا لو كان التصميم ينمو بالرعاية، لا بالابتكار وحده؟
على مدى خمسة عشر عامًا، تعاون فرناندو لابوسيه مع مجتمع توناويكستلا الريفي في المكسيك، مستكشفًا كيف يمكن للتصميم أن يتجذّر في الأرض، ويستمدّ ملامحه من موادها ومعارف أهلها.

في «زارع البذور»، تمتد هذه الرحلة من المكسيك إلى قطر، حيث يكشف اللؤلؤ والحرير وصبغة القرمز وبنك حيّ للبذور عن روابط بين الطبيعة والثقافة، وعن تاريخ من التبادل جمع بين أماكن ومجتمعات مختلفة.

المعرض من تنسيق ماريو باليستيروس، ويدعونا إلى النظر إلى التصميم، لا بوصفه نتاجًا نهائيًا، بل مسارًا نرعاه لينمو ويتطوّر مع الزمن.
اكتشفوا “زارع البذور” في بينالي دوحة التصميم 2026.
5 نوفمبر 31–2026 يناير 2027

#دوحة_التصميم #بينالي_دوحة_التصميم2026 #زارع_البذور #فرناندو_لابوسيه #المكسيك_قطر2026 الأعوام_الثقافية

What if design was something we cultivated, not simply created?
For fifteen years, Fernando Laposse has worked alongside the rural community of Tonahuixtla in Mexico, exploring what can emerge when design grows from the land, its materials and its people.

In The Sower, that journey extends from Mexico to Qatar. Pearls, silk, cochineal and a living seed bank reveal connections between landscapes, cultures and histories of exchange.

Curated by Mario Ballesteros, the exhibition invites us to see design not as a finished outcome, but as something nurtured over time.
Discover The Sower at Design Doha Biennial 2026.
5 November 2026 – 31 January 2027

DesignDoha DesignDohaBiennial2026 TheSower FernandoLaposse MexicoQatar2026 YearsOfCulture by @fernandolaposse

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11 days ago

[Research trip]
Fernando Laposse – Lufa Series
🗓 09.02.2026 – 09.03.2026
📍 Tonahuixtla, Puebla / Mexico City – MX

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During our Mexican trip, @fernandolaposse also introduced us to the different stages behind his long-term material investigation dedicated to loofah, developed through the ongoing Lufa Series. Originally initiated during his studies at Central Saint Martins in London, the project explores the design potential of a vegetal material commonly associated with bathing sponges, repositioning it instead as a versatile resource for domestic and architectural applications.

At Fernando’s atelier, we were able to witness firsthand the low-tech machines and production processes through which he and his team transform this peculiar plant fibre into a wide range of surfaces and objects. Through cutting, flattening, moulding and assembling the dried loofah, the studio develops coverings for seating, tiles for cabinets – whose translucent appearance gives them the quality of a kind of [Mexican] shoji – and a series of lampshades that expand the possibilities of the material beyond its conventional use.

The lampshades in particular represent one of the most recent iterations within Fernando’s exploration. By moulding the loofah into more defined volumetric forms, the studio has been able to test new applications for the material, highlighting its translucency, lightness and fibrous texture while opening further possibilities for future developments.

Back in 2020, we exhibited one piece from Fernando’s early investigations into loofah as part of our Plant Fever exhibition, and it was particularly meaningful to encounter the material again today within a much more expanded body of research. As with many of the other materials Fernando works with, loofah clearly appears not as a one-off experiment but as a long-term field of inquiry, continuously revisited and refined over time. We especially appreciate this persistent curiosity towards the design possibilities embedded within what could otherwise be considered “banal materials,” and the way his practice consistently reveals their unexpected aesthetic, structural and cultural value. taken in Mexico City, Mexico by @fernandolaposse

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5 months ago

[Research trip]
Fernando Laposse – Conflict Avocados
🗓 09.02.2026 – 09.03.2026
📍 Mexico City – MX

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During our stay in Mexico City, @fernandolaposse also guided us through the different stages of Conflict Avocados, his long-term project examining the consequences linked to the global avocado industry in the state of Michoacán. Developed in response to the rapid expansion of avocado cultivation in the region, the project investigates how the fruit’s worldwide popularity has transformed local landscapes, economies, and communities, generating severe ecological and social tensions.

During our visit, we carried out a mini-internship alongside Fernando’s team, following the entire process through which discarded avocado skins collected from a local market are transformed into ingredients for some of the studio’s furniture pieces. The whole avocado-related works take shape in Fernando’s atelier in Mexico City, where the skins are converted into dyes and marquetry components – similar to the ones employed for his Totomoxtle collections – that are assembled into finished design pieces.

The time at the studio also provided access to the guidebook developed collaboratively by Fernando and his team to document and archive the numerous colour recipes produced through their avocado dye experiments. Originally created during the production of the textile works presented in the solo exhibition Conflict Avocados at the 2023 National Gallery of Victoria Triennial, in Melbourne, the guidebook reflects the studio’s long-term material research and the precision required to achieve consistent pigments from unstable organic matter.

Two of the works from Conflict Avocados – a lounge chair titled ‘Resting Place’ and a tapestry titled ‘Don Emiliano’ – are currently included in our touring exhibition Memo. Remembering the Futures at CID Grand-Hornu, in Belgium. Having had the opportunity to follow the entire transformation process firsthand gave us a much deeper understanding of these works and provides us today with valuable tools to more precisely articulate and contextualise Fernando’s practice during exhibition presentations and guided tours. taken in Mexico City, Mexico by @fernandolaposse

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5 months ago

“We should diversify who we are designing for; not all humans are urban humans. I think design innovation should propose radically new production systems that are fair, collaborative and non-extractive.” – @fernandolaposse

Kicking off Day one with Worlds in Contact – the opening talks session of Global Design Forum Istanbul. ✨

Through a rapid series of provocations, voices from architecture, design, writing and landscape practices interrogated what happens when design genuinely shares authorship with the world around it – setting the tone for this first edition.

Together, @mireialuzarraga, @jamesbridle, @boonserm_premthada, @fernandolaposse and @defnekoz opened the forum with perspectives on collaboration, care and radically rethinking the systems we design within. Moderated by GDFI Forum Content Advisor, @beatricegalilee.

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“Tasarım yaptığımız insan çeşitliliğini yeniden düşünmeliyiz; çünkü her insan kentli değildir. Bana göre tasarım inovasyonu, adil, kolektif ve sömürüden uzak üretim biçimlerini cesurca önermeli.” — @fernandolaposse

Global Design Forum Istanbul’un ilk edisyonunun açılış oturumu, “Worlds in Contact” başlığı etrafında şekillendi.

Mimarlık, tasarım, yazı ve peyzaj pratiğinden gelen farklı sesler; tasarımın çevresindeki dünyayla gerçek anlamda ortak bir yaratım ilişkisi kurduğunda nelerin mümkün olabileceğini sorguladı.

@mireialuzarraga, @jamesbridle, @boonserm_premthada, @fernandolaposse ve @defnekoz; iş birliği, özen ve içinde üretim yaptığımız sistemleri kökten yeniden düşünme üzerine perspektifleriyle Forumu açtı. Oturumun moderasyonunu ise GDFI Forum İçerik Danışmanı @beatricegalilee üstlendi.

✦13-16 May 2026
✦Global Design Forum Istanbul
✦Hagia Irene, Topkapi Palace Complex

#GlobalDesignForumIstanbul #GDF #GDFI #WorldsinContact taken in Hagia Irene by @fernandolaposse

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5 months ago

[Research trip]
Fernando Laposse – Totomoxtle
🗓 09.02.2026 – 09.03.2026
📍 Tonahuixtla, Puebla / Mexico City – MX

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A particularly meaningful focus of our time in Mexico was Totomoxtle, the project initiated by @fernandolaposse, which we had followed from afar for nearly a decade. Over the years, we have written articles and essays about it, presented it in our exhibition Plant Fever (2020–2024), and discussed it through talks in art & design schools. Experiencing it in situ, and for the first time tracing its full production cycle from beginning to end, marked a particularly important moment.

From the maize fields surrounding Tonahuixtla, where heirloom varieties are reintegrated, to the tools developed by Fernando Laposse to enable the careful harvesting of the husk – such as a custom chair fitted with a circular blade designed specifically for stripping the husks in the field (pic. 5) – the process begins within the agricultural landscape itself. The region – which lies close to some of the earliest documented sites of maize domestication by pre-Hispanic populations – is shaped by centuries of active cultivation and stewardship by local communities.

The material then moves into the village’s community workshop, where the husks are sorted, flattened, and prepared by hand before being cut into intricate marquetry pieces. This stage, deeply embedded in the local social fabric, transforms an agricultural by-product into a refined surface material while generating new forms of employment.

The final phase takes place in Fernando’s atelier in Mexico City, where the marquetry is composed and applied to the furniture pieces designed by the studio. During our stay, we were able to closely follow the making of a series of cabinets and tables, witnessing how the vibrant spectrum of natural maize hues – from deep purples to warm creams – is assembled into detailed surfaces.

Seeing the entire chain unfold – from cultivation to finished object – offered a comprehensive understanding of Totomoxtle not only as a material, but as a system that interweaves agriculture, craftsmanship, and design into a process rooted in time and place. taken in Tonahuixtla, Puebla, Mexico by @fernandolaposse

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5 months ago

[Research trip]
Fernando Laposse – Agave reforestation project
🗓 09.02.2026 – 09.03.2026
📍 Tonahuixtla, Puebla – MX

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A key moment of our trip to Mexico was our visit to the rural village of Tonahuixtla, where @fernandolaposse has been carrying out long-term design-agriculture projects with the local community. There, we met Delfino Martinez Gil – a farmer and one of his main collaborators, whose role has been central to these initiatives. Parallel to the more known Totomoxtle project, their collaboration extends into broader, deeply rooted engagements with the land and its regeneration.

At the heart of this is an agave-based reforestation project, initiated in 2015 by Delfino and the community through a state programme supporting arid rural areas. Since then, over 100,000 agave have been planted across 180 hectares of degraded land. More than a crop, agave function as living infrastructures: planted along contour lines, they form terraces that stabilize soil, prevent erosion, and create conditions for other species to grow, gradually restoring biodiversity.

This is a project we had first heard about from Fernando some years ago, so it was particularly meaningful to finally experience it with our own eyes. When we visited in mid-February, the environment was marked by extreme water scarcity – it hadn’t rained since October 2025. While the impact of the project was visible, with more vegetation emerging thanks to the water retention capacity generated by the agave cultivation beds, it was also clear that the ecosystem remains fragile, and that there is still a long path ahead before the land can fully recover.

The project is ongoing and grows through a hybrid model that connects design and agriculture: the planting of new agave is supported by the sales of Fernando’s design pieces, a natural continuation of the designer’s long-term engagement with the community of Tonahuixtla. At the same time, agave seeds are carefully collected and stored, ensuring the community maintains its own capacity for regeneration and resilience over time. taken in Tonahuixtla, Puebla, Mexico by @fernandolaposse

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A reflection on bread as both culture and control.

Drawing from the phrase “bread and circus,” the work invites a pause on today’s world, where distraction often replaces substance. Through the form of a tray and cloche inspired by Uzbek architecture, a stretched suzani textile becomes an acrobat’s net, holding both tension and meaning.

At its centre, stamped into the bread itself, the message remains clear.

Fernando Laposse brings his ongoing exploration of material, culture, and community into dialogue with Uzbek craft traditions, creating a piece that speaks as much to history as it does to the present.

Bread tray in collaboration with Fernando Laposse Studio and Madina Kasimbayeva, crafted in wood, cotton, textile, and silk embroidery.

Bread stamps in collaboration with Boburjon Atabayev, crafted in ceramic and wood.

Bread stamps in collaboration with Abdulla Abdurazzokov and Boburjon Atabayev, crafted in wood and nails.

#WhenApricotsBlossom #ACDF #MilanDesignWeek taken in Milan, Italy by @fernandolaposse

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5 months ago

Fernando Laposse, @fernandolaposse one of the Aral School lecturers, presents his contribution to the exhibition When Apricots Blossom @uzbekistanmdw through Bread Tray and Bread Stamps.

Bread Tray was developed in collaboration with Fernando Laposse Studio and Madina Kasimbayeva, suzani artist, combining wood, cotton, textile, and silk embroidery.

Bread Stamps were created in collaboration with Abdulla Abdurazzokov and Boburjon Atabayev.

For When Apricots Blossom, twelve designers, including Fernando Laposse, engaged with the tradition of bread as both craft and ritual. Each was invited to respond through a contemporary lens, creating a unique tray for the display of bread alongside a series of limited-edition bread stamps. As part of this process, they travelled to Karakalpakstan to collaborate with local craftspeople — woodcarvers, tassel-makers, and artisans — working with materials such as silk, felt, ceramics, and reeds. by @fernandolaposse

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6 months ago

During the workshop, Fernando Laposse shared his approach to designing with the land and for the land with Aral School participants. Drawing from his material-driven practice and long-term collaboration with farming communities, he spoke about the importance of understanding local ecosystems, cultural context and regenerative potential before creating design solutions.

Through discussion and exchange, participants explored how design can respond to environmental degradation, support communities and transform natural materials into meaningful tools for restoration. The session encouraged researchers to see design not only as form-making, but as a responsibility towards landscape, people and future resilience. taken in Nukus, Karakalpakstan by @fernandolaposse

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7 months ago