To start off the New Year and continue our exploration through the world of Architecture, Design and Art, we will be exhibiting more product highlights from international artists and designers through our online journal.

Our first product designer to launch our creative journey through 2021 is Essenzia. The Portuguese company located near Leiria, crafts and sculpts contemporary product designs using natural stone that have been salvaged from residual stone. The brand was conceived by Moca Stone S.A in 2019, with a view to sustainably and respectfully use unwanted scraps of selected stone to create artisanal handcrafted objects and products. Essenzia implement sustainable practices into their processes by using circular cycle of water in their quarries and factory, and where possible aim to reuse the raw materials. 

The brand’s location in Leiria, is renowned for its expertise in working with natural stone. Portugal is also recognised for the unique quality and diversity of their stone selection, due to the texture and colour availability making each stone unrepeatable and naturally bespoke.

At the core of Essenzia’s principles is also its focus on preserving the artisanal tradition of stone craft that is known to the region, by ensuring that the technics and skills of craftsmanship savior-fair are preserved and taught to the next generation of artisans. Samuel dos Santos is the Art Director and Designer behind the brand, working with four other stone artisans who together produce the sculpted pieces for Essenzia.

‘Our collection is inspired in contemporary daily life where geometry and simplicity of shapes give expression to the matter - stone seen as stone - without compromising its usefulness.’