Nine Artisans, One Language

During Milan Design Week 2026, Barcelona-based furniture studio Marlot Baus unveiled TRENZAR at Alcova, housed in the Baggio Military Hospital's Casa delle Suore C4. Named after the Spanish word for braiding, the collection positions interlacing not as ornament but as a generative structural logic.

Developed by Marlot Baus founder Laura García alongside designer Natalia Ortega of Worn Studio, the project draws on the expertise of nine Spanish artisans working across wood, iron, ceramics, silver, embroidery, blown glass, and wicker.

Braiding Beyond Surface

The central premise of TRENZAR is that braiding can produce volume and spatial coherence from discrete components. Each piece emerges from repetitive hand gestures—tension and alignment—where materials only acquire meaning in their mutual interlocking. Wood, metal, glass, and textile, though materially distinct, speak a unified language through technique.

According to industry coverage, the works foreground tactility and structural interdependence, arguing that aesthetic outcome is determined more by assembly method than by material alone. This aligns with Ortega's practice at Worn Studio, where she reinterprets craft through industrial design methodologies, exploring the structural and cultural properties of clay, wood, stone, leather, and glass.

Alcova and the Grammar of Contemporary Craft

TRENZAR extends Marlot Baus' long-standing inquiry into the relationship between contemporary design and traditional craftsmanship—a practice built around material research and fabrication process.

Alcova, the independent exhibition platform running alongside the official Milan Design Week, has since its 2019 debut rapidly grown into an alternative hub for experimental studio work, using historic and ruined spaces as its stage. In 2026, the platform expanded further into the city's periphery. Presenting TRENZAR in a decommissioned military hospital amplifies the dialogue: objects bearing the marks of hands find resonance in spaces that bear the marks of time.