Seen through the experiences of the Tranquebar design journey, renowned designer Boris Berlin and Calyah founder Nigel Majakari discuss the relationship and importance of contemporary design and traditional craftsmanship in the light of the climate crisis and social change.

Design is not just a discipline of solving functional problems with help of advanced technology. It is first of all a language – a means of communication between manufacturer and user, between designer and craftsman, and uniquely with the Tranquebar Edition, between people, their stories and cultures merging contemporary views with traditional crafts. It is in the dialogue. Boris Berlin travelled to Tamil Nadu in South India to research, evolve and set in motion the Tranquebar edition. Language is a convention, Boris Berlin says when asked about the communication between a designer and a craftsman. “Someone has to read your message in the bottle, interpret and transform it into another material”. “Designers, on the contrary to craftsmen, are working with a whole chain of other people so you have to mediate your message. Craftsmen used to keep a tradition, so they look backwards, they are keepers of tradition. In any tradition, craftsmen are keepers, designers are destructors or disruptors. The designer works from tradition whereas the craftsman hands down tradition through generations,” he says. "Tranquebar is a means of communication, a bridge between people of different cultures, history and contemporary experience in faraway continents". - Designer Boris Berlin.

1/4Master craftsman Mahdevan with designer Boris Berlin, @John.Norris.Photography