Tamiati
Equinox Collection
Stone, Straw and the Weight of Memory
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Equinox arises from a central question that underpins this practice. How can Egyptian identity be felt within a space without resorting to familiar motifs? For two architect designers of Egyptian origin, the response lies in proportion, material and craft lineages rather than in literal imagery. The collection currently unfolds through two works, Equinox and Travertine Equinox, each approaching the idea of balance from a distinct yet related perspective.
Travertine Equinox
Travertine Equinox distils form to its essentials, conceived as a quiet silhouette of the equinox. Two solid volumes meet at a single point, where brass and wood intersect, creating a poised architectural balance. The console echoes Egyptian principles of mass and proportion, translated into furniture scale. Materiality remains fundamental: the travertine is carved from a single block and left in its natural state, its pores and tonal variations visible, while the timber retains its grain. Treated as presences rather than surfaces, both materials gain integrity over time. As a threshold piece, it embodies weight and near-weightlessness through precise proportion.
Straw Equinox
Equinox, the second piece in the collection, explores identity through a restrained formal language. Its body pairs white Italian and black Spanish marble in the ablaq technique, linking the console to architectural traditions that travelled from Syria to Egypt and became embedded in Mamluk identity. A central brass element anchors the form, while two drawers with hand-engraved brass handles, crafted in Islamic Cairo, connect the work to a living urban craft. The circular top, executed in straw marquetry using Egyptian wheat straw, introduces another lineage. By adapting a European technique to local material, the piece suggests identity as an evolving exchange rather than a fixed inheritance.