In the workshop: three Niamey cabinetmakers changing African furniture

There is a lot of talk about "valuing local craft". In practice, the craftsperson most often remains an anonymous executor of a drawing they did not make.

Three years ago we decided to put the workshop's name on every delivered piece. This is not symbolic: it changes the contractual relationship, the level of demand and the pride in the work.

Ibrahim, timber and patience

Thirty years in the workshop. He works vène and gmelina without dimensioned drawings: he draws straight onto the piece. His joints hold without a single screw.

Fatouma, recovered material

She salvages roof structures from demolished buildings and turns them into tabletops whose grain is fifty years old. Every piece is documented: where the timber came from, which building.

Souley, precision

The only workshop in town with a CNC spindle moulder. He produces screen panels in series with a 0.5 mm tolerance — which is what made the Kalam façade possible.

What we take from it

An interior design project here does not mean ordering from a European catalogue. It means composing with what three or four workshops genuinely know how to do — and pushing a little further with each project.