The work of Salù Iwadi Studio reclaims African perspectives with a global outlook

Exploring the relationship between materiality, craftsmanship, and cultural memory through collaboration with artisans across the African continent, Toluwalase Rufai and Sandia Nassila set up Salù Iwadi Studio as ‘a practice grounded in cultural depth and material inquiry aiming to reclaim and reinterpret African narratives through material and form, offering them renewed presence in the global design conversation.’

Salù Iwadi Studio: design as a vessel for connecting past and future

Rufai studied architecture at Howard University, Washington DC, and returned to Lagos to practice, while Nassila’s design career started in hospitality, working between Africa and Europe to create spaces and lifestyle concepts where narrative and experience merged.

‘Our journeys into design may have begun along different trajectories but converged in a shared conviction that design holds the capacity to preserve memory, embody meaning, and articulate identity,’ the pair explain. ‘It becomes a vessel for connection, bridging the past with the future and creating a medium through which people locate themselves within culture and place.’

Their work is inspired by boundary-pushing creatives, as they shaped their creative identity by observing architects like Zaha Hadid (‘her work taught us that form can be fluid, emotional, and unapologetically bold, that architecture can move like music and speak like sculpture,’ they say), Bjarke Ingels and Ma Yansong. ‘They have inspired us for their ability to balance utopia and pragmatism, to imagine cities and spaces that are both visionary and deeply human,’ they say. ‘They remind us that architecture is not just about shelter, but about possibility.’

But references for the pair come from beyond architecture, as they mention music as central to their creative process, as they look at artists like James Blake, Kanye West, André 3000, and Solange for the ways they ‘construct immersive worlds, where sound, image, and space are inseparable.’ Their inspirations, they note, all share a common thread: with their work, they create systems, connect sensory, cultural and spiritual missions. ‘That’s the kind of depth we aim for in our own practice,’ they share.

Living between Lagos and Dakar has shaped their creative outlook and output: those cities, they explain, have taught them to ‘pay attention to the poetry of the everyday.’ The way design naturally emerges from daily life, the improvisational nature of much contemporary design in Africa has been teaching them about adaptability and functionality, and working alongside local craftspeople has helped shape their work.

Collaborations with metalworkers in Dakar and bronze casters in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, have deepened the pair’s understanding of materials and processes (‘and patience’, they add). ‘These encounters remind us that design is not only made in studios, but also in workshops, markets, and conversations. Travel and research continue to shape our perspective: each journey expanding how we see the relationship between craft, culture, and contemporary form.’

They primarily work in wood, metal, recycled plastic, and laterite soil; for them, they explain, these materials carry memory and texture: ‘we treat materials as storytellers, as witnesses of culture and time, and our role is to listen, translate, and reimagine their potential.’ Their first design, the Patewo Chair, made in steel using traditional techniques, took its name from a Yoruba hairstyle and means ‘to clap’.

Meanwhile, the Zangbeto Side Table was inspired by Benin’s guardian masquerades, and its form conceals themes of protection and presence. ‘Its layered wooden fins evoke the ritual costumes of the Zangbeto, guardians of the night, and question what visibility and opacity mean in design,’ they say.

Made for the Dakar Biennale in 2024, the Water Basin Totem, transformed recycled plastic basins into a monumental reflection on water, ecology, and collective impact, transforming it from a mundane object to a meaningful, immersive installation. ‘Together, these works trace our search for a new design language, one that honours the past, reclaims local materials, and imagines new futures for African design.’

Their outlook, both global and local, is shaping much of their practice and informing their future pursuits. ‘Our roots are in Nigeria, Madagascar and the Comoros, but our lives and work has unfolded across West Africa, Europe and the United States,’ they note, adding that an upcoming focus for their practice include Moroccan craft traditions, from leatherwork to zellige tiles. ‘These connections allow us to have broader conversations about identity, ecology, and belonging. Our goal is to keep expanding this conversation, allowing each project to reveal new materials, gestures, and stories that reflect the evolving landscape of African design.’