A new wave of design is coming from Egypt, to present the evolutionary process of a nation living with an important past and yet willing to develop a new Egyptian design identity.

The Egyptian Furniture Export Council presents on the occasion of Salone Internazionale del Mobile, April 22-27, KYME: a wide perspective on the new wave of research set-up in the 300 square meters featuring 20 leading Egyptian companies with prototypes realised by 7 Egyptian and international designers - Lita Albuquerque, Daniel Dendra, Harry & Camila, Karim Mekhtigian, Tarek Naga, Shinichiro Ogata and Frans Schrofer.

With its innovative technology and willingness to work with International Designers, the Egyptian Furniture Industry has been creating along the years different initiatives to build its own identity within the international industry and to promote its manufacturing know-how. This year, with the 1st Design + Industry workshop, 20 companies are participating with their industrial skills and craftsmanship to present all the products created by the event.

Designed by Karim Mekhtigian, KYME showcases seven different approaches to Egyptian design, highlighting different aspects of the country as well as the richness of its manufacturing resources and capabilities. The name KYME itself underlines the rich background in which the designers are working: “Kyme” is the ancient name of Egypt meaning “Black Land”, referring to its fertile valley and delta. Every year the Nile River flood used to inundate the land causing it to rise leaving behind a deposit of rich soil. Kyme is also the root of the Arab word “Al-kymia” (chemistry), the quest for transformation through division and unification of elements, contraction and expansion of the matter; which also corresponds to the state of Egyptian lands during the Nile flood as the country underwent dissolution to eventually be re-crystallized in a new form.

Inspired from the chaos that surrounds us – the manufacturers explain - we realize that there is multiplicity everywhere in our multilayered background. The pressure created by this superposition of cultures generates a dynamic energy, which is fuelled by the synergy of its components. Through Egypt’s first Design + Industry workshop, we started to channel this energy to build the pillars of a new design identity, realizing that “every explicit chaos is an implicit unity”. While each designer tackled the subject differently, we could not help but notice that there were clear links between the products, which once again revealed the unity in our apparent chaos. Accordingly, the designs were grouped into different categories showing which aspect of Egypt they come from and giving birth to a comprehensive collection inspired from the country’s morphology, nature, local stories as well as its past, present and future. In addition to working with different industry members, the international designers collaborated with a group of young Egyptian designers acting as their team throughout the project.

KYME results from the first “Design + Industry Workshop” in 2008, promoted by the Egyptian Furniture Export Council and funded by the Industrial Modernization Centre; the event has been organised by the Research Centre of the Istituto Europeo del Design in Milan together with Rhimal Design in Cairo and Expolink.

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