- Art & Design
Architectural forms that are reduced to design objects. That is the specialty of Linde Freya Tangelder. With her design studio Destoyers/Builders she breaks down traditional elements to rebuild contemporary creations.
Although Linde Freya Tangelder is originally from The Netherlands, we can still count her as one of the best Belgian designers of the moment. At the end of 2019 she was voted Designer of the Year by the biennial fair Interieur and the magazines Knack and Le Vif Weekend. The way in which she conveys an experimental approach to an industrial product is an innovation that certainly deserved to be put in the spotlight. This was her reaction after the award ceremony: “This award is really special for me, and I certainly did not expect it. In my opinion, everything now comes together, and I'm on my way to find my own place. The fact that this honour already falls to me confirms that I'm going in the right direction.” Moreover, this direction and place are located in Belgium. Just before the Dutch Tangelder graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, she moved to our country where she did an internship at the Antwerp studio Unfold. 
Functionality combined with a creative formal language
In 2014, the designer founded her own practice called Destoryers/Builders while at that time she also worked for the art gallery Maniera in Brussels. A busy bee with a great scope of interests and in her work we therefore also see a fascinating interaction between art and design. Although the designs have a certain functionality, the creative formal language based on architectural elements, materials and techniques produces truly unique results. Tangelder also always strives for a certain sensory relevance and cultural value. One of the ways she does this is by working with industrial materials and processing them by hand to give them more tactility. 
Because the designs of Destroyers/Builders are situated between the industrial and the human, they also balance between contemporary and traditional, between present and past. "Low- and high-end materials are revalued, reconsidered and transformed," we are informed by the design studio. And we believe that this results in timeless forms with a fascinating stratification. The designer resolutely opts for raw materials with a natural appearance such as stone, metal and wood. Linde Freya Tangelder also focuses on limited editions and bespoke furniture or interior design tailored to the customer's needs. According to the Biennale Interieur, she perfectly sums up today's zeitgeist with her specific approach.
This article was originally published in Imagicasa Spring 2020, our special Belgian edition. You can still order this issue in our webshop.
Images courtesy of Destroyers/Builders
© Cover Photo + ltr-ttb: 1 & 6 : jeroen Verrecht