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Livingetc published a conversation between London-based designers Yinka Ilori and Emmanuel Lawal about how their British-Nigerian upbringings inform their work with furniture and public spaces. They describe household seating and cherished furniture as early lessons in status, care and access; the report also connects those memories to their design practices and projects.
Ilori recalls growing up in a Nigerian household in North London with a mix of bone china, lace curtains, rugs, records and several kinds of chairs. His father had a corduroy armchair, while the children sat on plastic monoblock chairs. Ilori said the more comfortable furniture was reserved for adults when his parents were home, a distinction that taught him about the hierarchy attached to objects in domestic spaces.
Lawal, a visual and music artist and founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Forestalgia, described a similar division at home. His parents occupied the heads of the dining table, while children sat along the sides. He remembers furniture kept wrapped in plastic to protect it, saying that practice reflected how much the family cared for its possessions. The designers’ recollections show how everyday rules about furniture can carry ideas about respect, ownership and belonging.
The feature also places these memories alongside examples of their work. Ilori has been developing a shape-shifting chair collection for 20 years, beginning with pieces such as Two Become One; the collection is gathered in his debut book, Chairman. The article describes his mural Walk With Your Dreams as a large-scale work in Milton Keynes’ Station Square. Lawal’s studio is represented by Modular 001, a furniture piece combining seating and a table. The source presents these projects as points of reference in their discussion, not as newly announced commissions.
Home Rules, Public Spaces
The conversation links domestic design with who gets comfort, recognition and a place. Ilori’s account of children being limited to less comfortable chairs and Lawal’s description of assigned places at the table show how furniture can encode family roles, even when no rule is spoken aloud. Their reflections give readers a way to understand why furniture and interiors can carry meaning beyond appearance.
The discussion also reaches beyond the home. Ilori said he was attentive to the power of placemaking while growing up on a North London estate, where he saw a culturally diverse community but also noticed that few people around him recognized the creative choices behind its gardens and trees. His public-space work, including the Milton Keynes mural cited by Livingetc, makes that interest visible at a larger scale. The designers’ focus on access and design’s social effects is relevant to debates about who public places serve and whose experiences shape them.
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From Family Furniture to Placemaking
Ilori and Lawal met through their agents, according to Livingetc. The magazine presents them as first-generation Nigerian-British designers who live and work in London. Its interview structure asks them to compare childhood family gatherings, household furniture and the ways those experiences continue to influence their choices as designers.
The source frames their shared outlook around the idea that design can communicate across cultures and that places can offer opportunities to encounter something new, recharge and learn. It also describes Ilori’s practice as connected to community and public space, while Lawal works across design, visual art and music through Forestalgia. The available material does not provide a full account of their project histories or the interview’s publication date.
““Everyone just knew their place.””
— Emmanuel Lawal, as quoted by Livingetc
Details the Feature Does Not Settle
The supplied Livingetc material is an excerpt, so it does not establish the full scope of the interview, all projects discussed or any new work the designers may have announced. It also gives no publication date. The piece describes Walk With Your Dreams as having been unveiled “last year,” but without a dated article that relative timing cannot be converted into a calendar year.
The designers’ accounts are personal recollections, not a broader study of Nigerian-British households or evidence that all families share the same practices. The source also does not give project budgets, commissioning details, audience data or independent evaluations of the public impact of the works mentioned. Those outcomes should not be inferred from the interview’s descriptions.
Further Projects and Access Questions
The immediate development is the publication of the Livingetc conversation; the source does not announce a scheduled event, release or follow-up project. Ilori’s Chairman gathers work from a chair collection he says he has been developing over two decades, while the Milton Keynes mural and Lawal’s Modular 001 provide examples of their work discussed in the feature.
Further reporting would be needed to establish what projects either designer plans next, how their public-space work is commissioned and maintained, and how they measure whether it reaches the communities it is intended to serve. The interview raises the question of access, but the excerpt does not provide specific proposals or policy commitments from either designer.
Key Questions
What is the news about Yinka Ilori and Emmanuel Lawal?
Livingetc published a conversation in which the London-based designers discuss how family life and British-Nigerian upbringing influence their furniture and placemaking work.
What did the designers say about furniture in their childhood homes?
Ilori recalled that his father had a favorite armchair while the children used plastic monoblock chairs. Lawal described designated seats at the dinner table and furniture kept wrapped in plastic for protection.
What projects does the feature mention?
The source mentions Ilori’s long-running shape-shifting chair collection, collected in his debut book Chairman, his Milton Keynes mural Walk With Your Dreams, and Forestalgia’s seating-and-table piece Modular 001.
Did the interview announce a new project?
Not in the supplied excerpt. It discusses existing work and the designers’ ideas, but does not specify a newly announced commission or release.
What remains unknown about the report?
The excerpt does not give the article’s publication date, the full interview or the designers’ next project plans. It also provides no independent assessment of the impact of the works discussed.
Source: livingetc.com
