Kompa means ‘together,’” explains designer Peter Mabeo, who is based in Gaborone, Botswana. To demonstrate that holistic idea, Mabeo interlocks his fingers, creating a circle with his hands. The word, which Mabeo learned from an artisan in the nearby village of Hukuntsi, is the name of his newest furniture collection: 10 pieces made in collaboration with Italian fashion brand Fendi and unveiled at Design Miami.
“I wanted to bring together different elements, different materials, and different people,” says Mabeo. Since founding his namesake studio in 1997, he has been teaming up with a range of Botswana-based makers, among them master woodworkers, potters, basket weavers, and metalsmiths. For Kompa, he canvassed the country by car, tapping those same experts to test the limits of their mediums. In the community of Mmankgodi,…
