NAWA

Studio NAWA is a Chicago-based creative practice founded by media artist Alina Nazmeeva and architect John Wagner. Their collaboration brings together digital experimentation and architectural thinking, developing furniture, objects, and installations that explore the relationship between virtual and physical space. Nazmeeva’s work with immersive technologies, textiles, and digital storytelling complements Wagner’s attention to construction, material detail, and the lasting qualities of carefully crafted objects.

The studio’s process moves continually between computer modelling and hands-on material research. Gaming engines, real-time simulations, and digital fabrication become tools for investigating how an imagined form can acquire weight, structure, and function. Themes of visibility, memory, and simulation run through this work, examining how digital environments influence the objects around us. Each project develops through experimentation, allowing discoveries in one medium to inform decisions in another.

These questions take shape in Surface, a collection of functional sculptures made from stainless steel. Digitally modelled forms are translated into physical objects through shaping and meticulous polishing, creating fluid profiles with highly reflective surfaces. The collection draws connections between the continuous surfaces of digital modelling and earlier mathematical ideas of space. Its seemingly pliable forms give a solid material an unexpected visual softness, carrying the appearance of a computer-generated object into everyday surroundings.

Pieces including the Article 01 stand, Article 02 table, Article 03 chair, and Article 04 mirror apply this approach across different functions and scales. Their polished surfaces reflect the room, light, and people around them, making their appearance dependent on their setting. The finish comes from polishing the stainless steel itself, without an additional surface coating. This attention to the material connects the collection’s digital origins with the physical demands of fabrication and use.

Studio NAWA has presented its work at COLLECTIBLE in New York and Brussels, ICFF in New York, and SaloneSatellite in Milan. Its Surface collection appeared at SaloneSatellite in 2025, while the studio also participated in that year’s WANTED programme at ICFF. Coverage in Dwell highlighted the hand-polished Surface chair, recognising the tactile appeal of a practice that brings digital forms into direct contact with the body and the spaces people inhabit.

NAWA’s complete catalog available upon request.