Niklas Böll and Simon Stanislawski Return to Kastellorizo for a New Residency

La Società delle Api is pleased to announce a new residency in Kastellorizo with Niklas Böll and Simon Stanislawski, among the members of the Berlin-based collective und.studio, which brings together designers, artists, and architects.
The residency follows the project 5Rooms, conceived by Silvia Fiorucci and curated by Annalisa Rosso.

On that occasion, La Società delle Api launched a call for the renovation of the rooms inside Porta Rossa, a historic house in Kastellorizo that had belonged for generations to a family of sponge merchants. The aim of the project was to support the work of contemporary designers through the redesign of the house’s bedrooms, preserving its original structure and architectural features while fostering a dialogue with the historical and natural landscape of the Mediterranean. The entire und.studio collective was among the four selected projects commissioned to design one of the rooms. Four years later, Niklas Böll and Simon Stanislawski return to the island for a new residency, this time developing a research project through their individual practices.

Working with the Island:

The principle behind the residency is to establish a direct relationship with the territory, prioritising the research and use of locally sourced materials. The work will develop directly in Kastellorizo, starting from the resources and possibilities offered by the place.

The two designers’ research will also unfold through a dialogue with the history of the island and its inhabitants, paying attention to the natural forms of the territory and its material culture. The work of the two designers is rooted in material research: Böll primarily works with wood, while Stanislawski explores foam and reclaimed synthetic materials. By bringing a natural material into dialogue with a synthetic one, they will explore different forms of matter, transformation, and reuse. Through their distinct practices, Böll and Stanislawski will develop work deeply connected to Kastellorizo, allowing the island, its materials, and the relationships established on site to shape the process and outcome of the residency.

The project continues la Società delle Api’s commitment to supporting artistic and design practices through a direct engagement with place, encouraging research processes that emerge from encounters with the territory, its materials, and its communities.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Niklas Böll, born in Kiel, studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he graduated in Design in 2019. After being part of und.studio in Berlin, he worked across various fields, including set design, product design, interior architecture, and object design. His practice focuses on the exploration of materials and forms. In 2023, he moved to Hamburg, where he founded his own studio and works as an independent and experimental designer.

Simon Stanislawski is a Berlin-based designer and artist whose practice lies at the intersection of furniture design and sculptural research. For nearly a decade, his work has focused on material-driven processes, combining traditional techniques with unconventional and often reclaimed materials. In his recent project SOFTY, he explores the transformation of discarded mattresses into functional and sculptural objects, reflecting his broader interest in sustainability, form, and the cultural and political dimensions of objects.