Pillow Talk is the latest concept from COLLECTIBLE In-Depth. This new series of articles  instigates  design encounters in a playful setting. The idea is simple: we pair designers from the Curated Section and each duo then freely chooses three questions to ask to each other. They can tackle any subject, within the realm of design - or not! Today’s duo is Pieterjan and Kajsa Willner.

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Pieterjan: What does escapism mean to you?

Kajsa Willner: Creativity is my kind of escapism from the horrifying world. In my creative bubble, I can restore energy that helps me to find solutions for what I am escaping from.

P: What are you working on now?

KW: In the past years, I have worked in quite serious interdisciplinary project collaborations with a holistic approach with researchers, scientists, etc.  So now I am working on bringing forward pure emotional pieces that are just about the joy of creating.

P: What is the reason that you do what you do?

KW: Design for me is making experiences. I want to get moved and  move people by those experiences. This is the goal.

Kajsa Willner: What does escapism mean to you?

Pieterjan: It is running away from something; it could be a bad feeling or habit.  To run away from the problem, to leave it behind. Trying to add a layer of beauty to the world is my way of escapism. 

KW: What values do you care about in your work?

P: To make things as good as possible in ways of craft and material. In that way, I like to create a higher value to a space or an object. I want people to make a well-thought-out choice so they can cherish, take care and ideally pass on to future generations.

KW:  What is the reason that you do what you do?

P: I would say that it is about escaping the world of ugliness and trying to make it more beautiful. To make people content with the end result of a project, certainly when it comes to creating spaces that  are a starting point for adding personal layers.

Kajsa Willner (Sweden)

Kajsa Wilner is a multidisciplinary designer based in Malmö, Sweden. Her work is often the result of interdisciplinary project collaborations with everything from communicating science and academic research to developing new sustainable materials from industrial leftovers. Kajsa has an international background from studying furniture design in Rome and Milan and from working a few years in the Netherlands before moving back to Sweden founding her own studio in 2013.

Kajsa has a experimental and research based design approach which is of- ten reflected in her own studio production of pieces made in smaller editions.

Pieterjan (Belgium)

In his interior-practice Pieterjan always works from the inside out. Existing structures are used as a guideline to create a natural flow and organization in the given space, always creating a new story for each project. The main idea is to limit the number of used honest & real materials to create an easy backdrop. Separate functions are likely to become one zone or volume per material to help achieve that goal.

While collecting interior objects, with an expertise in Radical Italian design, Pieterjan has also been developing his own design vocabulary. Recently the first results are presented in the field of applied arts with semi-unique pieces edited in his own name.