The Measured Rebel: Alicja Korbut’s Sculptural Commonsense

Makers

24 Sept

Written By Anca Enica

**people • designers**

SALAK Studio is a Gdańsk, Poland practice led by designer Alicja Korbut, known for sculptural, geometric furniture that balances restraint with quiet refinement. Focused on material honesty and hands-on craftsmanship, the studio creates chairs, tables and consoles designed for proportion, durability and timeless use. A signature sphere motif now anchors SALAK’s visual language across small-space pieces and larger statement forms. In this Designeers interview, Korbut explains her client-centred process and how SALAK contributes to contemporary Polish collectible design.
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Words: designeers
SEPTEMBER 2025

WEBSITE: salak.com.pl
INSTAGRAM: @salak.studio

DESIGNEERS

SALAK was born from a desire to create minimalist furniture with uncompromising quality. How did your early experiences as an interior designer shape that vision, and where did you feel the existing market was falling short?

SALAK STUDIO

That’s a very good question. I founded SALAK Studio after years in interior design because I kept running into the same problem: the market lacked minimalist, sculptural furniture that was both quiet in form and visually striking. I also struggled to source well-proportioned tiny tables and small-space furniture for compact interiors, pieces that felt thoughtfully engineered rather than scaled-down afterthoughts.

Most crucially, I saw a gap in true high-quality furniture in Poland and abroad. The term “high quality” is used loosely: too many products rely on MDF, plastic veneers, or trend-led styling and still claim craftsmanship. For me, quality means material honesty, durable construction, and timeless proportion, furniture designed to be lived with for years, not seasons. I believe authentic brands don’t chase micro-trends; they build a clear language and enduring design that stands up to daily use and time.

DESIGNEERS

“Less is more, but never boring” is a refreshing take on minimalism. What’s your approach to keeping restraint exciting, and how do you inject character without clutter?

SALAK STUDIO

My strength lies in my love for geometry and composition. I have a natural sense for proportions, and refining them, without disrupting their balance, which is absolutely essential to me. Interestingly, this is something our clients often notice and appreciate. They frequently describe our furniture as being full of harmony. The pieces are made only from what is truly necessary. We avoid decorative elements that serve no real purpose.

DESIGNEERS

Your SEN side table is described as a “sculptural companion.” What mood or narrative were you hoping to capture in its form, and how do you see it interacting with a space?

SALAK STUDIO

The SEN side table is where our exploration of the sphere truly began. We started with a family of very small, minimalist table bases built from simple wooden geometries like cylinders - then pushed further to test the limits of a perfectly round sphere as a structure. It’s not an obvious choice in furniture design, but once we resolved the engineering and proportion, the language clicked, and new sculptural pieces followed naturally.

The mood we wanted is calm tension - a clear, geometric form that feels quiet yet present, almost like a punctuation mark in the room. The single-leg stance reads as disciplined and light, while the spherical element adds weight, balance and a subtle sense of movement.

A fun fact: I recently came across photos of my very first sculptural installation projects from my first year at university, around 12 or 13 years ago. The entire structure was built from glass and mirrored spheres. Over the years, spheres kept reappearing quietly in my creative work. It’s amazing to realise they were with me much earlier than I ever thought. SALAK simply became the evolution of something that had been quietly living in my heart for a very long time.

DESIGNEERS

Many of your pieces reveal subtle details over time. Is there a particular hidden feature, texture, or finish that you hope only reveals itself through daily use and quiet observation?

SALAK STUDIO

I’m fascinated by how wood ages- its patina becomes a quiet record of daily life. Because wood is a living material, its grain and texture deepen with touch and light. This is especially true in our spherical forms, where the curvature makes the grain read more prominently from different angles.

In the studio, we developed a hand-finished technique that draws out the character of the wood without masking it. The result is a tactile, matte sheen that reveals subtle highlights and pores over time. It’s intentional: a slow-design approach where the finish invites handling, and the surface evolves, not to look new forever, but to look authentically lived with.

“What I create is minimalist geometry in its purest form, somewhere between sculpture and furniture. It is furniture with a soul.”

SALAK STUDIO

DESIGNEERS

If you had to distil your design language into a single sentence for someone encountering your work for the first time, what would it be?

SALAK STUDIO

What I create is minimalist geometry in its purest form, somewhere between sculpture and furniture. It is furniture with a soul.

DESIGNEERS

Which designer, past or present, do you consider your North Star, and what aspect of their philosophy or work continues to influence you?

SALAK STUDIO

Although I often draw from other fields, my clearest North Star is Dieter Rams. His ethos of “less, but better” - and the line “good design is as little design as possible” -guided our new dining tables and shelving systems. I’m influenced by his functional clarity, honest materials, and restraint: design that removes the unnecessary so proportion, usability, and longevity can lead.

DESIGNEERS

If you could invite any figure, living or departed, from the world of design or architecture to dinner, who would it be, and what would you most want to ask them?

SALAK STUDIO

That is an incredible question. Choosing one is impossible, so I’d host a modernist dinner. Harry Bertoia would be first - his sculptural furniture and Sonambient explorations shaped how I think about form, resonance, and relevance. I’d ask where he drew his enduring inspiration and how he designed work that remains timeless decades later. I’d also invite Le Corbusier to speak about geometry, proportion, and how his education informed a human-scaled architecture that still challenges us.

And I’d save a place for my grandfather. He encouraged my early experiments and inspired our use of hand-turned wooden elements. I’d love to show him our workshop today - how far it’s grown in five years - and hear his thoughts on the pieces we’re building.

DESIGNEERS

Complete this sentence in your own words: “A beautifully crafted object...”

SALAK STUDIO

A beautifully crafted object is one that we feel deeply in our hearts, one that carries a story. It is a design that will stay with us for years to come.