Design HOMEWORK

Working from home is much in the public eye at the moment and opinion is divided about the relative efficiency of functioning in the midst of domesticity or stepping away from it to be properly productive. It is a dilemma artists and designers have always had to resolve. Some creatives need to shut out everyday distractions to hone and direct the artistic impulse. For others, a studio at home offers a supportive connection between living and working, with the potential to generate a two-way traffic of ideas.

MARGIT WITTIG first studied sculpture and then metalwork at art school in London. Now she is known as a designer-maker of bespoke lighting and furniture, working in bronze, glass, clay, resin and jesmonite. “My business began when I made a floor lamp for myself,” says Margit Wittig. “Then I thought I’d do a table lamp.” Fast-forward 10 years and her apartment now has light fittings hanging from the ceilings and on every available flat surface from the floor up.

Margit makes furniture too, with the Cube table new to her collection, but it is primarily lighting that brings individual clients and many interior designers to visit her, seeking her exceptional pieces for their projects. As such, her apartment is both showroom and, to an extent, shop floor. “Sometimes a client will ask to buy a ceiling