E Murio
Philippines
Known for its distinct style and innovative bamboo and rattan designs, E Murio is a family-run workshop now led by the second generation. At the helm is Tisha de Borja, the brand’s creative director. Unlike most furniture makers with a standardised production line, she is particularly drawn to out-of-the-box custom projects.
“One of my favourite things is to do entire rooms, particularly powder rooms,” says de Borja. “The room is small enough to treat exquisitely, almost like a jewel box, with many layers to discover. Going through our archives, we’ve discovered many pieces that almost seem like rooms in furniture; goods that were made for very specific objects or functions. You don’t see many of these anymore as contemporary life seems to force multi-tasking on everything.”
De Borja is deeply passionate about the purity of materials, and even if she explores newer, more modern designs, she believes in upholding the integrity of natural materials. “I think the joy we feel from working with these materials is expressed in the care each piece receives,” she explains. “The raw materials in themselves are abundant and inexpensive, but the end product is a culmination of so many hands and events—the amount of rain the plant received, the fungi that settled on and marked its skin, the length of the summer season, to the particular twists and turns used by each maker to bend
