KAIA
ABOUT
Rigour.
Honesty of construction.
Raw and refined, held in balance.
Founded in 2003, KAIA Editions is a British-German design studio led by Manuela Szewald, working across lighting, objets d’art and installations.
The studio’s ethos is rooted in reduction, elemental form and an unwavering devotion to craftsmanship.
With its own atelier in the Bavarian countryside near Munich, KAIA Editions collaborates with small artisanal workshops across Europe. Each piece is crafted with precision and respect for materials. Surfaces are refined without erasing the mark of the hand. Screws, joints and connections remain exposed, making construction an integral part of the design language.
Made by hand.
Against the ephemeral.
MANUELA SZEWALD
Artistic Direction & Curation
Trained in law and political science, Manuela Szewald began her career in Munich and Frankfurt before moving to London, where she lived for thirteen years. Her longstanding interest in design has been shaped by the Vienna Secession, particularly the work of Josef Hoffmann, as well as Carlo Scarpa’s approach to architecture. Drawn to the relationship between design and craftsmanship, she developed a sensitivity to materials, construction and detail, which continues to inform her curatorial perspective.
In 2010, the restoration of her family home in Bavaria, set within a hamlet of 300-year-old farmhouses, brought her closer to traditional methods of making and the knowledge behind them. This deepened her interest in how objects are constructed and made to endure, laying the foundations for what KAIA Editions is today.
In 2016, Szewald returned to Bavaria with her family and established the KAIA Atelier near Munich. Working closely with specialist artisans across Europe, she made it her mission to preserve traditional craftsmanship by bringing it into a contemporary design context.
As artistic director of KAIA Editions, Szewald oversees the studio’s in-house design team and collaborations with independent designers and artists. Beyond the studio, she supports Haus der Kunst and the Deutscher Werkbund in Munich, as well as the MAK in Vienna.
EDITIONS
designed to be collected
Each edition series represents the most exclusive variation within each collection and is developed as highly limited works. While all KAIA pieces are made to order, edition pieces are produced in small batches of 20 pieces, plus 2 artist proofs.
The brand works with acclaimed artists and collaborators whose work pushes the boundaries of design and innovation while maintaining a deep engagement with materiality, history, and form in a way that mirrors KAIA EDITIONS’ values.
