Helena Trindade: Sculpting Function Through Form

Helena Trindade is an architect, artist and furniture designer born and based in Brasília, Brazil. Basic geometric shapes combined with lines and more lines – that is what attracts her. As an architect, her work is primarily focused on functionality.

Portrait of Helena Trindade. Photograph by Aluisio Trindade.

Her drawings and prototyping always flow in the direction of bringing to this world versatile pieces - some can be assembled in more than one way, some can have more than one function, but they all share one common attribute: they behave as sculptures within the space.

Helena Trindade working in her Brasília studio. Photograph by Amber Cronin.

Helena’s pieces are not intended to be strikingly bold, clashing with other elements within the space. They are clearly not something you’ve bumped into either. They’re structured, proportional and honest with it comes to materials. They present familiar forms to one’s eye: spheres, cylinders, square. They complement the architecture around them, instead of competing with it. Their utility meets elegance, making the room feel finished and new, even around old elements.

Helena Trindade with her H.01 Stainless Steel Chair. Photograph by Aluisio Trindade.

In her works, Helena plays with the purest materials. They span from wood to steel, from aluminum to concrete. When combining materials together, she does it with one intentional goal: to build contrast through the rawness of each element, in a dance of colours, texture and depth. The distorted way the brushed steel reflects an image, matters. The earthy tactile texture of the wood, also matters.

V60 Side Table by Helena Trindade

As opposed to most of her pieces, Helena’s most recent work, a pour over coffee brewer, was inspired by an organic element of nature - a Calla Lilly flower. The concept of this project, however, was again triggered by her desire for contrast, this time abstractly presented. The act of preparing a cup of coffee in the morning is rather mechanic, a sequence of steps. Hence the geometric design of most – if not all - coffee equipment found out there. A flower-shaped coffee dripper brings some poetry to the coffee-filtering moment, contrasting with the rigidity of the process.

Helena Trindade with her V60 Side Table. Photograph by Aluisio Trindade.

As her ultimate purpose within the design world, Helena aspires to produce timeless pieces of furniture and objects that can be passed down through generations.