Santai

Profile

Santai develops and produces contemporary Javanese design furniture. The company has its creative hub in Yogyakarta city, the cultural heart of Java, Indonesia. The team consists of a german founder / managing director and award winning Javanese designers, such as Singgih Kartono and Architect Eko Prawoto.

Santai takes inspiration from the lifestyle and culture of Java to create puristic contemporary furniture. Traditional skills and style elements are reinterpreted and applied to the products in new ways.

Santai highly appreciates the beauty of Indonesian nature and is aware of its vulnerability, and therefore exclusively uses sustainable materials. Santai also seeks mutual learning with partners from Java. All furniture is produced by local enterprises.

Products & Development

We combine traditional craftsmanship, sustainable materials and puristic design in all of our product families. Just recently we launched Pring, the new bamboo furniture family that mainly consists of a daybed, sofa and stool. Indonesia has one of the world’s most refined bamboo cultures. The smart daily ways of applying the material has inspired us to rethink bamboo, with the aim of bringing its beauty to contemporary urban living. We therefore did extensive research on the strengths and constraints of bamboo and found new ways of creating nicely sleek yet strong structures.

The basis for the new Pring line has been formed by renowned architect and bamboo advocate Eko Prawoto. He envisioned the light and linear shapes that were developed in detail by our Germanled technical team and pioneered with the Amben daybed. We then extended the bamboo family with a new sofa, lounge chair, sofa table and stool.

The individual pieces delight with a minimalistic appearance, truly relaxing comfort and the natural warm feeling of bamboo. They enable the private customer to create cozy rest and „get together“ areas. And further, because of its lasting quality, the Pring line provides a complete solution for lounges in hotels, offices and cafes. The new furniture line is complimented by a special edition of batik accessories – pillow, bolster and sofa cover – that we created together with the Berlin and Jakarta based fashion label Populo Batik.

Our other families, Angkringan and Kursi also have their origin in Javanese culture. Created by Singgih S. Kartono the products take their inspiration from Javanese classics such as the Sedan chair and Angkringan, a traditional mobile outdoor bistro where people sit together while having a meal.

Sustainability

Our approach on awareness for nature goes far beyond using exclusively sustainable and traceable materials such as bamboo or teak from state owned plantations. The products are being produced without the use of chemicals and with traditional methods to keep the impact on nature as small as possible. All products are handmade in Indonesia with materials only from Indonesia.

The furnitures base construction itself is often overlooked when talking about sustainability and environmental impact. We create products with that in mind and keep developing even existing products to keep the impact as green as possible. For example the recently updated Sedan and Jengki chairs have been redesigned to be produced without the use of a metal base frame part for the construction. We were able to do so by developing a strong wood frame connection instead. The result is a more energy efficient footprint, less effort during production and assembly since it can now be produced in one factory altogether.

Culture & Tradition

All our furniture is exclusively developed by designers from Java. Being true advocates of their heritage, only they have the ability to create designs that portray the deeper meaning of local culture and style elements. Our team of designers has a broad background of different disciplines: product design, architecture and graphic design to name a few. What binds them together is a deep interest and understanding of their heritage, a vision of a contemporary Javanese design and the drive to move things forward.

A good example is the weaving on the seat of Jengki and Sedan chairs. The art of traditional rattan weaving is slowly dissapearing from Java. So we developed a unique pattern of the weaving that fits on a puristic shaped chair but is also traditionally handmade by local craftsmen.

Our Goal

On the tropical island of Java, people devote a significant proportion of their day to moments of rest and togetherness. Especially in the afternoon, when the sun slowly sets, families and friends gather and laze about in their veranda chairs or on benches of a mobile cafe. The cozy atmosphere comes hand in hand with a spirit of creativity and unconventionality.

Our goal is to transfer the feeling of a slow moment in Java to cozy spaces at home and also the revitalization of elements of local culture that are threatened to disappear.

Santai in Germany

Santai is based in Sankt Augustin near Bonn. The first public exhibition took place at the Passagen Design Week Cologne 2015 where lots of helpful feedback was gained which is now being implemented in the development of the furniture.

Besides our cultural home and showroom in Yogyakarta, we are planning to open a showroom in Cologne in the future. Also our partner for brand-startegy and communications is based in Bonn, in permanent exchange between Indonesia and Germany. Additionaly to the option to order products directly, we offer an occasional warehouse-sale near Bonn.