Avram Rusu Studio commissioned us to write about a lighting collection they were launching, to propose names for the collection, and to write a bio of studio founder Andreaa Avram Rusu. Below, the story we wrote for what became known as Botanica…
About Botanica
What transpires when Nature is left to its own devices? It is free to express itself—sensual, resonant, and unabashedly wild. The idea for Botanica originated nearly a decade ago, when designer Andreea Avram Rusu began exploring how to manifest her fascination with plant life in glass form. The shape of the leaves came into focus first, but it wasn’t until a stay in Portugal in early 2021, where she visited the country’s famed botanical gardens, that the concept fully crystallized. Her vision was large flowers with genuine heft, specifically banana flowers, brought to life with surreal flair.
The details are their own story. Created by master glass blowers, no two pieces of glass are the same. The glass naturally interprets the colors—one color on the inside of each petal and a complimentary one on the outside, with edging in a third color. The piece is never one thing, forever responding to the light within and around it. Stems wrapped with green leather (vegan leather, because it doesn’t fade or break down) add texture and warmth. Inside the stem, discs echoing the complex structure of a pineapple are layered with LED lights embedded in silicone, eliminating the need for diffusers.
Impressive in scale at 5 feet high by 3 feet wide, the piece makes its presence known, while seamlessly integrating with its environment. A statement and a whisper.
About Avram Rusu Studio
An architect, designer, and artist, Andreea Avram Rusu founded Brooklyn-based Avram Rusu Studio in 2004, channeling fine art and the practice of good design to produce original furniture and lighting collections intended to engage the senses and invite interaction. The foundation of everything she makes are materials that are true to the earth—found in nature and always exquisite. To own one of her creations is to possess a living legacy, made to transcend time.
In her work, Andreea avidly embraces the paradox of technical precision and unbridled creative exploration, always starting with pure desire and collaborating with exceptional artisans to bring her ideas to fruition. Within this alchemy is an intrinsically layered perspective informed by spontaneous world travels, her love of tango, and her personal history as the child of scientist parents who moved to the States from Romania when Andreea was 9 years old.
Andreea’s approach privileges quality over expedience. She brings a sculptor’s sensibility to furniture design, immersing herself in the tactile nature of the process. Rather than utilize a computer to create a 3D rendering before making a piece, she builds full-scale models by hand. She has invested years of study in the complexities of glass, a notoriously unpredictable material, in order to understand its nuances. And she is unabashedly obsessive about every detail, even if the nuances might not be apparent to the untrained eye. Her Confetti chandeliers, for example, contain up to 20 colors, all of them carefully chosen for the sublime experience they will yield in unison.
Andreea’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Interior Design, New York Space, Miami Home & Decor, and many other publications. In the fall of 2021, she launched her latest lighting collection, Botanica, with Wexler at The Salon: Art + Design and debuted a new console table at Design Miami.
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