Martín Azúa. Designing through observation.

Before becoming an object, every project begins with an act of observation.

Observing a landscape, a material or an everyday gesture. Understanding how nature finds balance, how clay responds to the artisan’s hand, or how an object becomes part of our lives without needing to impose itself. This way of looking at the world has shaped Martín Azúa’s career for more than thirty years.

A journey that has now been recognised with the 2026 Spanish National Design Award, in the Design Career Achievement category.

The jury highlighted a career built on coherence, where nature, craftsmanship and sustainability do not appear as isolated concepts, but as principles that run through a practice as broad as it is consistent. Product design, spatial design, research, curatorial work and teaching all form part of the same language developed over decades.

His work has led to collaborations with companies such as Vibia, Mobles 114, Roca, Camper, Nanimarquina and elBulli, as well as projects such as Basic House, which is part of the permanent collection of New York’s MoMA. Yet beyond international recognition, his contribution to contemporary design lies in a way of working where observation always precedes form.

That attitude is also present in Okina, the collection designed for Pott Project.

Inspired by a humid forest in Álava, Okina translates a way of observing nature into ceramic form through simplicity. Its proportions evoke the shapes that emerge from the forest floor, while the artisanal process of wheel-throwing allows each piece to retain the imprint of the clay and the hand that shaped it.

It is not a collection that seeks to replicate nature, but rather to establish a dialogue with it through material, light and craftsmanship.

Perhaps this is one of Martín Azúa’s greatest contributions to design: encouraging us to observe more attentively, understand materials more deeply, and allow inspiration to find its own form.

An award that celebrates not only a remarkable career, but also a way of understanding design in which coherence, respect for craftsmanship and a close relationship with nature continue to guide the path forward.