Erasmus, Peter Behrens School of Architecture and Design, Düsseldorf (DE), 2017.
BA, Industrial Design & Ceramics, ISIA Faenza (IT), Cum laude, 2014–2018.
Founder & designer, vuur collective, Amsterdam (NL), October 2024–ongoing.
Designer in residency, Creative Residency Arita (Japan), January–March 2024.
Lecturer, Natural Materials in Ceramics, The Material Way, January 2024–ongoing.
Fellow Researcher, LINA x TU Wien, October 2023–August 2024.
Tutor, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (NL), September–ongoing.
Ceramic workshop specialist, KABK, The Hague (NL), January–August 2023.
Tech Fellow, Rijskakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (NL), Jan–Dec 2022
RAW.obj, Pioneers in Ceramics, Prinsenhof Museum Delft (NL), February–June 2024.
Conversing with Matter, Princessehof Ceramic Museum (NL), Nov 2023–2024.
In Presence of Your Absence + RAW.obj, Open Studios, Rijkskademie (NL), 2024.
In Presence of Your Absence, Hong Kong Design Institute (CH), January–May 2024.
In Presence of Your Absence, ADI Design Museum, Milan (IT), 2023.
In Presence of Your Absence, Material District, Utrecht (NL), 2023.
Vestiges, Alcova, Milan Design Week, Fuorisalone, Milan (IT), 2023.
Raw.obj, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (NL), 2022.
SPAZIO 1/2, Drop City, Fuorisalone, Milano (IT), 2022.
Ciona Are Doing Well, SVA Bio Art Lab, New York, 2022.
Conversing with Matter, DAE75!, Fuorisalone, Milano (IT), 2022.
Conversing with Matter, Rethinking Plastic, Yksi Expo , Eindhoven (NL), 2022.
Conversing with Matter, Design Fest Gent, Design Museum (BE), 2022.
Conversing with Matter, From the Ground Up, Material Source Studio (UK), 2022.
Conversing with Matter, Design Open, Kazerne, Eindhoven (NL), 2021–2022.
Conversing with Matter, DDW2021, DAE Graduation Show, Eindhoven (NL).
Ciona Are Doing Well, Interspecies Futures, NY Center for Book Arts, 2020.
Grant, Starting Design Grant, Stimuleringsfonds, 2023–2024.
Award, Young New Talent, Material District, Utrecht (NL), 2023.
Grant, Creative Residency Arita, Japan, Stimuleringsfonds, 2022–2024.
Grant, Building Talent, Stimuleringsfonds, 2021.
Nominee, Gijs Bakker Design Award, Design Academy Eindhoven, 2021.
Van der Hoopstraat 91H, 1051VD, Amsterdam (NL)
Font in use: Authentic Sans by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong.
©Benedetta Pompili 2025
vuur collective
Material Assemblies
Make no bones about
Raw.obj
Quenched Asbestos x Winnie Herbstein
In Presence of Your Absence
Conversing with Matter
In bones we dwell, for yours we wait x Bruno Baietto
FU Review N11
Sea Silt x Humade
FU Review N10
BC/99
Creative Residency Arita, Japan
2024
The project began with a gesture of preservation of form, material, and process. Rather than introducing new objects, the focus shifted to reinterpreting the traditional hama, the porcelain props used to avoid cracking and helping the shrinking. The large majority of objects made in porcelain are fired on a hama, which is tossed away after one use.
A large quantity of hama was once produced in Arita, Japan. Following the retirement of a local Hama maker, the Saga Potters Association acquired his moulds to support continuity among regional kilns. Through this initiative, the project gained access to communal moulds—offering a foundation rooted in the region’s ceramic heritage.
Among a vast and largely undocumented variety, the moulds selected were those used by the recently assigned Arita kiln, Housem. Renting these moulds eliminated the need for new forms, ensuring alignment with shapes already integrated in local kiln practices.
In its early phase, the project produced over 200 Hamas in three sizes, using a jiggering machine typically reserved for mass production. With the support of Eguchi-san from the Saga Research Laboratory, this system was adapted to suit a more exploratory context. The Hamas were kept leather-hard for several weeks—paused in transition—while the next design phase unfolded.
Further development required an understanding of porcelain variation and its subtle shifts during drying and firing. Theproject drew from the expertise of master mould maker Mr. Yamaguchi.
Parallel to the form-making, the project investigated the archival potential of colour—specifically the pink hue of bisque porcelain. Using nerikomi techniques, pigments were blended into the porcelain body, with extensive testing to determine the ideal ratios reproducing the pale pinky shade of the bisqued porcelain. Under the guidance of Masami Kuwabata, three porcelain grades were mixed, tested, and refined. Over time, the process established its own rhythm—of timing, thickness, and drying—repeated across multiple forms.
The final works were presented in a Tashiro Japanese-Western house in Arita,a symbolic hybrid site combining harmoniously and sharing a blend of cultures. Displayed on traditional green crates used for porcelain transport, the pieces reflected a continuous dialogue between tradition and its reinterpretation.
Co-founded with Yuval Harel and Hannah Rose Whittle
2024 - ongoing
vuur collective is a shared workspace committed to the introduction of innovative and sustainable materials in the daily life of a ceramic atelier. It offers makers, artists, and designers a space to gain knowledge and develop a circular approach and get to know local materials for their own practice. vuur collective is also a space for local research in the form of brief residencies, workshops, masterclasses, and lectures. The project aims at making the knowledge more accessible outside of institutional frameworks.
Curated and tutored with Thomas Amann, Hannah Segerkrantz
Projects by Finn Blindow, Julia Cazar, Jacques Ernzer, Charlotte Eybl, Anna Gramm, Eugen Halbhuber, Benjamin Kislich, Martin Kohlbauer, Karolina Kolencikova, Beyza Koruglu. Sara Kosanovic, Ana-Elisa Kresitschnig, Elisa Kreuzer, Raman Levoshka, Marlene Melkus, Isabella Mundle, Lea Notsch, Jeremias Pointner, Charly Schneider, Paul Sebesta, Johanna Syre, Julius Wolff
Supported by LINA
2023-2024
"Material Assemblies" explored the bioregional resources of Vienna, focusing on alternative material narratives and sustainable infrastructures. The research was divided into four main categories: excavation, construction and demolition, food production, and agriculture. Students conducted site visits to production plants, construction sites, and museums, physically gathering materials and collecting data on their origins, locations, and availability. This data was compiled into fact sheets, contributing to a map of Vienna's resources, industrial by-products, and waste streams.
The project encouraged a deeper reflection on the ecological, cultural, and historical context of the materials. This led to a shift from simple cataloging to questioning the impact of material choices, especially on a large architectural scale. Students engaged in hands-on testing, experimenting with the materials’ properties, and creating small samples. They began crafting narratives around the materials, documenting their compositions and processes, and selecting those most suitable for scaling up.
The students scaled up their experiments in a 10-day workshop, producing small series of materials such as bricks, panels, and glazes. They worked collectively, inventing new methods and machinery to process the materials and experimenting with synergies between different materials. Each material was accompanied by a bioregional map detailing its composition and potential applications.
The final phase focused on documenting and testing the outcomes. Students collaborated with experts from TU Wien to test the mechanical properties of their materials. The results were compiled into product sheets, providing a foundation for future applications in architecture and design. The materials were presented at Vienna Design Week in September 2024, where they were used in the hospitality area designed by Studio Dreist, showcasing the potential of local resources.
2024-ongoing
Supported by Stimuleringsfonds
This project explores the history and evolution of bone china, from its invention by Thomas Frye and Edward Heylin in 1744 to its refinement by Josiah Spode in 1759. Thanks to collaborations with the Spode Archive Trust, Stoke-on-Trent City Archives, and other experts, historical recipes and letters have been uncovered, shedding light on its development.
Through archival research, factory visits, and interviews, the project has examined bone china production in both Japan and the UK. Key findings include differences in material composition—Japanese manufacturers use synthetic bone ash, while UK producers rely on natural bone ash. The visits to Stoke-on-Trent’s Wedgwood and Valentin Clays Ltd. further deepened this research.
Parallel to historical studies, the project is actively developing a vegan bone china alternative. With support from Susphos, a sustainable material called Phoenix Bond—derived from recycled phosphoric byproducts—is being tested. As production scales up in 2025, further experiments will refine this waste-based innovation.
Prinsenhof Delft Museum
Single fired and raw glazed earthenware, various sizes, 2023.
The project adapts on 3D printed earthenware vessels the ancient single firing technique, which consists on obtaining a sintered and glazed ceramic object with only one instead of two or three firings. The process drastically reduces the energetic impact of the manufacturing process. Raw.obj combines the traditional knowledge of the craft, as the technique requires a set of technical skills and practice, with digital making. It pushes the technique to its limits by raw glazing thin 3d printed clay walls aiming at showing the applicability and functionality of the process.
Single firing was supplented by bisque firing before Modernism to make reliable replicas whilst in need of mass production. Bisque ware is less fragile, can be moved within distant facilities with less loss and it can be more easily glazed by untrained workers. The project invites to reflect and question standardised manufacturing processes. The single firing technique, among others, manifests the importance of keeping alive the know-how, with a particular propension for art and collectable design. The raw glazing represents an important aspect to reflect on, looking ahead in time, for the ceramic industry to cherish within a growing environmentally sensitive path.
In occasion of the exhibition “Pioneers in Ceramics” at Museum Prinsenhof in Delft (NL), the 3d printed Maas river clay is enriched by a baby blue underglaze made with 1% Cobalt Oxide in honour to the “Delft Blue”.
Relief of black mould spore ‘stachybotrys chartarum’, stoneware and treated asbestos glaze, 30x60x4 cm, 2024.
The series of ceramic reliefs depict a micrograph of the black mould spore ‘stachybotrys chartarum’. This specific species is found to grow on asbestos, a highly toxic material used within domestic and industrial construction.
The panels are glazed with ‘Quenched Asbestos’, a glaze composed of treated absestos and recycled glass, developed during the Techfellowship program of Rijksakademie in 2022.
- ADI Design Museum
- Lamp, porcelain, glaze
- made of treated asbestos,
- steel beam, LED, perspex
- tube. 33x33x20 cm.
In Presence of Your Absence is a lamp-assemblage, composed by a translucent porcelain diffuser and upcycled architectural parts. It invites to look through the core of the project: a ceramic glaze made by treated asbestos.
The design promotes circular modes of production while supporting the research to counter the issues related to asbestos. The asbestos-cement, composing the 70% of the glaze, becomes inert through a low-temperature treatment, which in turn reuses local chemical waste. The patented process is the result of a collaboration with the research center Asbetter Holding (Rotterdam, NL), focusing on reducing the toxic impact of asbestos fibres.
The project was shown at the ADI Design Museum (Milan, IT) in occasion of the echibition “Italy: A new collective landscape”, curated by Angela Rui, Elisabetta Donati de Conti, e Matilde Losi, as an example of regenerative design.
Realised in collaboration with sunday morning EKWC, Wetering, and Asbeter Holding.
Graduation project for Design Academy Eindhoven
© Benedetta Pompili 2021.
The relative abundance of clay on earth overshadows its finite nature and the damages caused by its extraction. Starting from the conversation with the clay on the potter’s wheel and along the making process, the material research Conversing with Matter on the one hand explores the economic, social, and technical aspects entangled around the mining and the making. On the other, it proposes an alternative journey to making while minimising the countereffects of the extraction.
The research starts by investigating the reclamation of clay from the local sludge of the river Maas. The employment of river clay has multiple sustainability aims. A gradual harvesting method allows the riverbanks to clean and regenerate, lowers the CO2 impact of the transportation, keeps the connections with regional colours, textures, and properties. River clay urges to care for what goes dispersed into urban waters as clay absorbs and tracks the chemical contamination encompassing it, promoting a refamiliarisation with river bodies.
The marbling with a common studio clay, a white stoneware from Germany, allowed for an easier application of the wild clay body, otherwise uneasy to manage. The conversations between and with these two clay bodies on the potter’s wheel materialise in an archive made of pots inspired by Jacoba jugs. Mirroring the nature of the two clays, Jacobas were traded from Germany, the origin of the stoneware, to the Netherlands, where the river clay came from. Due to shipwrecks, many Jacobas still lay down in the river bed. The inspiration from the archaeologic findings was thought as a way to tell the stories of the materials and highlight their geographial origins while crafting a shape to archive the process. Potters say that to start understanding the clay on the potter’s wheel it is needed to throw at least one hundred pots. Hence, one hundred samples of conversations were led.
By collaborating with Asbetter, a research centre treating asbestos-cement and turning it silica, the second part of the research explores the application of the by-prodcuct of the treatment of asbestos as a filler in the clay. This uncommon grog, thought of as such for the first time, strenghens the body of the clay while reducing the quantity of material needed. It in fact can substitute the 50% of the amount of clay needed. The material exploration was materialised in a set of 450 wall tiles, configuring the architectural and insulating possibilities of the composition while in dialogue with the past uses of asbestos.
Dordrecht Museum (The Netherlands)
"In Bones We Dwell and For Yours We Wait" presents a collection of porcelain pieces designed by Bruno Baietto that revive the original recipe for bone china—a type of porcelain traditionally crafted using bone as a key ingredient. Historically associated with luxury, bone china has been prized since its creation in England in the mid-18th century for its white, thin, and highly flexible nature, with its components often being of significant value. It typically includes at least 40% cow bone ash in its composition, which adds workability and gives it a recognizable milky translucent colour.
The bone material from the Dordrechts Museum's archaeological archive has been incorporated into the traditional recipe. The archaeological findings are calcined and utilized as a component to produce the porcelain. The result challenges the qualities of the original recipe, questioning the luxury status of a material built on whiteness and stability, and delivers a new porcelain material with a sandy quality and unexpected behaviour.
By transforming forgotten and unused bones into a durable material, this project aims to initiate discussions on the enduring relevance of Tussenbroek's paintings, the starting point for Bruno Baietto’s commission, and his exploration of death as a creative impulse. In the Baietto’s words the project “underscores how, throughout the 20th century, our interaction with the deceased and their remains has remained concealed yet undeniably present, especially in a post-COVID era.”
- Designed and developed
- with Eleonora Toniolo
- Editorial design: Benedetta
- Pompili, Eleonora Toniolo
- Printed in Berlin on
- printed FSC paper, 2023.
- Special thanks goes to the JFKI Alumni Association
STILL is the eleventh issue of the independent literary journal FU Review Berlin (DE). As with each issue of the journal, a main theme, stillness, represents the core of inspiration for the selected artists. "Remember that STILL is not always quiet.
“Find STILL in the way the narrator seems to catch his breath. Look for STILL in the vastness of the landscape, the unspoken words, and in the way the language seems to slow down time. Find STILL even in the continuity of chaos, unnoticeable only because it takes up the entire room.”
In this issue, the digital artworks of Tabitha Swanson accompany the poetries and proses of Aya Al-Telmissany, Christian Beltran, Gamze S. Saymaz, Kitty Doherty, and Moses Hubbard.
The editorial design of the journal has been curated with Eleonora Toniolo and with the help of the editors in chief, since 2019. The design was thought to smoothen out the readers’ experience of the journal, that had been abruptly changed multiple times in the previous issues. The typographic choices and the grid are designed for a pleasurable and airy reading with a sensitivity to detail. Each issue is unique, as the design is lightly adapted to the temporary main theme and the practice of the visual artist, changing as well for each edition.