Johannes Torpe talks us through his process

 “Johannes is fast and omnivorous. A multitasking hero. He is extremely sensitive and able to express himself without words. His graphic idiom is very clean-cut and his three-dimensional perception excellent.”

This is how Alberto Zontone, the former commercial director at Moroso describes Design Indaba 2018 speaker Johannes Torpe.

A glance at the varied projects Torpe has been involved in throughout his career prove Zontone's point.

The multitasker and self-taught designer not only works across interior, product, industrial design and architecture but he also makes music and plays the drums. His instrumental house song, Calabria 2017, made it to number one on Billboard's hot dance charts a few years ago.

His design credentials are just as impeccable. In 2005 he was appointed as the external industrial design director for SKYPE. He also received the Royal Danish Design Award for the Mormor sofa that he designed for HAY in 2007.

A spa and wellness centre he designed in Iceland (below) called Red Mountain Resort is located near a glacier, drawing attention to the project’s connection to nature. The design was inspired by the landscape itself, which means the buildings give the sense of disappearing and melting into the landscape.

He told Dwell magazine: "We wanted to create the illusion that one is entering another world when they arrive at the resort. It is a world that awakens and stimulates your senses in ways everyday life doesn’t have the capacity to do."

As the founder and vision behind Johannes Torpe Studios, self-trained creative Torpe is unconventional in every way imaginable. Torpe was also the group creative director for Bang & Olufsen between 2011 and 2015.

Inspired by the simplicity of the paleo diet and lifestyle he created the interior design and layout of Palæo (below).

The space was designed as a scalable concept to ensure ease of expansion throughout locations of varying sizes.