Interview — August 2026
Ilse Brandvold on tapping stone, smelling steel, and why she never trusts a photograph of a sample.
Ilse Brandvold runs research at VELOR. Before an object has a shape, it has a material — and before a material is chosen, it spends weeks on Ilse's bench being tapped, scratched, warmed, soaked and left in the sun. We met her there.
VELORWhat is the first thing you do when a new sample arrives?
I knock on it. Before I look at it properly, before I read the data sheet. The sound tells me about density and about internal flaws faster than any instrument. Stone that rings is stone that's whole.
VELORYou're known for refusing to choose materials from photographs.
A photograph tells you what a material looks like on its best day. I want to know about its worst. What does it do after ten years of hands? After someone spills wine on it? After a winter by a window?
— Ilse Brandvold
VELORHow long does a material live on your bench?
Minimum six weeks. Some stay for years. There's a piece of oak there now that has been drying since 2022. It's not for any project. I just want to know what it becomes.
VELORIs there a material you've rejected that still haunts you?
A beautiful green marble from a small quarry in Greece. It photographed like a dream. But it stained if you breathed on it. We would have been selling people something that punished them for living.
VELORWhat does 'honest material' actually mean to you?
It means the material behaves the way it looks. If something looks heavy, it's heavy. If it looks warm, it's warm to the touch. The worst objects are the ones that lie to your hand.
VELORLast question. Which material do you trust the most?
Wool. It's been keeping people alive for ten thousand years and it has never once pretended to be anything else.