Pia Wüstenberg

Designer and founder of Utopia & Utility

Pia Wüstenberg designs objects made by many hands. Glass, wood, ceramic and metal, each part from a different workshop, brought together as one.

  • RootsFinnish German
  • TrainedRoyal College of Art, London
  • FoundedUtopia & Utility, 2012
Pia Wüstenberg, designer and founder of Utopia & Utility, lifting the lid from a glass stacking vessel in her studio

It began with one vessel

Pia grew up between Finland and Germany. She trained as a carpenter and studied Furniture Design and Craftsmanship at Bucks New University before taking an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London.

Her graduation piece in 2011 was a vessel in three parts: blown glass, turned wood and thrown ceramic, stacked into one form. A year later it became the first object of Utopia & Utility, which Pia founded in London with her brother Moritz. The Stacking Vessel is still the idea the studio is built on.

Pencil sketches of vessel forms by Pia Wüstenberg for the Bloom stacking vessel
Every piece starts as a drawing. Early sketches for Bloom.
Pia Wüstenberg seated beside a Taika stacking vessel in rose glass
Pia Wüstenberg with a Taika stacking vessel.
Pia Wüstenberg watching the makers at work in the glass workshop
Pia in the glass workshop.

How she works

Pia designs for people rather than for manufacturing. Each object is made in parts by independent workshops: glass blown in Bohemia, wood turned in Finland, metal spun in Britain, ceramic thrown in Italy and Germany.

She visits each workshop, learns what the material and the maker can do, and draws the form around that. The makers earn their living from the work, and the skills stay in use.

A glassblower shaping hot glass at the bench for a Utopia & Utility vessel designed by Pia Wüstenberg
Glass, blown by mouth and shaped at the bench.
A craftsman sanding a wooden lid by hand for a Utopia & Utility vessel
Wood, turned and finished by hand.
The hot shop of the glassworks where Utopia & Utility vessels are blown
The hot shop, where every glass part begins.

Two studios

The design studio is in North Karelia, Finland, among forest and water. This is where the forms are drawn, and where local craftsmen turn timber from the surrounding forest into the wooden parts.

The second studio is in Schleswig Holstein, in northern Germany. The parts arrive here from across Europe and are assembled, checked and sent out by hand.

Utopia & Utility carries the Design from Finland mark.

Pia Wüstenberg seated in her studio with two glass stacking vessels
Pia Wüstenberg in the studio.

The objects

Functional sculpture: each vessel comes apart into bowls and lids that can be used on their own, and stacks back into a single form. Made in small batches, so no two are quite alike.

Bloom stacking vessel by Pia Wüstenberg in blue and white glass with a turned wood lid, standing in a field of barley
Bloom. Glass with a turned wood lid that keeps its bark.
Nani stacking vessel by Pia Wüstenberg in red glass and spun metal, standing in a window niche
Nani. Glass, wood and spun metal.

Freelance design

Alongside the brand, Pia has worked as a freelance designer since 2010, mainly in glass: awards, bottles and perfume bottles.

For commissions, write to info@utopiaandutility.eu.

Selected recognition

  • Stacking Vessels featured by Dezeen at the Royal College of Art graduate show, 2011
  • Nominated for the Elle Décoration British Design Awards
  • Shown at Maison&Objet, Paris, and at 10 Downing Street, London
  • Stocked by more than 80 retailers worldwide, including Finnish Design Shop and Cassina IXC Tokyo
Portrait of designer Pia Wüstenberg laughing, holding the parts of a small glass and metal vessel
See the collection About Utopia & Utility Press kit and portraits