HANDMADE FOR YOUR HOME

Our Story

Sustainable Design

Amplifying Cultural Heritage with Thoughtful Design

Encouraging the skills of craftsmen by using their traditional techniques to manufacture contemporary objects, we help preserve the intangible cultural heritage of the Andes of Peru. Globalization and mass production challenges the survival of the Andean magic! We align with the UNESCO intangible cultural preservation goals to promote local Andean culture through great design.

Our Founders

In 2015, Parson’s The New School designer Jenny Boucher travelled from Toronto to the Peruvian Amazon for a Peru-Canada bilateral design project to learn ancient textile traditions and work with local artisans. It was here that she was introduced to award-winning Peruvian industrial designer Mauricio Navarro. Pairing his mission to explore the intersection between local identity and contemporary Peruvian craft, Mauricio shared Jenny’s values of creating socially responsible pathways to the market through innovative design.

The Pair soon discovered a hybrid strategy of design, entrepreneurship and social development in craft communities. The two developed D.A.R. which encompasses both their trades of textile and stone.

Artisan Teams

D.A.R Proyectos works with a diverse team of indigenous mixed heritage artisans from the Peruvian Andes. Families share generational knowledge and traditional techniques and our community-focused approach enables the capacity of artisan groups to be scaled-up.

A focus on identifying strong local leaders has allowed us to develop a network of regional associations and enable entrepreneurship for long term self management.

We live and work in the northern provinces of La Libertad and Cajamarca, Peru. D.A.R. Proyectos believes that conscious design can act as a bridge between indigenous craft communities and global citizens. We connect those looking for unique, sustainably-made objects to the magic of the Andean culture. For us, preserving culture means that it is not only sustained, but that the craft traditions are also globally recognized and awarded.